#done for the wpa federal art project

[yugocar]

The Workers, Florence Kawa (1935)

[archinform]

The Power of Water, Los Angeles

The Power of Water is WPA sculptural group and fountain located in Lafayette Park, Los Angeles, designed in 1934. The artists were Henry Lion, Jason Herron, and Sherry Peticolas. The scupture stands in a triangle formed by Hoover Street, La Fayette Park Place, and Wilshire Boulevard. The fountain features a heroic-sized female figure, symbolizing the power of water, set on a pedestal atop an oblong concrete pool. The southern wall of the pool is decorated with figures in bas-relief showing people hastening to drink from a waterfall.

The Power of Water, general view

The sculpture is one of hundreds of public sculptures created during the federally-assisted Public Works of Art Project. The designs were approved March 14, 1934; the work was completed Sept. 1934. The top figure measures 10 ft x 3 ft x 6 ft 6 in; the bas-relief panel below measures 5 ft x 25 ft x 16 ft. Both portions were cast in reinforced concrete. Paul Jeffers was the engineer for the project.

Above photographs: The artists creating the sculpture, 1934. Los Angeles Public Library Photograph Collection.

The water basin at the base of the sculpture was filled in in 1966; when I last saw the work in the early 2000s, there was some degradation of the concrete, with sections of rusted rebar showing. The sculpture was in need of restoration, as it stood neglected beside a tennis court.

1930s PWAP sculptures: Astronomers Monument, Griffith Observatory, statue of Saint Monica, Santa Monica

If memory serves me correctly, this was one of the first three WPA sculptures commissioned in the L.A. area, the other two being the statue of Santa Monica [in Santa Monica] and the Astronomers' Monument at the Griffith Observatory. The Power of Water sculpture was inventoried for the Save Outdoor Sculpture California survey in 1994; the report indicated “treatment needed.”

Power of Water PWAP (Public Works Art Project). Photo: Andrew Laverdiere, Creative Commons, 2016.

The Power of Water, 1930s view. Los Angeles Public Library Photograph Collection

The Power of Water. central figure

My photo of the bas-relief at the base of the fountain.

The Artists:

Henry Lion (1900-1966) was born in Fresno, California. A resident of Los Angeles, he completed many public commissions for modernist and traditional bronze and stone works. A copy of one of his historical pieces, "Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea", is at the Gilcrease Institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is modeled after a sketch by Charles Russell.

Lion studied at Otis Art Institute and with Stanton MacDonald-Wright, and for many years taught sculpture at the Hollywood Art Center.

Henry Lion, with Statue of Felipe de Neve

Jason Herron’s (1900-1984) works were mostly figural, often strong portrayals of women, and were notable for the beauty and power in their faces and forms. Los Angeles Times critic Arthur Millier compared her to Rodin and wrote of Herron in 1931: “She has that feeling of life flowing, not only through the body of man, but through his soul, too, which invests her figures with a troubled dignity. They live.”

Jason Herron, sculpture, 1930s

Sherry Peticolas (1904-1956) was born in Waterloo, IA. Active in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, he studied with Merrell Gage Gutzon Borglum at USC. During the Depression years he worked on the Federal Art Project and fulfilled many important municipal commissions in southern California.

Sherry Peticolas, Juan Bautista De Anza

Excerpt from an interview with Henry Lion:

BH: Did you work with any of the other artists in any way on the Project? HL: The three of us did one large project in Lafayette Park, "The Power of Water" figure. BH: "Power of Water?" HL: "Power of Water" figure in Lafayette park. It was done by Jason Herron, Sherry Peticolas and I, the three of us together. BH: What was the subject matter of that one? HL: Well there is one main figure in the center of the design, seven foot by about an eight foot figure of composition stone. Then in front is a long high relief depicting water and it has two pools one above and one down below and the water falling into the lower pool from above. BH: Did you each do a different set of figures for it? HL: The whole design is mine and the modeling is mine. But Sherry Peticolas did mainly the engineering, casting and all sort of thing. BH: Was Sherry Peticolas man or woman? HL: A man. BH: A man? and Jason Herron was a woman! HL: That's right. BH: What was her part in it? HL: She worked with me on it. She helped in the casting and….There is an awful lot of work to it you know, in the way engineering. So we all three worked on it. BH: How long did it take you to do it? Do you remember now? HL: I believe it took several months to do it. It's surprising how much you forget. It really took several months to do it. How do people write their biographies? BH: That's why the archives are important, nobody had time at that time to get it written down. HL: It's surprising how much you forget.

Sources:

[dontforgetyourmedstoday]

[image description: WPA poster art of Yellowstone River in Hayden Valley located in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States of America done in works project administration style or federal art project style. The image depicts a river winding through a meadow, mountains are visible in the background. Text over the image reads “Don’t forget your meds today.”]

Don’t forget your meds today.

Want twice daily reminders to take your medications? Follow @dontforgetyourmedstoday​

Questions? Requests? Or you can Submit a reminder of your own.

[uwmspeccoll]

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday 

Though safer at home guidelines are still in place, remember to practice self care! Step out of the house and enjoy some fresh air. Might we suggest dressing up and taking your pooch for a walk? Just remember that both you and your canine should stay 6 feet away from others. 

The images of these lovely ladies promenading with their puppies were scanned for our digital collection Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA from volume 5 “Modern - Women” of the Costume Design portfolio, which was produced between 1935 and 1939 by artists working with the Federal Theater Project. The drawings were done in pencil, ink, and watercolor. These plates (3,4, and 6) were done by artist Mary Holan. 

View our other Milwaukee Handicraft Project posts.

-Katie, Special Collections Graduate Intern

The MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence. Read More about the Project.

The Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA digital collection was made possible with generous financial support from The Chipstone Foundation.

[jennamiller8601]

An African-American artist and printmaker Eldzier Cortor

An African-American artist and printmaker Eldzier Cortor

 Addressing the Art Institute of Chicago, Eldzier Cortor reviewed the impetus that provoked him to paint: "Once, there was an individual. He had the option to understand minds! He said, 'let me read your fortune.' He says, 'you will be a celebrated painter one day… yet you're going to have quite a period.'"

 Cortor's profession endured more than 70 years, and he took part in numerous powerful imaginative developments all through the twentieth century. Nonetheless, his psychic was in any event somewhat right in his expectations: for most of his life, Cortor was underrepresented both in exhibitions and at sell off. Be that as it may, his work has as of late drawn consideration as gatherers rethink the African American specialists of the Chicago Black Renaissance development. One of Cortor's artworks, named Local Color, will be offered in Toomey and Co. Barkers' forthcoming Art and Design deal on June 28th, 2020. Become acquainted with Eldzier Cortor before the offering starts.

At an early age, Cortor's family moved from Richmond, Virginia, toward the South Side of Chicago. He would spend a large number of his working a long time in the city, beginning his vocation during the Great Depression during the 1930s. Under the assurance of the Works Progress Administration (WPA's) Federal Art Project, Cortor discovered early work as a painter. His undertaking was to "[depict] scenes of African American public activity in the ghettos of Chicago's South Side," as indicated by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He would accomplish more than catch the ghettos, notwithstanding. Cortor helped found the South Side Community Art Center, the solitary African American craftsmanship place opened under the WPA. It stays operational today after more than 75 years.

 Cortor's painting style likewise created while working with the WPA. He voyaged broadly, visiting the Gullah individuals of the Sea Islands and, later, zones of Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti. These encounters incited a profound interest in African legacy across the diaspora, something he started attempting to protect in his canvases. Cortor particularly centered around Black ladies for the subjects of his works, which was deliberate: "The Black lady addresses the Black race," he said. "She is the Black Spirit; She passes on a sensation of time everlasting and a continuation of life."

 His mid twentieth century works effectively countered the predominant disparaging generalizations about African Americans. Uniting customary African legacy and the African American experience, Cortor painted many representations of Gullah ladies with stretched appearances and elegant bodies. These works are presently held by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Despite the fact that commonly connected with the Chicago Black Renaissance, the development that reflected New York's Harlem, Cortor has seen less prominence than large numbers of his counterparts. At the point when he passed on at 99 years old in 2015, his work had just started to enter the standard. A presentation of his woodblock prints hung in the Art Institute of Chicago months before his passing, praising the effect of his work on African American craftsmanship.

 Costs for the craftsman's artworks have generally stayed consistent, regularly bringing a couple thousand dollars each. Eastern States Auction Service sold a little Cortor oil painting for USD 4,000 of every 2013, and Christie's unloaded an untitled ink piece for $6,875 the very year. Cortor's sale record was set in September of 2005 with Roof Tops on Wabash, a 1938 piece that shows a room and an open window. Treadway Toomey Auctions sold the work for $34,000.

All the more as of late, the recently dispatched Black Art Auction sold a shading mezzotint piece from Cortor's 1980s Jewels arrangement. It was sold for $6,875 in May of 2020, inside its presale gauge of $6,000 to $8,000. Toomey and Co. Salespeople will likewise offer an oil painting by Cortor in the impending Art and Design deal. This undated piece shows the profile of a man sitting on the means of a patio. One hand fingers his unfastened shoelaces while different rests next to his leg. Engraved on the back with "Nearby Color"/Eldzier Cortor/#5328, this composition has a gauge of $1,000 to $2,000. There are auctions of many such works of other famous artists, to see the schedule of the auctions visit the auction calendar of auction daily.  

 "Truth be told," says Mark Pascale, the guardian of the 2015 Art Institute show, "Cortor makes a few group insane. They think this stuff is tasteless. Yet, it is done in a specific voice, and workmanship without voice isn't craftsmanship." Increasingly, authorities and fans are rediscovering Cortor's voice and heritage.

 Media Source: Auctiondaily

[finalfortunart]

If anyone saw my main blog post about fighting with Illustrator to get a project done, THIS is what I was actually talking about. This is my first major art project of the semester, for my Graphic Design class, and we had to chose any kind of hot button topic and make a poster for or against it, while only using 3 Pantone colors and using Indesign and Illustrator.

I chose the topic of the Trump Administration harming Federally protected lands and parks in the style of the classic WPA National Park Posters from the Great Depression era.

I made this entire picture with the exception of the fonts and actual information from the NY Times, and for spending the last 2 1/2 weeks struggling with Illustrator to get anything done, I’m really proud of how it turned out in the last 3 hours of me actually managing to figure out Illustrator. 

As I keep working on and practicing with Illustrator I do want to try again with this poster later in the semester (for a hopefully better grade than whatever this will get), making it more realistic and such, but for now I’m just gonna catch up on my lost 6 or so hours of sleep from last night.

(also, here’s where I got the special WPA poster font, just want to give credit where it’s due)

[steve-rogers-new-york]

Federal Project Number One — An Introduction FDR’s federally funded projects to employ and train artists, musicians, writers, and actors during the Great Depression.

This is a topic I have wanted to delve into for a long time, as it is so inherently Steve, and to my great pleasure, it is a topic requested by my much-loved friend and Patreon supporter Joanna. This post will be a brief introduction into what is a massive topic when looking into Steve’s education, employment, and experiences of art during the Great Depression.

The Great Depression, Artists, and FDR

The fallout from the 1929 stock market crash had a devastating effect on the art community. Tens of thousands of writers, artists, musicians, and those in the theatre found themselves out of work, that had been hand-to-mouth at the best of times. Considered ‘nonessential’ their roles had dried up leaving them in dire straits. As an attempt to offset the damage done by the crash, FDR began orchestrating policies and projects to generate work and employment for citizens as an alternative to just providing a dole — including artists as beneficiaries. 

An early prototype of this artist employment project was the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). It ran from December 1933 to June 1934,  employed 3,749 artists, and produced 15,663 pieces of art for government building across the country. While on the whole, the project did provide employment with employment at a time of need, its success in comparison to its successor, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), was limited. It did not necessarily identify the most qualified candidates, and the art that was produced was relatively conservative and underwhelming. After the dissolution of the PWAP, a new approach to the issue of employment was developed — this was the better-known New Deal’s Work Progress Administration (WPA). 

Federal Project Number One

The new divisions for employment of artists fell under the banner of the Federal Project Number One. This was the name given to a collection of projects that focused on the arts, music, writing, and theatre. The Federal Project Number One took the earlier PWAP’s objects of employing artists to create works for governments buildings and expanded upon it. The vision three-fold: 

First off, it was to provide relief to artists and artisans by employing them to create a wide array of materials and services that would benefit the American public at large. 

Second, rather than just providing artworks for federal buildings, they were created for public spaces like post-offices, schools. Directors of the projects wanted to take art out of large institutions and bring it to the everyday citizen by putting it in their neighbourhoods. This was achieved through the production of murals in public spaced, funding art classes to both children and adults throughout the country, producing public service material, and putting on free and low-cost public music and theatre performances for those who would not otherwise have had access to them.

Thirdly, the material produced had the goal of buoying public morale during a deeply-trying period. The guidelines for artwork was to “invoke familiar images that spoke of shared values and American progress, including technological wonders, fertile farmlands, small town life, and big city vibrancy.”

The divisions of the Federal Project Number One were as follows:

The Federal Arts Project — This included the production of works of art like posters, murals and freestanding canvases, paintings; as well establishing as staffing new community arts in every region which could host both art exhibits, performances, and art classes for all ages.

The Federal Music Project —This division acted to bring live music to the masses, particularly those who in the past had never had the means to afford admission to traditional venues. They performed many accessible venues including open-air spaces like parks, schools, train stations, concert halls, and anywhere that could host a crowd. The range of music performed was also broad to appeal to new audiences.

The Federal Writers’ Project — This division employed anyone who could write, be it novelists, poets, academics, copywriters, journalists, librarians, or writing teachers. The produced all manner of works, anywhere from 1 to 100-page materials, with a focus on non-fiction. Many were ephemeral in nature and did not last, but some others left a mark on Americans, most notably, a series of guides to America that promoted travel and pride in the country.

The Federal Theatre Project —This division both produced original theatre materials, as well as free or low-cost public performances. Like the music division, they offered these performances in accessible spaces like schools, hospitals, parks, and any spaces it could afford to rent. Performances were also staged in prisons and settlement houses across the country. The production also went beyond the stage, with radio-baed theatre through the Federal Theatre on the Air, and written material through the Living Newspaper.

That was a pretty dry and boring summary of what the WPA and Federal Project Number One, but it gives some of the contextual information behind how the Federal Arts Project and its sibling projects came about. From here I can get into the more interesting and Steve-related content in future posts.

Image Sources

WPA logo | Source WPA Federal Art Project Exhibition, 1938 | Source WPA Federal Writers Project, American Guide Week | Source WPA Federal Theatre Negro Unit, Macbeth | Source WPA Federal Music Project | Source

This post has been sponsored by Patreon supporter Joanna Daniels —longtime, and beloved follower. She and I would like to, again, dedicate the post to the loving memory of her mother Joan Daniels, who sadly passed away this past year and who is sorely missed. I hope 2019 has been treating you well so far!

[dirigibleplumbing]

what kind of art did pre-Serum Steve do?

