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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Harrison

DATE TYPED 3/11/05

HB HJM 95

SHORT TITLE Native American New Deal Art Day

SB

ANALYST Wilson

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY05

FY06

FY05

FY06

NFI

Duplicates SJM 90

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Indian Affairs (DIA)

Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Joint Memorial 95 designates March 7, 2005 as Native American New Deal Art Day at

the legislature. This measure also does the following:

•

Recognizes Pablita Velarde and Harrison Begaye, the two living representatives of the

group of New Deal artists;

•

Honors the memory of New Mexico’s other Native American New Deal artists through

their families;

•

Commemorate sand celebrates the work of the Native American New Deal artists as

among the greatest accomplishments of New Mexico; and

•

Asks the legislature celebrate the lives and contributions of those artists and preserves

their accomplishments to share with future generations.

House Joint Memorial 95-- Page 2

Significant Issues

In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a program referred to as the New Deal,

to help pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The New Deal focused primarily on helping

farmers, industry, investors, and the desperately needy, and also encouraged and supported the

arts by providing work for artists, writers, actors and musicians through a program called the

Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The purpose of the WPA was to create jobs through building highways, bridges, parks, schools,

public works of art and other projects. The WPA provided an opportunity for many of New

Mexico’s Native American artists to create artwork for public buildings throughout New Mex-

ico. Among the best-known New Deal Native American artists are Pablita Velarde and Harrison

Begaye.

Pablita Velarde was born in 1918 at Santa Clara Pueblo New Mexico's only living New Deal

woman artist. She attended St. Catherine’s Indian School as a child. She went on to the Santa Fe

Indian School where she studied with other Native American artists who also worked in the New

Deal Federal Art Project. Her major collection of New Deal art can be found at Bandelier Na-

tional Monument where she was hired by the National Park Service to paint renderings of pueblo

daily life. In addition, it is believed that her New Deal artwork was also sent to other U.S. Indian

Service locations though the sites are unknown.

Harrison Begay, Navajo, was born on November 15, 1917, at White Cone, Arizona. In 1934, at

age 17, he entered the Santa Fe Indian School where he studied with other Native American art-

ists. Begaye served as a muralist in the WPA. The location of many of his New Deal murals is

unknown, however, beginning in 1939 Begay did help paint the famous murals found at Maisel's

Trading Post in Albuquerque. After serving three years in the U.S. Army in Europe and Iceland

during World War II, he returned to civilian life and currently works as a full-time painter.

Although many of painting created by New Deal Native American artists still exist in museums

and public buildings today, some have been painted over, destroyed, or stolen during the course

of the past 60 years.

DCA believes it is appropriate that New Mexico honor all artists involved in the New Deal and

the contribution they made to the arts, including Native American artists.

DUPLICATIONTECHNICAL ISSUES

HJM 95 duplicates SJM 90

DW/yr