Just finished listening to Diane Rehm show from December 8, 2009. She interviewed Robert Kennedy, former director of the national parks service, who collaborated on a new book When Art Worked. The book is about the Public Works of Art Project--the first federal government program to support the arts nationally.
In the introduction, Rehm describes that time as a point when:
- artists were working for us/with the country.
- artists worked with the country to "find ourselves."
Then, Kennedy shared a quote that I wanted to share with y'all:
Gutzson Borglum, the sculpture of Mount Rushmore wrote to Harry Hopkins, one of FDR's advisors and major architect of the New Deal...
"The work of art is to help to coax the soul of the nation back to life."
Hopkins kept this quote in his wallet for most of his life.
The first 20 minutes or so of the podcast are truly worth a listen. The rest is pretty great too.
You can find it on iTunes or wamu.org.
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