Have you seen the stone bas-relief roundel in Ritzville? Use of agrarian folksayings, recounting tales of Old and New World seasonal farm labors, and harvest work songs are now the domain of cultural historians and ethnologists, but burgeoning interest in such topics is evident in sustainability and food sovereignty movements throughout the world. Recent “Grain […]
Agrarianism as Essential Discipline
Aesthetic understanding through agrarian art and literature remains an essential discipline. Many folks will recognize the colorful flowing Great Depression farm art of Thomas Hart Benton. American regionalist painters like Benton and Marion Greenwood sought to portray the tensions of rural social and economic change wrought by the Great Depression and global farm commodity markets. […]
When Bill Murray Met Jules Breton: “Another Chance Every Day”
Bill Murray credits Jules Breton for helping his depression! On a recent train trip through Chicago, I found myself with a couple extra hours between trains at the city’s main railroad terminal. I glanced at a city map and saw that I was only about a ten minute walk from the Chicago Art Institute so […]
The Abiding Significance of Agrarian Art
What contributed to the validity of agrarian landscapes in art? On numerous occasions in recent months I’ve been reminded how by the names of notable humanitarian groups like Second Harvest and Food for the Hungry that “gleaning” remains a highly relevant endeavor for our time. Although often associated with bygone days, gleaning has never been […]
Pasco’s Liberty Theatre
Pasco’s Liberty Theater By Sarah LeCompte Editor’s Note: The author, who had been curator/director of the Franklin County Historical Society for its first two years of existence, resigned in Mid-December, 1984, to accepts a position in a much larger museum in Stockton, California. She wrote this article just before she left Pasco. Amidst the commercial […]