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UID:fd9b18a5-6f2a-4bad-939a-fafa229b7cd9@360exp.net
SEQUENCE:29841729
DTSTAMP:20260928T033916Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260927T100955Z
DTSTART:20261203T233000Z
DTEND:20261204T010000Z
SUMMARY:The Promise and Perils of Public Art: Ben Shahn’s Murals on Socia
 l Security
LOCATION:Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum
DESCRIPTION:Join Professor Laura Katzman as she discusses the public art of
  Ben Shahn (1898-1969)\, focusing on his most prominent New Deal fresco mu
 rals\, The Meaning of Social Security\, which were commissioned by the Pub
 lic Works Agency’s Section of Fine Arts (1940-1942) for the Wilbur J. Co
 hen Federal Building in Washington\, DC. Dr. Katzman will address how Shah
 n navigated the demands of federal agencies\, the needs of his own art and
  activism\, and the larger goals of his social criticism. The program will
  illuminate the status of Shahn’s murals in the context of the current a
 dministration’s controversial efforts to sell specific government buildi
 ngs and its drastic staff cuts to the General Services Administration—th
 e official steward of federally funded art in government buildings across 
 the United States.Katzman’s lecture will be accompanied by a conversatio
 n with former director of the U.S. General Services Administration’s Cen
 ter for Fine Arts\, Jennifer Gibson.Presented in partnership with the DC P
 reservation League and Moment Magazine.ABOUT THE SPEAKERSLaura Katzman is 
 a professor of art history at James Madison University\, and has served as
  the Terra Foundation Professor of American Art at the Free University Ber
 lin. An internationally recognized scholar of documentary photography in t
 he United States and Puerto Rico\, Dr. Katzman has co-authored numerous pu
 blications\, including Ben Shahn’s New York: The Photography of Modern T
 imes (2000)\, Re-viewing Documentary: The Photographic Life of Louise Ross
 kam (2014)\, and The Museum of the Old Colony: An Art Installation by Pabl
 o Delano (2023). Her most recent book\, Ben Shahn\, On Nonconformity (2025
 )\, accompanied the eponymous and highly acclaimed retrospective that she 
 curated for the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid (2023-2024) and adapted for th
 e Jewish Museum in New York (2025).Jennifer Gibson recently retired as the
  director of the U.S. General Services Administration’s Center for Fine 
 Arts where she was responsible for the policy\, oversight\, and management
  of the Fine Arts Collection and Art in Architecture program. The collecti
 on includes over 27\,000 artworks dating from the 1850s to the present. Th
 ese artworks are permanently installed in federal buildings\, U.S. courtho
 uses\, and land ports of entry throughout the country or are on loan to pu
 blic institutions. The center commissions new artworks through the Art in 
 Architecture program. Gibson joined GSA as a project manager for Art in Ar
 chitecture and then assumed responsibility for the Fine Arts Program. Subs
 equently she established and became director of the Center for Fine Arts w
 hich combined the two programs and resulted in a more seamless process for
  the commissioning of new artworks and long-term care of GSA’s Fine Arts
  Collection. She currently serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Board
  Collections Panel.Prior to GSA\, Gibson directed the visual arts program 
 for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission\, a regiona
 l government agency\, where she curated exhibitions\, lectured on art\, es
 tablished art outreach programs\, and developed a public art program. She 
 has taught art history\, served on the board of Pyramid Atlantic was chair
  of the art advisory board at the University of Maryland\, University Coll
 ege\, and sat on numerous advisory boards\, juries\, and artist selection 
 panels. She earned a Ph.D. in art history at the University of Virginia\, 
 and was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution.Image credits
 :Laura Katzman\, Museo Reina Sofia\, Madrid\, October 21\, 2023. Photo by 
 Olive SantosBen Shahn\, Housing\, from The Meaning of Social Security\, 19
 40-42\, fresco secco. Photo courtesy of Carol M. Highsmith Archive\, Libra
 ry of Congress\n\nBoletos: https://www.simpletix.com/e/the-promise-and-per
 ils-of-public-art-ben-s-tickets-291717
URL;VALUE=URI:https://360exp.net/events/fd9b18a5-6f2a-4bad-939a-fafa229b7cd
 9
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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