I don’t actually reach a solid conclusion in this. This is more about exploring the possibilities and the obstacles he would have faced with different materials and subjects. My only firm note is that he would not have painted with acrylic. 

Note on my background: I have a BA in fine art. I took a shitton of art history classes and one intro class on the chemistry of artists’ materials. I read books about painting forgeries and artists’ materials for fun. I am a practicing (if under-employed) illustrator and graphic designer.

However I make plenty of mistakes, and some of them were probably in this post! Nothing I say here should be taken as gospel. And leave me a note if I’ve said something super wrong or misleading!  Here we go! Lots of words and pictures under the cut. 

A quick note on artists’ materials: Very roughly speaking, all colored art materials are made up of the same minerals / chemicals / whatever for the pigment and then have different binding agents. 

Oil paint = pigment + oil Tempura = pigment + eggs Watercolor = pigment + gum arabic Gouache = pigment + gum arabic + chalk (sort of) Fresco = pigment + plaster Acrylic = pigment + special polymers that need to be made in a lab Encaustic = pigment + wax etc. 

The binding agent impacts what the material ends up being soluble with. 

Most people used watercolors or poster paints as a kid, right? So, with those, to thin out some paint, mix paint together, or rinse your paintbrush, you use water. They’re water-soluble. 

Oil paints are oil-soluble. You use an oil-based liquid to thin out paint, mix paint together, or clean your paintbrush. There are different oils in different types of oil paints (classically it was mineral oil) and different types of oils used as solvents. 

Depending on your solvent, it takes days, if not weeks, for an oil painting to dry entirely. Also, if you re-apply solvent to a dry, “finished” painting or section, it can be reworked, almost as if the paint had never dried. This is one of oil painting’s superpowers. You can only sort of do this with watercolor or gouache, depending on how you painted it and what surface you’re using and how you treated it and how many layers you’ve done. Acrylic dries into a plastic and can’t be reworked at all (which is one of its superpowers, because sometimes that’s exactly what you want). 

Would Steve have worked in color? So I don’t think he was canonically colorblind--correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is just a really compelling and popular fanon. He very well may have stubbornly worked in color despite being colorblind. It’s Steve, after all. 

Whether colorblind Steve continued to work in color after completing his coursework would depend on what story you’re telling, what kind of colorblindness he had if he had it, how that impacted his art, and potentially how it impacted his grades in art school (where he would have likely been required to do his paintings in color). 

Would he have done commercial art or fine art? If he was doing “fine” art, he was probably not making his living at it. He was doing some other kind of work in addition. To make money at fine art, you needed (and still do): to be excellent at schmoozing and self-promotion and talking confidently about how revolutionary, life-changing, and monetarily valuable your work is and how everyone else’s sucks; to have a lot of leisure time, money, and extra energy to spare to not only do your art but also your self-promotion and schmoozing; and ideally you’d have connections (which maybe Steve made in art school, depending on where he went, but keep in mind he was broke af so it was probably not a fancy place). None of that really sounds like Steve.

Whereas the Federal Art Project was right around the time Steve would’ve been in, and then finished, art school. This was a New Deal program, basically the visual arts part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). From wikipedia: “It was created not as a cultural activity but as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans to create murals, easel paintings, sculpture, graphic art, posters, photography, theatre scenic design, and arts and crafts. The WPA Federal Art Project established more than 100 community art centers throughout the country, researched and documented American design, commissioned a significant body of public art without restriction to content or subject matter, and sustained some 10,000 artists and craft workers during the Great Depression.” 

So I lean toward artist Steve practicing his craft through whatever gigs he could get with the Federal Art Project. But he could very well have been trying for fine art on the side. 

Screen-printing / poster design: I just wrote a fic where Steve worked on designing WPA posters in the 30′s! (And then in the 21st century he ends up designing some humorous ones for Tony about lab safety, Asimov’s laws of robotics, and coffee consumption.) 

For more info and potential inspiration, see here for a ton of beautiful 1930′s WPA posters, and here for some NYC specific ones (including the one pictured above). 

So yes, I think this is quite plausible! It also sidesteps the colorblindness issue. I am not a printmaker and know verrrry little about screen-printing so please correct me if I’m wrong, but: I think that If Steve was working on the stencils, he wouldn’t even need to worry about the colors. He may have had input about which parts were dark or light but not color. Alternately, this is a medium where the color mixing is extremely precise, chemically and mathematically speaking, so he could learn the color mixtures and color schemes by rote. This also works for science / math nerd Steve.  

Acrylic painting: This is basically impossible. (The only exception I can think of off the top of my head might be an AU where Tony Stark is around in the 30′s too and is Steve’s patron / sugar daddy and gets him access to these special proprietary paints his company uses for their products.)

While synthetic paints existed in the 30′s, they weren’t commercially available until the 1950′s. (Fun note, this was because paint companies thought they would appeal to the Abstract Impressionists. They were right!) 

Oil painting: Would have been tricky for a number of reasons, but Steve’s a stubborn bitch so who knows. 

This is one of the more expensive mediums Steve could have pursued, but it’s also kinda the gold standard of 2d “fine” art, as opposed to commercial art. (Why this is, the nuances of the distinction between “fine” art and commercial art, and whether oil painting deserves to be put on this kind of pedestal is an entirely separate post!) It was definitely taught at any art school Steve would’ve attended, whether using traditional, Renaissance-style techniques or more modernist ones. 

Steve would’ve been aware of contemporary artists such as Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, Georgia O’Keeffe, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso working in oils. (Where possible, these links go to pages specifically about the artist’s work in the 1930′s. Note that O’Keeffe was doing Precisionist art at the time, not the flowers she became famous for later. One of her NYC cityscapes is pictured above.) 

If Steve was pursuing 2d “fine” art, it’s likely he was making oil paintings. 

However, Steve would’ve almost definitely gotten sick from being around all the solvents. They are... not good for you. I say this as someone who attended art school 80 years after Steve did, when a lot of alternative solvents existed. Those still gave me migraines and other chronic issues. Little Steve had even more ailments than I do, including asthma. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was chemically sensitive on top of everything else. 

(Another note, ideally you’d have ventilation to work with oil paint, and not just because of the off-gassing--also because it is a fire hazard. If you don’t store your paint rags properly, they can spontaneously combust. But you don’t need the ventilation, like, you’ll live, and you can, in fact, practice oil painting in a very small space. It’s very good for small, precise work if your surface is small, too.)

Fresco: In the 616 comics, Steve worked with the WPA on a mural, which was almost definitely a fresco. This is quite feasible in terms of semi-regular paid work that Steve would be qualified for. However it isn’t super practical to do this at home in a tiny apartment, so it couldn’t have been his main medium. He would have practiced this at school and potentially earned something of a living working on murals, but it’s not the sort of thing you do at home. 

Info on Diego Rivera’s fresco technique, and info about the mural pictured above. 

Watercolor (or gouache): Steve would’ve definitely learned at least one of these, probably for the purpose of studies and color sketches. 

If he was an illustrator--doing magazine covers, certain types of posters or advertisements, book covers, etc., it’s quite likely he was using one or both of these mediums. 

It’s possible, though unlikely in my opinion, that he would have used these for his personal, fine art. Watercolor in particular was associated with studies (”unfinished” work) and with femininity. It was not really shown in galleries or considered “high” art. 

That said I think there are some really interesting stories to tell about a young, disabled (and let’s be real, this is fanfic, so gay or bi or otherwise queer) Steve doing watercolors even though they aren’t marketable and his teachers and fellow students give him shit for it... but that could be because I, personally, pursued watercolors when I got my BFA even though many of my teachers gave me shit for it. 

(Pictured above is Corn and Peaches by Charles Demuth.)

(If people like this post and are interested in more, I will write one that goes further into feminine-coded art and artists in the 1930′s. I started writing what I thought was going to a short sidenote kinda paragraph about it for this post and it ended up being over 500 words long and I have a lot more to say.) 

[antoine-roquentin]

There’s been a ton of articles in the mainstream press condemning Sanders’ job guarantee proposal. They mostly rely on the historical ignorance of the American people and some fearmongering. They all read pretty much the same, so by addressing this one (and a bit of one it links to) I’m basically addressing all of them.

Does the federal government have the managerial competence to oversee the creation of so many jobs? Taylor is skeptical. (The 15 million added jobs would equal about 1 in 10 existing jobs.) 

The WPA and the CCC alone in 1938 employed over 3.5 million. Federal employment was certainly well over 10% of all employed at that time, about 50 million. If they could manage that without all the technological advances over the past 80 years, why can’t the government now?

We will need to slot them into a system of management and oversight that has yet to be created or defined (unlike public education, where at least the goals and population to be served are clear enough). 

It took about 3 years from the law creating the WPA to be passed to peak employment for that program. A lot of what it did were construction projects, but there were many different fields it operated in. Federal Project Number One alone employed 40,000 people in the arts in a wide variety of areas, including production and archival. All of these jobs wouldn’t just be make work. Imagine the amount of creativity that would be let loose by a similar program to this today:

Flanagan tallies up the achievement at the end of "Arena": 1,200 scripts presented, everything from "Murder in the Cathedral" to "Pinocchio." An average of 10,000 actors, writers, designers put to work each year (the project's major aim as a branch of the Depression-era federal employment program, the Works Progress Administration). A total audience of 30 million people in 31 states. Admissions ranging from free to $1.

All this achieved, as Flanagan innocently puts it, "for approximately the cost of one battleship"--$46 million.

I imagine it could be done in far less time with computerization.

They often have poor skills, wrestle with drug or alcohol problems, or are so discouraged that they’ve dropped out of the labor force.... it’s unlikely in the extreme that the millions of workers in this program could ever be made fully competent at their jobs.

Most mainstream economists believe that at 4% unemployment, or what’s referred to as “full employment” despite black unemployment being at 7%, everybody who’s unemployed is an idiot druggie waste-of-space who they’d prefer dead. I’m sure the average American would disagree, given that most of these people are family and friends, so these economists have to put things a little less bluntly. Poor skills in particular is funny, given that, in the next breath, economists are always talking about how few skills are needed in low-wage jobs, and that’s what makes them low-wage. It should also be pointed out though just how adaptable people are, given that the much-feared Chinese manufacturing economy is largely built around people who didn’t finish high school. People are quite good at learning hands-on for their jobs as long as their employer is willing to pay to train them, but so few employers are willing now that economists have to make up shit about “poor skills” to justify it.

The reason is Medicare. If it’s provided for those making $15 an hour, there will be pressures to provide it for most workers. Otherwise, uncovered workers might stage a political rebellion or switch from today’s low-paying private-sector jobs to the better-paid public-service jobs, as the Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip notes. The same logic applies to child-care subsidies. 

Shit, you managed to figure out the Bernie policy wonks’ game. They definitely are hoping that a job guarantee can be used to promote national healthcare and childcare, but to claim that providing such services to everyone in the world’s biggest economy is too expensive is laughable. It’s only because America provisions these services privately that they’re expensive in the first place. The cost would go down rather quickly once Medicare and childcare was given to everyone and the parasitical private sector providers were removed from the system.

One advantage claimed for these proposals is that it will force the private sector to raise wages and benefits to match the government guaranteed jobs. Some employers may do this. But my guess is that lots of employers would undertake a two-part strategy. The first part would be to figure out how to use training and additional equipment so that it made sense to give some workers a pay raise. The second part would be to fire all the other workers.

So you’re saying that productivity goes up while everyone stays employed? Great stuff!

The working assumption in these proposal seems to be that with a federal job guarantee in place, all the existing anti-poverty programs will stay in place--although they won't be needed as much. If there is a federal job guarantee, then there will be enormous political pressure to cut these programs. 

That’s why the other half of a job guarantee has to be a universal basic income. They complement each other and help ensure the other can’t be abused. Just having a job guarantee can mean the separation of people into separate employed and unemployed castes, with the latter seen as undeserving thanks to their laziness. UBI only meanwhile creates an incentive to crater wages and to commoditize more and more of what we need to survive. 

Then there’s inflation. The extra spending and higher wages might push prices upward.... Can the new workers be disciplined? Good question. “The problem with a job ‘guarantee’ is that you can’t fire people,” notes Taylor.

Inflation from wages is the only thing these people seem to recognize as inflation. Inflation resulting from massive housing bubbles is fine, of course, but inflation from a growing economy terrifies them completely.

[newingtonnow]

Hope on the Wall: Connecticut’s New Deal Post Office Murals

By Todd Jones

Between 1934 and 1943, the federal government placed murals in twenty-three Connecticut post offices. Taking the form of both paintings and sculptures, these murals were intended to be of high quality and depicted subject matter that was quaint and comforting. The government wanted these murals to spark an interest in art and offer people an uplifting distraction from the troubles of the Great Depression. Unlike works of art created by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which the post office art is often confused with, these government murals had nothing to do with providing jobs for unemployed artists. Connecticut’s post office murals represent a time when the federal government invested in art for art’s sake.

The Section of Painting and Sculpture

Winsted Post Office mural. Courtesy National Archives, photo no. 121-CMS-1B-32.

The federal government program responsible for the post office murals was the Section of Painting and Sculpture (later called the Section of Fine Arts). It was under the tutelage of the United States Treasury Department in Washington, DC. During the 1930s, the Great Depression caused rampant unemployment, hunger, and anxiety across the United States and Connecticut. President Franklin Roosevelt, to show citizens that the federal government could still get things done, built hundreds of new post offices. Seeing a new government building constructed in the center of town helped boost the morale of local citizens and showed that the distant federal government had not forgotten about them. The Section of Painting and Sculpture decided which of those post offices got artwork inside.

Thomaston Post Office mural. Courtesy National Archives, photo no. 121-CMS-1B-13

The murals were most often situated above the postmaster’s office door, in view of patrons using the main lobby. In an era before email and cell phones, almost everyone regularly visited the post office to keep in touch with the outside world. The buildings were a perfect place to expose average citizens to art. Not everyone at the time could see fine art in a museum, so the Section brought the fine art to them. The painted murals typically measured ten feet in length and five feet in height. Larger post offices, such as in Bridgeport and New London, had more than one mural.

The Section only picked trained and established artists, since the goal was to create fine quality, lasting artwork. As a result, most of the artists were not from Connecticut, which often upset communities. Most of the artists were appointed, though the Section occasionally held blind competitions.

The Murals

Drawing by artist Frede Vidar depicting mural placement for the interior of the Shelton Post Office. Folder Shelton, Box 12, Entry 133, Record Group 121, National Archives and Records Administration.

Once an artist was chosen, he or she was paid through a contract and typically had one year to complete the mural. During that year, the artist had to send regular updates to the Section staff in Washington, including letters, sketches, and photographs of progress.

