In collaboration with California Exhibition Resources Alliance and Design Action Collective, WRAP has launched “Hobos to Street People: Artists’ Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present.”
Like the powerful traveling show put together by WRAP lead artist Art Hazelwood, this virtual exhibit chronicles and contrasts two epochs of mass homelessness through social justice artwork. The Timeline shows federal policies on housing and homelessness from 1929 to 2008.
The images and commentary couldn’t be more relevant in this historic moment. One visitor noted, “The best thing about this show is it makes people think. I live it. It’s so real. All this is so true.”
The Federal Government responded to the devastating effects of the Great Depression and mass unrest with the New Deal, which created jobs and put men and women directly to work as soon as possible.
Federal programs like the Works Progress Administration employed millions of people, including artists. Art commissioned through the WPA portrayed the dignity and industry of the working class and poor.
Our current exhibit draws rich lessons between the Great Depression and today’s economic crisis. In 1935, it was the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act; today it’s the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
We hope that the exhibit moves people to learn from history and demand that recovery money goes to new jobs with health care and affordable housing programs, that it addresses the structural inequalities of our current economic and political system.
Visit the “Take Action” section for great ideas on how to use this website as a popular education and organizing tool.
