Art and the Great Depression

 

This class was my first experience with honors seminars, as well as my first learning experience. Holistically, I thoroughly enjoyed the class. Meeting with the same dozen people twice a week all semester to discuss art during one tumultuous time during America's history, and how that art affected and was affected by the Great Depression.

 

From Regionalist Art to the photography of Margaret Bourke-White, no area of art went untouched. Well, except for theatre. My one qualm with the class was that theatre went almost unmentioned despite the government programs that sponsored thousands of theatre productions across America, spurning new and innovative types of performance that have stuck with the industry to this day.

 

This course, which I took in place of a standard history credit, actually taught me more than I had expected about a time period fairly unfamiliar to me. The different styles of painting, and the schools of thought that governed them, were new discoveries that I can apply to my own work in the future. 

 

Artifact: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men Essay

In this document, I reflect on James Agee's critically acclaimed novel, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, with photos by Walker Evans. I read the book for class and took part in two weeks of group discussion culminating in this essay.