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PrintSeptember 21, 2009
Obama's WPA?
Of course, some folks are just fine with the idea of taxpayer money supporting Obama's political agenda. In February, photographer Cara Phillips blogged, that the "art world is a-twitter with stories about the possible resurrection of the depression-era public arts project, the WPA."
That same month, The Nation reported that "Thousands have signed a petition asking that one percent of the stimulus package be spent on the arts." FDR's WPA arts programs, The Nation explained,
"were an experiment in open society. In a time of crisis, immigrants and the children of immigrants took part in artistic dialogue, as performers or audience members, as readers or musicians, as writers conducting interviews or as former slaves asked to tell their stories. Jobs were created and hunger was alleviated, but most important, a conversation took place among all walks of life about pressing social issues and how to solve them more equitably."
Will Obama start paying for handsome murals showing determined Americans with beetled brows and clenched fists saluting the socialist sunrise?
Al Giordano hopes so:
"The right director, with this kind of WPA-style vision for the agency, will have it in her or his power to deploy those [stimulus] funds in ways that make this moment, ahem, revolutionary, but under the cover of clandestinity that the arts have provided progress in every culture since the dawn of history, and, at special moments, like during the presidency of FDR, have moved society and culture together in a great leap forward."
