San Francisco Art Institute Professor Dewey Crumpler defends WPA murals created by Russian-American social realist painter Victor Arnautoff in this video produced by the GWHS Alumni Association. Crumpler discusses how they relate to his own murals commissioned in 1974 in response to them.
On June 25th, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) will vote on whether to remove thirteen 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals from George Washington High School. The murals, created in fresco, can only be removed by the irreversible act of destroying them.
NCAC continues to strongly urge the district to leave the murals in place and provide additional context and programming around them. We asked the SFUSD to consider the serious ramifications of destroying an artwork and the precedent it would set for other works installed in San Francisco public schools that could spark strong emotions in the future.
Read NCAC’s full letter to George Washington High School here; click here for a full screen view.
Want to help save the murals? Visit the GWHS Alumni Association to learn more.