Crash to Creativity: The New Deal in Vermont

During the Great Depression, frugal Vermonters-already used to pinching pennies-are claimed to have asked “What Depression?” But the reality is that Vermont’s economy was cut in half during the first three years of the Depression. In this presentation, Jamie Franklin explores how Federal programs, designed to put creative professionals to work, led to a wealth of artistic expression in Vermont, while also shaping the tourist industry and helping to create the popular image of Vermont that continues today.
Jamie has been curator at the Bennington Museum since 2005. His scholarship has focused on American art of the early to mid-20th century, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of modernism and self-taught art. He has organized exhibitions and written books, essays and articles featuring artists and topics including Erastus Salisbury Field, Grassroots Art, Impressionism, Rockwell Kent, Anna Mary Robertson Grandma Moses, and Alice Neel. His 2014 exhibition Alice Neel/Erastus Salisbury Field: Painting the People was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the most memorable exhibitions of the year and his 2016 exhibition Milton Avery’s Vermont was lauded as being “as close to a perfect show as mere mortals can mount.”

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Unaware of national issues due to cultural isolation, ok.