The Section took a very active role in the process and controlled specifically how the final mural looked. The Section staff, who were trying very hard to keep their project alive as a permanent government arts program, feared the possibility of offending or upsetting people and causing controversy. As a result, the murals often featured optimistic scenes, especially with historical themes. The colonial past was especially popular in Connecticut. Landscapes were also common since they rarely proved offensive. There were no hints about contemporary problems, such as unemployment, labor strikes, or racial segregation. Mass-production was rarely shown, with the Section preferring depictions of skilled craftsman working by hand or simply showing farming. In a landscape for the Thompsonville mural, the artist replaced the village’s carpet factory with a farm and tobacco barns, which angered many residents. Because of the Section’s stern control over the process, neither residents nor artists had much say in the creation of the artwork.

Post Office Murals vs. WPA Murals

Southington Post Office mural. Photography by Todd Jones. Used with the permission of the United States Postal Service®. All rights reserved.

The WPA, through its Federal Art Project, also made artwork in public buildings at the same time as the Section. The Section and WPA could not have been more dissimilar, however. Unlike the Section, the WPA gave its artists more range to be creative and gave local residents a voice in the creation of artwork. The WPA had an office in New Haven, with Connecticut art experts on staff. By stipulation, the WPA only used Connecticut artists. Not all the artists had extensive art school training like the Section artists, but the WPA’s primary goal was to put unemployed artists to work on government projects. The WPA was by design a jobs program while the Section was an arts program. The Section also had complete jurisdiction over federal government buildings (like post offices), so the WPA only worked in state and local government buildings, such as schools, city halls, and courthouses.

Many of these murals still hang today. All are remnants of the desperate times of the Great Depression and the different strategies used to survive it. The Section’s post office murals represent the government’s attempt to promote the arts while the WPA art represents the government’s attempt to provide employment. One boosted paychecks, the other boosted morale: both provided hope.

Todd Jones is a historian and preservationist. He holds a master of arts degree in public history from Central Connecticut State University.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/hope-on-the-wall-connecticuts-new-deal-post-office-murals/

[followingmygps]

See America Again—Chapel of the Transfiguration . . Following My GPS poster style in homage to the "See America" vintage travel posters of the late 1930s done by the WPA Federal Art Project. Rediscover America's beauty and abundant natural, cultural, and historic attractions. Share for post-coronavirus travel inspiration! . . . #ChapeloftheTransfiguration #SeeAmericaAgain #SeeAmerica #SeeAmericaFirst #wpa #wpaposters #wpaposter #posterdesign #posterart #poster #posters #vintageposter #discoveramerica #travelpics #travellife #travelinspiration #travelblog #travelphotography #fmgphoto #followingmygps #travelphotography #traveller #photography #travelamerica #lifestyle #LifeWellLived #travelmagazine #roadtripping #exploring #roadtrip (at Grand Teton National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAh-gwiHHeO/?igshid=bppzqmkp1i0s

[vmfaeducation]

Purchased just last year, this painting was done by an artist not quite as well-known as Aaron Douglas, but just as important nonetheless. Eldzier Cortor was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1916. At a very young age, his family (like many African American families at that time) left the Jim Crow south and moved up north, seeking better opportunities. Cortor’s family ended up in Chicago and it was there that he attended the Art Institute of Chicago, receiving his degree in 1936. He was also one of many artists employed by the WPA’s Federal Art Project under the New Deal. A painter and a printmaker, Cortor was best known for his elegant paintings of black (typically nude) women. Our painting, Southern Landscape, done in 1941, shows a beautiful and introspective black woman standing in the foreground. Behind her, the artist has depicted an imaginary South after the devastating floods of the 1930s. In the far distance, we see homes submerged half-way underwater. She leans against a brick wall that separates her from a cemetery, evidenced by a spattering of tombstones. As she stares off, she grasps onto her necklace, to which a cross (or crucifix) is attached. In her right hand she holds wild flowers. Beside her we see a basket, which we can assume contains objects that belong to her. Among the basket of possessions lies a small framed photograph of a young man in military uniform (which happens to be a self-portrait of the artist). For Eldzier Cortor, the black female figure represented strength, beauty, resilience, and the continuance of life. When you apply that concept to this work, we see an ideal beauty amidst tragedy and ruin and although there is a somber tone to this scene, the artist has given us a taste of hope. Our main character - the beautiful, black woman - is a source of strength. She is resilient. Perhaps she has survived the tragic floods that took so many lives and ruined so much property and was able to grab those few and precious objects that now sit beside her in that basket? Does the flower in her hand represent the dawn of a new day? #VMFA #arteducation #EldzierCortor #AmericanArt #AfricanAmericanArt #SouthernLandscape # (at VMFA Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

[uwmspeccoll]

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday

Labor Day was created to honor the American Labor Movement and to celebrate the contribution made by workers to the strength and prosperity of our country.  As part of the Wisconsin Arts Project of the WPA, The Milwaukee Handicrafts Project trained and employed roughly 5,000 workers over the course of 7 years. These workers were then equipped with the trade skills needed to obtain employment after the project disbanded. 

So, in celebration of Labor Day, our post highlights this lithograph print titled “Workers”, which was done by Alfred Sessler.  Sessler was native to Milwaukee and worked for the Federal Arts Project while also a student at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College.  He went on to study further at UW-Madison, where he later became a professor. He is well known for his his lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts.

"Workers” is from our digital collection “Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA,” digitized from the original in volume 2 of Making a Woodcut Portfolio.

Here’s to the workers of the world and here’s to our Labor Day!

View our other Milwaukee Handicraft Project posts.

The MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence.

Read More about the Project.

The Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA digital collection was made possible with generous financial support from The Chipstone Foundation.

– Katie, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[keywestlou]

GEORGE ORWELL'S FREEDOM AND SLAVERY 1984

George Orwell wrote his famous book 1984 years before that date. His purpose was to show how society and societal values would change over the years. What they would be in 1984.

Orwell made 1 mistake. 1984 was too soon. It would take into the 2020 teens for the evils he wrote about to significantly manifest themselves.

Today, freedom and slavery are issues of consequence. What Orwell projected for 1984 are front and center today.

Re freedom and slavery, he wrote: “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

Washington’s Mayor Bowser has started a trend. The large yellow letters covering 2 blocks in front of the White House saying BLACK LIVES MATTER will now have a place in New York City.

Mayor de Blasio and Trump do not get along. De Blasio announced that in the next 2 weeks in front of Trump Towers on Fifth Avenue a giant BLACK LIVES MATTER mural will appear painted on the street. Yellow, of course.

A source close to de Blasio said the Mayor “is doing it to antagonize the President.”

As I have said, he who fails to give respect is not entitled to respect. Trump has disrespected so many in the 3 years he has been President. The mural in the street a what goes around comes around thing.

An appellate court decision has freed Michael Flynn.

An absolute disgrace! Evidence of favoritism running from the President and Attorney General Barr to Trump’s personal friend Michael Flynn.

Flynn pled guilty 2 times in open court. Then Barr comes up with a baseless unique legal theory that Flynn was done wrong in entering the pleas.

Judge Sullivan the trial Judge. He said hold on when Justice wanted the case dumped. The Judge smelled a rat. The entire legal community smelled a rat. Not the way things are done. Blatant favoritism. A friend of the President was being accommodated.

Trump has demeaned and destroyed the good name of the Justice Department and those working under it, as well as the Judiciary. Barr has magnified and assisted in Trump’s wrongdoing.

Makes me wonder if Judge Sirica would have been able to do what he did. Sirica was the federal Judge who the Watergate burglars and others were before. They all did jail time. Sirica was not a man to screw around with. Even Nixon did not attempt what Trump has been doing and getting away with.

Today a famous one in American history. George Custer and his 7th Cavalry were wiped out by the Sioux and Cheyenne at the Battle of Big Horn.

It would be the last time the Indians knew such success.

A bit of Key West.

