Depression-Era Art Comes to the Lesher Center

Right now, many in our community are dealing with how the world has changed in the wake of the global economic crisis. Some have lost jobs, or the value of their homes have dropped. To varying degrees, we're living with a new kind of uncertainty. 

Two shows at the Lesher Center this weekend reflect on this contemporary reality by looking at the last time our nation went through widespread economic hardship: the Great Depression. 

This era of breadlines and the Dust Bowl provides a backdrop for a visual arts exhibition at the Bedford Gallery and a concert by the California Symphony, both featuring the works of artists employed through the New Deal-era Works Project Administration.  

It was one of the stimulus programs of its time: the federal government paid struggling artists to create posters, murals, paintings and musical works to enrich a population that had suffered "tremendous economic setbacks."

The Bedford's exhibition, starting Sunday, is called The American Scene: New Deal Art, 1935-1943. Running through  Dec. 19, it makes note of the fact that 2010 marks the 75th anniversary of the WPA, whose Federal Arts Project employed thousands of struggling visual artists, musicians, actors and writers.

"During FDR's presidency, America was grappling with an economic situation that feels all too familiar today," Bedford Gallery Curator Carrie Lederer says. "Even in the midst of the Great Depression, Roosevelt's administration understood how essential art was to sustaining America's spirit. The FAP not only employed struggling artists, it provided them with a sense of pride in serving their country."

She quotes Roosevelt as saying: "One-hundred years from now, my administration will be known for its art, not for its relief."

The artworks in the Bedford exhibition show home and farm, city and factory life, landscapes, and Americans at work and play. Some of these works have been out of the public eye or in storage since the 1940s. Some are borrowed from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Achenbach Foundation and private collections. The exhibition also features photographs by influential American documentary photographer Dorothea Lange.

This California Symphony, in collaboration with the Bedford Gallery, presents its 24th season opening concert Sunday, which recognizes the "profound influence" that the WPA's Composers' Forum-Laboratory and the Federal Music Project — both in existence just five years -- had on the development of American music.

The symphony will present "Remembering Ansel Adams" by composer Ernst Bacon, who died in Orinda in 1990. He supervised the WPA project in San Francisco and conducted its orchestra from 1935 to 1937.  A friend of Ansel Adams, he shared his love of the environment.

Lederer says that she and Barry Jekowsky--up until recently the music director of the California Symphony--had been looking for ways for the gallery and the symphony to collaborate. "When he learned about The American Scene, he was immediately interested and excited and began planning a concert to coincide with the opening of our show."

She added: "It looks like a great concert, and I've heard from a number of WPA buffs who are eagerly awaiting both the concert and our exhibition."

The Bedford Gallery exhibition will be on view Sunday for those attending the California Symphony concert, which starts at 4 p.m. The grand opening for the The American Scene is Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m.  People can enjoy wine and hors d'oeuvres and live music by Five Cent Coffee, performing standards from the Great American Songbook. For tickets and information, visit the Lesher Center website.