Curator in Conversation: Art in Times of Crisis

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 Djikstra (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 for an insightful look at art created within the socio-political conditions of the 1930s, as seen in the exhibition Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection. Consider how these works offer relevance today.