Preserving the WPA's Artistic Legacy

Dave Iverson

Jan 20, 2012 at

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(Hugo Pardo Kuklinski/Flickr)

Some San Francisco preservationists are raising an alarm about the decay of WPA murals inside the city’s iconic Coit Tower. As they collect signatures to place a measure on the ballot to preserve the 75 to 80-year-old artwork, historians say other WPA projects in the Bay Area and across the nation are similarly threatened by time and neglect.

We look at the distinctive artwork, buildings, bridges and other public works from that era.

More: About the Living New Deal Project – at Berkeley.edu
More: San Francisco’s Famed Coit Tower Murals in Peril Due to Fog, Neglect – from the PBS NewsHour
More: Photos of Coit Tower murals – KQED Arts
More: Protect Coit Tower – at ProtectCoitTower.org

Guests:

Jon Golinger, chair of the Protect Coit Tower Committee

Gray Brechin, project scholar for the Living New Deal Project, a historical geographer and visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Department of Geography

Philip Ginsburg, general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department

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