Willie T’s and Shanna Key have been closed because an employee in each place tested positive for coronavirus. Each will be closed for 14 days. “Cleaning and quarantine” to be manged by Florida’s Monroe County Health officials.

Owners of each establishment totally cooperative.

A problem here. Test results are supposed to be available in 3 days. In each instance, it took 7 days. The additional 4 days provided  opportunity for the virus to spread.

Key West’s famous July 4th fireworks may not be held this year.

On June 2, the Key West City Commission met and voted to have the fireworks. Since that time, coronavirus has increased everywhere in Florida. The Commission is meeting tomorrow morning to decide if their vote should be rescinded.

I suspect it will be.

The Key West Arts Center is located at 301 Front Street. A 2 story white building well kept.

This morning’s Key West Citizen ran a photo of the building taken many many years ago. The building in the photo a dilapidated wood structure.

The Key West Arts Center was established in 1960 and opened in the building. Still operates today. A popular tourist attraction. Part of the Old Town waterfront area.

The building was originally constructed in the 1850’s. Near what then was the waterfront. Constructed to be used as a grocery store. The grocery store was owned and managed by the Babcock family for many years.

Fire seriously damaged the building in 1886. It was rehabilitated as a single story building. A second floor was added in the early 1900’s.

In later years, the building was the location of the First WPA Art Project under President Roosevelt.

Another fire occurred.  An extensive one. The building was condemned and ordered to be torn down.

A Key West arts group and prominent local officials persuaded City officials to save the historic building. An agreement was reached. The building was converted into a City sponsored art center and gallery.

It is now recognized as a building of historical significance in the Old Mallory Square area.

May Johnson’s exciting 1896 life continues.

On this day in in 1896, May finished the dress she had been sewing for several days. White organdy trimmed in silk lace and ribbons.May wrote in her diary “very pretty.”

That evening she went out with Earl. An event at La Brisa. Called the “German.” In honor of the officers of the Maine.

Three states with rampaging coronavirus. One Florida.

I blame Governor DeSantis. Trump’s lap dog. Followed Trump’s dictates precisely.

As of yesterday, the number of new cases in Florida has increased more than 2 times since early June.

I fear the worse is yet to come, even for Key West.

This is day 105 of my self-quarantine. Fifteen weeks. If the coronavirus trend continues as it recently has, I may be here another 105 days!

I miss sitting at a bar and talking with people. I miss going out to dinner with friends and conversing. I miss partying at a friend’s home. I miss people!

Enjoy your day!

GEORGE ORWELL’S FREEDOM AND SLAVERY 1984 was originally published on Key West Lou

[newyorktheater]

These posters are from the Federal Theatre Project, a massive government program during the Great Depression to offer relief to artists, writers, directors, and theater workers by employing them. The just-passed $2 trillion stimulus deal, called CARES, does nothing close to that. The FTP created a system of regional theaters, encouraged experimentation, and made it possible for millions of Americans to see live theatre for the first time.

Congress passed, and the president signed, a $2 trillion stimulus deal that includes specific relief for arts organizations and artists, although advocates say not enough.

Officially titled CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security), the law gives $75 million each to The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities to pass on to institutions that need it and $50 million to the Institute of Museum and Library Services. There was also $25 million for the John F. Kennedy Center (although it didn’t stop the Center from laying off all 96 members of the National Symphony Orchestra with only a week’s notice.)

Arts advocates had asked for $4 billion.

“Germany has rolled out a staggering €50 Billion ($54 billion) aid package for artists and cultural businesses, putting other countries to shame” –Artnet

“Although $150 million isn’t chump change, it’s only 3.75 percent of the original ask. You could film a season of Westworld with that money; you will obviously not be able to restart an entire sector.” – Helen Shaw, New York Magazine.(who is counting just the NEA and NEH grants.)

“,,,the institutional damage done by the coronavirus looks at first glance to be especially devastating to theater. Even the biggest regional theaters have either laid off staff or are days away from doing so…Imagine, then, the plight of the smaller companies, the no-budget storefront and off-Broadway houses whose risk-taking productions supply the artistic fertilizer for America’s theatrical culture. Many of these groups—perhaps most of the smaller ones—simply won’t reopen when the crisis abates. As for the actors, directors, playwrights, designers and other professionals who make sure there’s a show onstage when the curtain goes up…well, they’re in can’t-pay-the-rent trouble…” — Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

Still, other provisions in CARES will likely aid these theaters and individual theater artists (F.A.Q. on Stimulus Checks, Unemployment and the Coronavirus Plan – NY Times.)

The $1,200 “paycheck” to individuals making less than $75,000.

Calculate how much your stimulus check will be (likely, $1,200)https://t.co/sKLsGs6yES

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 26, 2020

$377 billion for small businesses with fewer than 500 employees, which may offer a boon to eligible arts businesses and nonprofits – Jamine Weber, Hyperallergic

Expanded Unemployment Insurance  that includes coverage for furloughed workers, freelancers, and “gig economy” workers, which describes, for example, almost all actors, directors and playwrights. The bill increases such payments by $600 a week for four months, in addition to what one claims under a state unemployment program. – Hayley Levitt, Theatermania

What the theater industry would hope for the future:

“One of the things we’re talking about internally,” TCG’s Corinna Schulenburg told Helen Shaw, “has been the way in which the scale of this catastrophe — a wholesale shutting down of the field — is only really comparable is the Great Depression. We’re looking at 20 percent or higher unemployment! So what lessons can we find in the Federal Theater Project?” Under the New Deal, the government’s super-spending effort that put America back to work in the ’30s, the Federal Theater Project only accounted for 0.5 percent of the Works Progress Administration spending, which, if you applied that to the current bailout, would come to $10 billion. Schulenburg has dreams for that money. And oh, oh, oh — a new New Deal is a heady thought. We’re still surrounded by the structures the WPA gave us, including dams, bridges, airports, roads — and, yes, our regional theater system. Maybe a new one could bring it back.”

Summer theater canceled too?

Three Broadway shows that were scheduled to open in April are facing facts, and moving to sometime in the Fall: Roundabout’s “Caroline, or Change” and “Birthday Candles” and Lincoln Center Theater’s “Flying Sunset.” Since both “Hangmen” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” announced they would not be returning at all when Broadway resumes, that leaves 11 shows still officially scheduled to open in the 2019-2020 Broadway season.

No surprise: The 74th Annual Tony Awards  will be postponed to a date that will be determined after Broadway reopens. It was originally scheduled for June 7th

A bad news/good news announcement: Ars Nova has canceled the remainder of its 2019-2020 season, originally set to conclude on June 30, 2020. But it’s committed to paying all 150 staff, crew and cast through June 30th.

New York City Center has announced the cancellation of Thoroughly Modern Millie, an  Encores concert scheduled for May 6-10,

  “As nonprofits around the country cancel all spring programs, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival halts performances through Labor Day, and will lay off 80 percent of its staff….Lincoln Center Theater has decided to move two summer productions to next season; the Public Theater says it is awaiting guidance from local officials before determining what impact the pandemic might have on its popular Shakespeare in the Park program. And in the Berkshires, a summer destination in Western Massachusetts with a rich concentration of cultural institutions, Barrington Stage Company has already canceled its first production, which was scheduled to run from mid-May to early June….“ — Michael Paulson, NY Times

  To avoid any more little jolts of disappointment, perhaps we should just assume the following for all theater: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, __ (theater) has announced the cancellation of __ (show) which was schedule for __ (months from now!)

