Articulated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art

What does it mean to conserve and sustain culture? How to we care for art, artifacts, and legacies? At the Archives of American Art, these questions also relate to accessibility, sustainability, and inclusivity; this episode examines preservation and maintenance in cultural institutions and beyond.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Digital art has surged in recent years, but its current flash builds on decades of innovation in computing, video, and other technologies in which women played a central role. In this episode, we focus on the overlooked history of women who pioneered the new media art genre and discuss issues of visibility and representation surrounding technology.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Listen to the members of fierce pussy describe their approach to direct action, lesbian visibility, and allyship along the arc of their careers and collaborations. This episode delves into questions of queer community and representation, particularly the ways in which art can knit people together across time.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

What makes an activist group, how do they come together, and how are they most effective? This episode traces the rise and impact of ACT UP, or the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, how it grew from other queer activist groups while engendering more, and how its influence remains with us today.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Art in America was forever altered by the New Deal, and its sweeping significance is palpable throughout infrastructure, public art, photography, and cultural institutions. In recent years, new initiatives to preserve and study the New Deal have emerged, as have new conversations as to how the United States should nurture the arts. This episode considers the longevity and exemplariness of the New Deal in its cultural and social influence.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

The WPA (Works Progress Administration) was designed as an open relief roll, operating without discrimination based on sex or race and only mandating that participants fall below a specific income threshold. While advancing equity, however, the WPA still faced hurdles from systemic sexism and racism, and it also ran into issues of support for laborers. Beyond the projects' inner workings, FSA (Farm Securities Administration) Information Division photographers grappled with documenting poverty and social unrest across the nation, which the artists themselves faced in their travels and in presenting their work.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

The diversity, breadth, and ubiquity of New Deal arts projects reveal both the country's sense of what art was and how it should shape the American people. This episode examines cultural democracy, or the role of the arts in civic life and what art means for a nation. While the momentum and volume of New Deal production laid the foundation for a distinct artistic culture in the United States, questions remain as to the distinctiveness of a national arts tradition and Americanness Itself.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

The Archives’ debut podcast episode focuses on the New Deal arts initiatives, providing an overview of their major features and a wide perspective on their histories and legacies. Drawing from the Archives’ first and most ambitious oral history collecting drive, the words and experiences of the artists and administrators who made the New Deal happen convey the stakes of these enormous national undertakings, while insight from contemporary experts provides context for the ongoing importance of those initiatives.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Get a sneak peek of what’s in store on Season 1 of Articulated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art. Set to launch on August 26th (the day that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent his letter on the allocation of work relief funds in 1935), the first four episodes examine the New Deal Arts programs which shifted the focus of economic recovery towards employment and national improvement, transforming the New Deal into a lifeline for millions and forever reshaping American culture through direct investment in people. Subsequent episodes will feature the voices and stories of artists who participated in queer activist art groups Fierce Pussy and ACT UP in the late 20th century as they made visible the struggles of the LGBTQ community during the peak of the AIDS crisis.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated