Join us for a lecture with Professor Kendall Martin of Catawba Valley Community College as she discusses the WPA movement in the art world. Learn how this impacted artists during the era.

“For this lecture I'll be discussing how the PWAP and WPA came to be. Looking at the Mexican Mural Project and the Progressive Era Murals that predate FDR's New Deal act. These two movements gave rise to the PWAP and WPA. It will be a compressive examination of who the key players where in the start-up of these programs, the objectives of these programs, along with looking at works of art that were produced under these programs. This lecture will show how these programs got their start, how they ended, and where we are today because of them.” –Kendall Martin

This is a free event!

Kendall Martin, a professor of Art History at Catawba Valley Community College; received her B.A. in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2010 and her M.A. in Art History from the School of Art and Design at West Virginia University in 2012. Along with teaching at multiple institutions, Martin has also lectured on art history at several art guilds and societies.

Martin’s area of specialization is Modern art with a concentration in American Modernism during the 1930s and 1940s exploring the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Her article “The West Virginia New Deal: Blanche Lazzell’s Mural for Morgantown” was published in Art Inquiries in 2018.

Her current research is focused on the influence of the American Scene in PWAP and WPA murals in North Carolina.