Part I: Acts with Seated Experience Online Art Exhibition

For Immediate Release

The Arts At Page Library Presents its Fall 2016 Exhibition, Part 1: Acts of Seated Experience

September 22 thru December 1, 2016

 

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Jefferson City, MO—Join The Arts At Page Library for an exclusive look at artwork by artists that participated in the Federal Art Project, the visual arm of the Great Depression-era The Works Progress Administration that lasted from 1935-1943. The exhibition created to commemorate the work, Part 1: Acts of Seated Experience online art exhibition. There are 10 artists featured including Charles Alston, G. Kahn, Saul Kovner, Dayton Brandfield and Solomon Eytinge, G.G. Fish, Bernard P. Schardt, Joseph Leboit, Nan Lurie and Elizabeth Olds. Art patrons will relish in an archived oral history interview with WPA artist Charles Alston an African American educator, sculptor, and draftsman (artist).

The Federal Art Project was created to help artists with relief who were suffering during the Great Depression. These artists were from various backgrounds in the visual arts with different skill levels. Funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, The Federal Art Project operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. The Federal Art Project became a cultural and educational network for African American artists, writers, literary gurus, and scholars. The majority of artists given assignments or jobs were from the northern region of the United States. The African American Registry states on its website, “An editorial in Opportunity Magazine in 1939 credited the WPA in northern cities with giving qualified Blacks their first chance at employment in white-collar positions. Alain Locke, an early chronicler of the Harlem Renaissance, attributed its survival during the 1930’s to the WPA. The WPA also funded Black acting troupes. The Negro Theatre Project staged Walk Together Chillun by Frank Wilson at the Lafayette Theatre through the WPA.”

The Arts At Page Library Coordinator, kYmberly Keeton, M.L.S., researched numerous art pieces through the New York Public Library’s Public Domain Collection and works featured in this exhibition have been selected for the first time to be shown to the public by an academic library. Part 1: Acts of Seated Experience pays homage to the Federal Art Project artists that received little to no exposure or notoriety as contributors to the art world when they were alive. Each piece of art featured in Part 1: Acts of Seated Experience tells a story without words, which will draw audiences in and provide an opportunity to step back in time, and become engaged with history.

Exhibition Details

View Online: September 22 thru December 1, 2016

Access Archived Exhibition: 

http://theartsatpagelibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/part-i--acts-with-seated-exper

This exhibition is organized by The Arts At Page Library and supported by the New York Public Library Domain.

About The Arts At Page Library

Founded in August 2016, The Arts At Page Library is a library arts program and space, located at Inman E. Page Library, Lincoln University Missouri. The art program was designed to expose students, faculty and the community to cultural artistry at a Historical Black College University Library.

Through the leadership of the Arts Library Coordinator, the Advisory Arts Committee, and Student Docents, The Arts At Page Library is a premier space that provides creative educational programming, physical and online exhibitions, and access to an African American art book collection, library art tours and a university academic library for research and lecture series.

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For more images and more information, contact:

kYmberly Keeton, Arts Library Coordinator, 573-681-5513, theartsatpagelibrary@gmail.com

The Arts At Page Library acknowledges the generous support of its Arts and Culture Advisory Board and the Lincoln University Missouri Administration.

 

 

 

Credits

Exhibition Curated by kYmberly Keeton, M.L.S., | Artwork Credit: From The New York Public Library Public Domain.