Join us for a panel inspired by OMA's exhibition currently on view, Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection. This discussion will offer an insightful look at art created within the socio-political conditions of the 1930s, and to consider how these works offer relevance today. The creative voices rising during the current era of crisis, political divisions, and strife offer compelling parallels to the artists working during the Works Progress Administration era, initiated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. 

 

Scott A. Shields, Ted and Melza Barr Chief Curator and Associate Director at the Crocker, is joined by Bram Dijkstra (Professor Emeritus of American and Comparative Literature Ph.D. at UC San Diego); Henry Adams (Ruth Coulter Heede Professor of Art History at Case Western University); and independent curator Susan M. Anderson. This panel was originally presented at the Crocker Art Museum on February 4, 2023.