Forgotten Histories of New Deal Art in Florida
Tuesday, March 25, 5:00PM PST/8:00PM EST
Here is the link to register for the webinar: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forgotten-histories-of-new-deal-art-in-florida-tickets-1257489247189?aff=oddtdtcreator
Description:
As one of the largest and oldest states in the American South, Florida, the Sunshine State, is a powerhouse of industry, leisure, entertainment and politics in the twenty-first century. It is also crucial for understanding the diverse history of New Deal art and public works. This webinar describes how New Deal emergency relief and recovery programs impacted Florida, particularly programs that funded the construction of public space and public access to art.
Co-hosted by Dr. Mary Okin, Living New Deal’s Assistant Director and head of the Advocating for New Deal Art initiative, and Jeff Gold, Member of LND’s New York City Chapter, the webinar features Dr. Mary Ann Calo and Dr. Keri Watson in conversation with one another about their research into Florida’s New Deal history. The talks will center on confronting the complex legacies of New Deal public works and public art programs in Florida in the twenty-first century, and the challenges of researching this era of Floridian history, as both scholars reconstruct the regional diversity, range of local participants, and just how many of Florida’s New Deal projects survive.
Speakers:
Dr. Mary Ann Calo is the Batza Professor Emerita of Art and Art History at Colgate University where she taught courses on the art of the United states, Modern and Contemporary Art, and the Arts and Public Policy. She is the author of numerous publications on the critical and institutional contexts that shaped discourse on African American art in the interwar decades. Her recent book, African American Artists and the New Deal Art Projects (Penn State University Press, 2023), explores the African American community’s participation in the “projects” in terms of intersecting issues of race, access, and opportunity. The book includes extensive archival research and new insights into the history of the Federal Art Project in Florida.
Dr. Keri Watson is an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Central Florida and a specialist in the history of American art. Her most recent book Florida’s New Deal Parks and Post Office Murals (History Press, 2024) introduces general audiences to the history of New Deal public works with a general audience, exploring the rich history of state parks and post offices built in Florida between 1931 and 1946 under the auspices of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Public Works Administration, Civil Works Administration, Works Progress Administration, and Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture. Looking at Florida’s Depression-era parks and post offices in concert elucidates how the natural and built environments work together to constitute the cultural landscape and provides insight into the role of the federal government in Florida’s construction as an exotic and tropical paradise.
Jeff Gold, Living New Deal New York City Chapter
Jeff Gold is an urbanist who has earned his living as an acquisitions editor, a partner at new media partnership JIA, and director of the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility (IRUM), an eco-transport nonprofit. He also chairs the steering committee of the Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign and serves on the board of the National Jobs for All Network. And he’s active in electoral politics at the local, state, and national level.
