FALL RIVER – The Greater Fall River Art Association will be dedicating its new permanent gallery of artwork created during the New Deal era.
About 40 pieces of art that the U.S. Works Progress Administration commissioned during the 1930s are displayed in the grand staircase of the association’s home at 80 Belmont St., which has undergone extensive renovations over the last year.
“It’s set up like an art gallery in a museum,” Dana Barnes, president of the Greater Fall River Art Association, said as she showed a visitor the gallery of still life paintings, nature scenes, depictions of the Boston Public Gardens and other slices of life from the 1930s, including men – and women – working around printing presses.
“They painted what they knew,” Barnes said of the artists who painted the artwork that at the time adorned countless public buildings throughout the country. By the 1950s, many of those paintings began to be thrown out. The WPA artwork in the GFRAA space was rescued years ago from a local landfill, Barnes said.
“We decided this is part of the history of this house,” Barnes said. “It’s also part of the city’s history.”
Barnes said the Smithsonian Institute – the legal owner of the WPA art – has given the GFRAA permission to display the artwork, which she added can never be sold.
The Saturday dedication, scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., will also be a kind of “soft opening” for the GFRAA, which has been renovating its building for the better part of the last year, redoing the floors, fireplaces, radiators and installing new lighting.
Barnes said the GFRAA, which is planning an official larger reopening in June, has plans in the future to host open mic nights, one-act plays, spoken word performances and other activities to keep the arts alive in Fall River.
“We’re looking to come back strong,” she said.
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