University Library News Release
Date: September 26, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library Celebrates New Deal Art
During October and November, the New Mexico State University Library will celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the introduction of the New Deal Arts Projects. The celebration, intended for children and adults, will bring to light hundreds of works created during the New Deal and introduce community residents to these treasures and the artists who created them.
The upcoming anniversary provides an occasion for the NMSU Library to illustrate some unusual ways that government funding was used to enrich our culture and provide much needed employment during a period of extreme hardship in our country's history.
The celebration will feature a self-guided tour brochure in English and Spanish directing visitors to all publicly accessible New Deal Art in southern New Mexico. The brochure will be available at many locations in Las Cruces. To accompany the tour, a 75-piece traveling photo exhibit created by the National New Deal Preservation Association will be displayed on the fourth floor east gallery in Branson Library beginning October 5 through the end of November.
A lecture by David Kammer of the National New Deal Preservation Association will take place on October 9. NMSU faculty member Dr. Jon Hunner will lecture on November 6 on "The Impact of the New Deal." Both lectures will take place at 4:30 p.m. on the fourth floor east of Branson Library, followed by receptions.
During the two-month celebration, an exhibit of federal government documents, including the bill that authorized the New Deal Arts Projects, and related materials illustrating their importance will be displayed on the second floor west of Branson Library in the Government Documents area. A slide show of New Deal art will run in the lobby of Branson Library.
A display of New Deal crafts will appear at the University Museum in spring 2009.
Attractive posters, brochures and postcards designed by students in the New Mexico School of Design (Art 458) will announce all events.
Many of the project activities were made possible by a grant from NMSU's Southwest and Border Cultures Institute. For more information, contact reference librarians Sylvia Ortiz at (575) 646-7481 or sortiz@lib.nmsu.edu or Mardi Mahaffy at (575) 646-6925 or mmahaffy@lib.nmsu.edu.
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