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 29, 2020

Hope Goes Online

A huge amount of theater is going online, which I’m trying to track by continually updating my roundup, Where To Get Your Theater Fix Online, Old Favorites and New Experiments

Some highlights in the  last week:

TrickleUp, a new “grass-roots subscription platform”  for $10 a month, hopes to raise money for artists in need.  Launched March 23 by a group of downtown artists and artistic directors, It promises “videos of solo performances, conversation, and other behind-the-scenes goodies,” Its catalogue so far features such fare as Taylor Mac reading scenes from “Gary”, Sarah Ruhl reading some of her poems, Mia Katigbak singing La Vie En Rose, Dominique Morisseau doing a monologue from Skeleton Crew, Suzan-Lori Parks singing “Colored All My Life,” Lucas Hnath reading material cut from his play “A Doll’s House Part 2″

Starting April 2nd, and every Thursday thereafter, ‘National Theatre at Home” will stream FOR FREE on its YouTube channel a production from its NT Live collection, recordings of their stage productions that are such high quality that they are normally presented in cinemas worldwide. The first production online April 2 (and for seven days after that) is “One Man, Two Guv’nors,” the slapstick comedy with a Tony winning performance by James Corden.

PBS  has unlocked a selection of its shows in its Live From Lincoln Center and Great Performances series, from April until the end of May. These includes a few of my favorite things (yes, “The Sound of Music” — not the movie — as well as “Red” and “Present Laughter.”)

Playing on Air, a decade-old podcast of original radio plays, announces its star-studded season of ten plays, unfolding each week through the end of May.

There is new immersive theater for the age of self-distancing. For details on these and other virtual theater, again, check out Where To Get Your Theater Fix Online, Old Favorites and New Experiments

My reviews of Theater Wit’s Teenage Dick and Rattlestick’s The Siblings Play, both stage plays that were recorded right before the theaters were shut down, and now presented online.

Anne (Courtney Rikki Green) teaching Richard (MacGregor Arney), who has cerebral palsy, how to dance, in “Teenage Dick,” Mike Lew’s update of Shakespeare’s play Richard III, streaming online through April 19.

Ed Ventura as Leon/Lee/Chookie. and Cindy De La Cruz as his sister Marie/Rie-rie/Sweet-pea, in “The Siblings Play” by Ten Dara Santiago, now available online

Other Theater News:

a closeup of the Coronavirus

Broadway and the Coronavirus: Updated Questions and Answers

Hey everyone. I just wanted to update you all that I’ve found out that I’ve tested positive for Covid-19. I’ve been in quarantine since Broadway shows shut down on Thursday, March 12th, and I’m feeling much better.… https://t.co/KwJSPgcRct

— Aaron Tveit (@AaronTveit) March 23, 2020

Congrats to playwright @willarbery, winner of $50K @WhitingFdn Award “intellectually audacious, formally sly, w/ the courage to let characters seize the stage with impassioned arguments” My review of his “Heroes of the 4th Turning”https://t.co/pSA2Ebywgj pic.twitter.com/OxCHztANU2

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 26, 2020

On #WorldTheatreDay2020, a look at the world’s gorgeous theaters. We can’t enter them right now, but we can still celebrate theater in our hearts (and online) Theater is more than buildings. It’s 2,500 years of history, & literature, & tradition & lovehttps://t.co/i2RtwDGU3H pic.twitter.com/3tdoqBYHHM

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 27, 2020

NY Theater Blog Roundup: Responding to COVID-19 in unexpected ways https://t.co/mRwicA4Sz5 pic.twitter.com/BX2ZgZchL3

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 29, 2020

Great idea from @BroadwayWorld & @jenashtep — #BWWBookclub. First up Jennifer’s book, Untold Stories of Broadway Vol. 1 — free on Amazon via Kindle, and then discuss each chapter on Broadway World’s message board weekly starting Monday, March 30https://t.co/D8hyYZyrPM pic.twitter.com/7QpVSsPIBJ

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 26, 2020

Advice and Uplift

Step-by-step advice for surviving isolation from an astronaut, a journalist, and a political prisoner, who each spent long stretches alone: Read. Exercise. Laugh.

Message from the medical personnel of an Emergency Room, via @MaudNewton, whose sister is an ER nurse. (My brother is an ER doctor) pic.twitter.com/1XmpE10gR2

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 28, 2020

Cheerful https://t.co/g7TKl7rMgH

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 29, 2020

Isolation latino style… pic.twitter.com/17AlnYHYIk

— Enrique Acevedo (@Enrique_Acevedo) March 28, 2020

What The World Needs Now….are virtual choirs and orchestras https://t.co/OrTJrNGMuH https://t.co/ijv1Z0wbOK

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) March 29, 2020

  Rest in Peace

McNally as a young man

Terrence McNally

Playwright Terrence McNally standing in front of Martin Beck Theater where “The Rink” was playing in 1984, the Kander and Ebb musical for which he wrote the book, his first musical on Broadway

McNally receiving Doctor of Fine Arts from NYU in 2019

Playwright Terrence McNally, 81, from complications of the coronavirus. (“Theater Changes Hearts…”:My gallery of scenes from some of his 36 plays and 10 musicals, plus his Tony Award acceptance speech..)

We love this quote from Terrence McNally—his response to Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) asking, “Can theatre change the world?” We are sending love and light to his family, friends, and collaborators today.https://t.co/7pfmi99yqy pic.twitter.com/2A1vrEjU4q

— HowlRound Theatre Commons (@HowlRound) March 25, 2020

Mark Blum

Actor Mark Blum, 69, from complications of the coronavirus.A familiar presence on the NY stage: nine-time Broadway veteran (Assembled Parties), 26 Off-Broadway plays (Rancho Viejo, Amy and the Orphans),teacher (HB Studio)

With love and heavy hearts, Playwrights Horizons pays tribute to Mark Blum, a dear longtime friend and a consummate artist who passed this week. Thank you, Mark, for all you brought to our theater, and to theaters and audiences across the world. We will miss you. pic.twitter.com/NMVZFB5hPb

— Playwrights Horizons (@phnyc) March 26, 2020

David Schramm, 73,  Broadway veteran and founding member of The Acting Company best known for playing Roy Biggs in the television series Wings

What the $2 trillion stimulus means for the arts and artists. Summer canceled too? Hope goes online. #Stageworthy News of the Week Congress passed, and the president signed, a $2 trillion stimulus deal that includes specific relief for arts organizations and artists, although advocates say not enough.

[mrmichaelchadler]

Stan Lee: 1922-2018

It is impossible to fully grasp the influence Stan Lee had over the world of popular culture since he first achieved fame in the Sixties. As a writer, editor and publisher of comic books, he, along with an extraordinary group of collaborators, revolutionized and expanded what could be said and done in that particular art form in ways that reverberate to this day. Later on, after years of tirelessly expanding his small publishing company into a multimedia corporation, the very same creations that helped change the world of comics forever—characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man, Black Panther, the Fantastic Four and the proverbial many, many more—would finally hit Hollywood and spawn a number of astonishingly lucrative and ambitious film and television franchises to boot. Even those who didn’t much follow the world of comic books or superhero films still knew who Lee was, thanks to his tireless promotion of his creations and of the comic book industry in general. His passing today at the age of 95 truly marks the end of an era, although the creations he helped shepherd during that era show no signs of fading away anytime soon.

He was born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922 in Manhattan and later moved with his family into an apartment in the Bronx. An aspiring writer, Lee graduated early from high school in 1939 and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project before an uncle helped to get him a job as an assistant at the then-new Timely Comics publishing company. Although his initial duties were humdrum—filling inkwells and such—he soon made his debut as a writer by penning a short piece that appeared in “Captain America Comics #3” in 1941, utilizing Stan Lee as a pen name for the first time. He soon moved from writing filler to full stories and in 1941, he debuted his first superhero co-creation, The Destroyer, in “Mystic Comics #6.” Later that year, after a management shake-up, the then-19-year-old Lee was installed as interim editor and showed a flair for the job that would find him remaining in the position of editor-in-chief until 1972, during which time Timely would evolve into Marvel Comics.

