GallupARTs creates online database to celebrate historical art pieces
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
GallupARTS Executive Director Rose Eason has been working to create an online database for Gallup’s vast collection of New Deal art pieces for seven years. And now, she’s finally ready to unveil the website.
Gallup’s New Deal art collection consists of over 120 objects created, purchased, or donated from 1933 to 1942 through New Deal federal art programs administered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to support artists during the Great Depression.
Very few records from New Mexico’s and Gallup’s New Deal art programs still exist. At the onset of World War II, state and local programs were ordered to destroy their records because the wartime federal government lacked the capacity to ship the materials to Washington, D.C. to be archived.
There are only two dozen objects for which researchers have been able to conclusively determine (on the basis of preserved New Deal program artwork labels, New Deal program administrator correspondence, and/or newspaper reports) how they entered the collection. That information is included in applicable artwork labels throughout the Virtual Museum.
GOAL OF THE DEAL
For years now, the pieces have been scattered throughout Gallup and McKinley County. In an interview with the Sun, Eason said the majority of the collection is currently spread out amongst five different locations: the historic McKinley County Courthouse, the Octavia Fellin Public Library, the Rex Museum, Gallup High School’s library, and the Gallup-McKinley County Schools’ central office.
Eason’s goal with the Gallup New Deal Art Virtual Museum was to condense all the pieces around town into one place, making them more accessible to the general public. Right now, some of the pieces are behind closed doors.
“This collection has so much to teach us about who we are and where we come from, and in its current format of being spread across all these locations with varying degrees of accessibility, it’s not being fully utilized in that regard,” Eason said. “Creating a digital space to unify the collection and make it fully publicly accessible means that we can really start learning from it and start using it to build community and gain greater empathy and mutual understanding and explore our history in a collective way.”
In order to make all of this possible, gallupARTS received a $530,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Eason said in total the project cost over $600,000.
GETTING OTHERS ON BOARD
During the Feb. 25 city council meeting, Eason gave a presentation about the virtual museum, showing off the website and what it can do.
The website gives users an up-close and personal view of each item in the city’s collection. Users can click on an image and learn about the artist behind the work, and its history.
Eason took some time to go over some of her favorite pieces from the collection and explained why they’re significant.
One of the pieces that is more available to the public is the east stairwell painting in the McKinley County Courthouse. The stairwell is covered in sandpainting-style wall paintings. These represent some of the earliest surviving examples of sandpainting being used for artistic decoration. The courthouse painting was done in 1939 by an unknown Navajo artist.
In Gallup City Hall, if someone looks up at the ceiling titles they may see a painting by Eliseo Rodriguez. Rodriguez was mostly employed as a workshop laborer (like many artists of color). But he was also given the opportunity to create easel works. His ceiling painting was discovered in 2011, and it is believed to have been created sometime between 1936 and 1939.
Another project Rodriguez had his hand in was the Navajo weaving designs.
From 1939–1942, the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe sponsored a New Deal Federal Art Project initiative to create a portfolio of 15 Navajo weaving designs drawn from its collections and hired artist Louie Ewing to orchestrate the effort.
The silkscreen printing process was a relatively new technology to the U.S., so Ewing, with assistance from Rodriguez, had to essentially invent his own version of it. Two hundred of each print were produced. Prints were distributed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and federal government “Indian service schools,” as well as universities, libraries, and museums nationwide for instructional and educational purposes.
Eason believes that Gallup may have the largest collection of artist Lloyd Moylan’s pieces. Two-thirds of Gallup’s New Deal collection is from Moylan, along with a 2,000 square-foot mural in the McKinley County Courthouse.
THE FEATURES OF THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM
The website offers more features besides simply displaying the New Deal pieces and describing them.
Users can learn about the artists behind the artwork. They can also learn about the New Deal art programs that made the artwork possible.
In a 1934 press release one museum administrator said the project was “taking the snobbery out of art.”
Users can break down the collection by type of artwork and its themes. The website sorts all of the pieces into four major categories: Southwestern history, Native subjects and cultures, Southwest landscapes, and people, places, and things.
The website also provides information on each of the five locations of the collection. In total the collection holds 55 easel paintings, 21 prints, two drawings, one sculpture, seven light fixtures, 17 pieces of furniture, two murals, 16 wall paintings, and two buildings.
The virtual museum currently contains three types of exhibits, combining traditional and non-traditional approaches to illuminate academic, creative, and individual understandings.
There are currently four different “special” exhibits.
One takes a closer look at the Native American artists and their pieces from the collection. The four Native artists (whose names are known) represented in Gallup’s New Deal art collection got their starts during the New Deal, first as art students before beginning their professional careers. The artworks they made during this time—five of which are included in Gallup’s collection—respond to the political, ideological, and economic forces that defined the era, while also demonstrating the fundamental creative impulse of self-expression.
Another special exhibit features the landscapes of the Southwest. It reveals the diverse range of creative responses to the people, landscapes, and histories of the Southwest.
A third special exhibit focuses on the furniture and decorative arts that are a part of the collection.
The fourth special exhibit showcases the Navajo Blanket Portfolio Project from Ewing and Rodriguez.
A fifth exhibit will premiere in September. This one will focus on Moylan’s pieces.
Besides the special exhibits, the website also gave contemporary artists a chance to chime in about the New Deal pieces. Website visitors can check out the artists’ paintings, poems, and films made to contextualize, rebut, reimagine, and elaborate on their New Deal counterparts.
Finally, one of the most unique parts of the website comes from the Do-It-Yourself section.
The feature encourages users to pick and choose pieces to create their own digital exhibits. People can then share their exhibits and gallery walls on social media with their friends and families.
During her presentation to the city council, Eason said she hopes educators use the virtual museum as a tool in their classroom. The website provides teachers with information about how they can include the museum in their teachings, and it also includes premade lesson plans.
GallupARTS will host a “grand opening” event for the kickoff of the website on March 29 from 11 am to 3 pm. The event will be celebrated throughout McKinley County, from gallupARTS to the McKinley County Courthouse; events will take place all over town. It will be a full day of tours, talks, music, crafts, and free family activities.
To learn more about the day’s festivities, visit galluparts.org/newdeal.
To visit the Gallup New Deal Art Virtual Museum, go to gallupnewdealart.org.
