John P. Murphy to Speak about Woodstock Artists during the New Deal

The Historical Society of Woodstock will host a talk and book signing by author and art historian John P. Murphy of Vassar College on “A New Deal for Woodstock Artists,” about the role of Woodstock artists in New Deal art. He will also be signing copies of his book New Deal Art: Culture and Crisis in the Great Depression. At the height of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal turned crisis into opportunity. Through unprecedented federal funding for the arts, the New Deal launched the careers of artists such as Philip Guston, Jacob Lawrence, Alice Neel, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. State-sponsored murals, paintings, sculptures, prints, and posters appeared across the country in public buildings to nurture what FDR called a “more abundant life” for American citizens. Compared to similarly sized communities, Woodstock enrolled a disproportionate number of artists on the federal art programs.