After serving in World War II as a member of the Signal Corps, Lee returned to Timely in 1945 and over the next decade or so, during which time the company became known as Atlas Comics, he worked on stories in a variety of genres and even co-produced a syndicated comic strip based on the popular radio show “My Friend Irma.” None of these efforts were particularly notable and an increasingly frustrated Lee considered leaving the industry for good until his publisher, Martin Goodman, made a request—since chief competitor DC Comics had just found success with its superhero team the Justice League of America, could Lee come up with a series based around a team concept as well? With nothing left to lose, Lee rose to the occasion but instead of following the DC model in which superheroes like Superman were square-jawed paragons of virtue devoid of even the tiniest of flaws, his heroes would have any number of imperfections—ranging from emotions like jealousy, anger, vanity and depression to basic matters like paying bills, getting ahead in school or trying to get up the nerve to ask someone on a date—that he felt would strike a chord with younger readers who were themselves going through many of those problems and sensations themselves. 

The group that he and artist Jack Kirby devised utilizing this approach, the Fantastic Four, proved to be an instant success when it debuted in 1961—the time when the company finally changed its name to Marvel. Over the next few years, Lee helped usher in an astonishing array of characters in stories that deftly juggled the fantastic with real-world concerns. With Kirby, he co-created the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and X-Men, devised Daredevil with Bill Everett and joined forces with Steve Ditko to bring about Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, the latter proving to be Marvel’s most popular creation. In what would prove to be a genius move, all of these characters, and many more to come, would all exist within one shared conceptual universe and some of these characters would band together into a new team known as The Avengers. The fact that you almost certainly did not require any sort of explanation or description of the characters that I have cited in this paragraph should give some indication as to just how popular they would become over the years.

The Marvel comics stood out from the competition as they strived to truly resonate with readers. By introducing stories with more serious themes and increasingly complex characters than one normally found in comic books, they not only changed what could be done in the format but also helped to vastly expand their readership by telling stories that kept readers interested even as they grew older while attracting new ones as well. Marvel also helped to pioneer the notion of forging a connection between the people who created the comics and those who consumed them. Under Lee, Marvel would introduce such innovations as explicitly crediting those responsible for the creation of the various comics, including inkers and letterers. He also included such creations as a letters page, “Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletin,” a section talking about members of Marvel’s staff and what was in the hopper and the monthly column entitled “Stan’s Soapbox.” These behind-the-scenes glimpses afforded to readers made them feel as if they were truly a part of something special and they pretty much helped to lay the groundwork for the vast world of contemporary fandom—what is ComicCon, after all, but a “Bullpen Bulletin” writ extra-large. 

During the Sixties, Lee worked as a writer, art director and editor for most of Marvel’s series and continued to help expand on the kinds of stories that a comic book could tell. “Spider-Man,” for example, would deal with such hot topics as politics, drugs, student protests and the war in Vietnam. He would help break the racial barrier by introducing the African-American character Robbie Robertson in a supporting role in “Spider-Man” and, with Kirby, would co-create the first major black superhero character, Black Panther. Social commentary would also crop up in his “Stan’s Soapbox” columns and he would also prove to be influential in the eventual easing of the once-powerful Comics Code, which had been introduced by the comics industry in 1954 to govern what could and could not be shown in order to avoid official government regulation. In 1972, he stepped down as editor-in-chief at Marvel and assumed the role of publisher.

Although his later years would find him involved with any number of ventures—some more successful than others—his chief role would be to serve as the sort of friendly uncle figurehead for the entire comics industry thanks to his countless appearances at conventions, college lectures, signings and anyplace else that he could use to help further the reach of his creations. In 1981, he moved to California in an effort to help develop Marvel’s numerous properties into films and television series in the wake of the success of the 1978 blockbuster “Superman,” and while there were shows and TV movies based on “Spider-Man” and “The Hulk,” the movies did not quite work out—there were always announcements of future films but they would always fall apart. 

Eventually, Hollywood began bringing Marvel’s creations to the big screen and inspired massively successful franchises based on “Spider-Man,” “X-Men” and “The Fantastic Four.” This led to the development of what would become known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a concept inspired by the shared universe notion of the comics in which the different movies would overlap and characters from one series might turn up in another. One element that practically all of these films had in common—whether part of the MCU or not—was the presence of Lee himself, who would turn up in cameos (often of a cheerfully self-referential nature) that fans would gleefully search for in the way that cineastes once kept an eye out for when Alfred Hitchcock would turn up in his films.

From a financial standpoint, the influence that Lee and his work would have on Hollywood is undeniable—the three phases of the MCU (which has expanded to include television shows, comics and digital series) has generated billions of dollars and transformed the industry into one more focused on ever on creating ready-made blockbusters that can earn tons of money throughout the world. From an artistic standpoint, one could argue that there have been so many superhero movies in recent years that have tried so hard to top each other in terms of sheer spectacle that a certain degree of fatigue has set in. But as it turns out, the best Marvel films have been the ones that have taken Lee’s example to heart and have taken risks that may have seemed incredibly chancy at first but which proved to pay off beautifully in the end: The notion of putting a performer as off-beat as Robert Downey Jr. into the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man, a merging of actor and role that made “Iron Man” (2008) such an influential hit; The decision to allow Ang Lee to transform “Hulk” (2008) from a superhero saga into something resembling an actual art film. (This did not endear it with most moviegoers but the resulting film is a genuinely great example of cinematic pop art that deserves a reappraisal); The increasing narrative ambitions of the “Captain America” films leading to the wonderful and provocative “Captain America: Civil War” (2016); The willingness to take a chance on a offbeat indie filmmaker like Taika Waititi and allow him to take arguably the dullest of the Marvel movie stable, Thor, and liven it up with goofball humor in the throughly engaging “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017). And, of course, “Black Panther” (2018), a film which thoroughly upended most notions of what a superhero movie needed to succeed and ended up becoming the most financially successful film featuring a solo superhero as well as the first film of the genre with a more-than-legitimate shot at a Best Picture nomination.

Although Lee, as I mentioned, did make appearances in pretty much all of the movies inspired by his comic book creations, his most notable screen appearance would be in a film set far outside the universe he created. This would be in “Mallrats,” the 1995 comedy that Kevin Smith  made in the wake of the success of his controversial debut “Clerks.” While the film would prove to be a flop at the box-office that Smith and others would use as a sort of punchline for years, it is actually a much better film than its reputation would suggest and one of the best things about it is Lee’s appearance. Playing himself, he is at the mall where the film is almost entirely set for a signing and winds up encountering Brody (Jason Lee), the vulgar and obnoxious comic book obsessive who has just broken up with his girlfriend as the story begins. Upon meeting his hero, Brody begins hammering his hero with the kind of questions that Lee was no doubt inundated with throughout his life (along with some involving superhero genitalia best left untouched here). Instead of just brushing him off, Lee begins to genuinely converse with Brody about life and love in ways that cut through the kid’s bombast and braggadocio in order to get in touch with his real emotions. 

Yes, the scene is very funny but in just a few short minutes, it essentially sums up what made Lee such an important and necessary figure in the lives of so many people—he used his talents to create work that reached out to fans and meant something to them in ways that other forms of disposable popular culture simply didn’t. It’s what separated him from the rest, and why his name and work will continue to last long after his passing. 

‘Nuff said. 

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