Washington Post: The future of a vast collection of public artwork is in doubt as the Trump administration plans to fire workers who preserve and maintain more than 26,000 pieces owned by the U.S. government, including paintings and sculptures by renowned artists, some dating to the 1850s.
Fine arts and historic preservation workers at the General Services Administration told The Washington Post that at least five regional offices were shuttered last week and that more than half of the division’s approximately three dozen staff members were abruptly put on leave pending their terminations. Workers expressed fear that the cuts will threaten a collection of precious art housed in federal buildings across the country, including Alexander Calder’s 1974 “Flamingo” at the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago and Michael Lantz’s 1942 “Man Controlling Trade” outside the Federal Trade Commission building in D.C….
The dismissals come as the GSA, the central agency for federal building and technology operations, has indicated that it wants to sell off some 50 percent of its portfolio of federal buildings.
According to former staffers, the agency is looking to end its lease for a storage facility in Northern Virginia that holds hundreds of paintings and sculptures, including pieces sponsored by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program responsible for some of the nation’s most iconic images….
Some of these works are literally part of the buildings, such as Ben Shahn’s 1942 fresco “The Meaning of Social Security” plastered onto the wall of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington. Staffers wonder what would happen to those works if buildings were sold….
“The Fine Arts Program makes decisions regarding final disposition of artworks in disposed buildings on a case-by-case basis,” the GSA spokesperson said. “The overarching goals are to protect the artwork in the best way possible and to ensure the public’s access to the artwork.”
Possible actions, according to the agency, may include transferring limited ownership of an artwork to a building’s new owners, with an agreement to protect it; retaining ownership of a work or relocating it; or fully transferring a work to a building’s new owner and removing it from the GSA’s collection….
Read more: GSA layoffs by Trump administration leave an uncertain future for public art – The Washington Post Also available here without subscription.
Additional note: These 26,000 artworks are federal property — they’re owned by the American people. The GSA’s role is to take care of them on our behalf. As the GSA website states, “By preserving the legacy of federal art and the built environment, the Fine Arts Program fosters an appreciation of the importance of creative freedom and inspires future generations to add their expressions to American democracy.”
The GSA leases about 6,700 properties and owns about 1,700 properties, of which some 420 are national landmarks, on the National Register of Historic Places, or eligible for the NRHP. A list of all the properties managed by the GSA can be found on its website, here, and on Google Docs here.
Among the 26,000 artworks are nearly 20,000 murals, sculptures and other pieces commissioned during the New Deal, 1933-1943; they are listed here. A list of pre-1962 murals, which are primarily New Deal-era, is here. For more information abut the New Deal buildings and art, check out the Living New Deal website.