Preserving a Unique Cultural Movement: The Bread and Roses Project

Wendy Read-Wertz

Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged the development of a thriving cultural movement that enabled out-of-work writers, artists, and performers to bring art to ordinary citizens as part of his efforts to help ordinary working people survive during the long, dark years of the Great Depression. Today, the Bread and Roses Cultural Project (founded in 1979) continues in the spirit of this earlier chapter in American working history. For example, Bread and Roses sponsors such individuals as hospital workers and nursing aides so they can attend creative writing courses, recite poetry, stage theatrical performances, and play music. The project has attracted both national and international attention, and has been the subject of an hour-long PBS documentary.

Moe Foner is founder and director of the Bread and Roses Cultural Project. He is part of a family well-known to members of the OAH.  His late brothers Jack and Philip Foner were noted historians, and his nephew Eric served as OAH President 1993-1994.  As part of his vision to improve and extend the scope of the Bread and Roses Project, Moe Foner led a successful campaign that established an art gallery at the headquarters of SEIU's Local 1199 at 310 West 43rd Street in Clinton. Foner also has helped bring such artists as Alan Alda, Harry Belafonte, Woody Guthrie, and Sidney Poitier to this new venue. He retired in 1982 as Executive Secretary of Local 1199, SEIU, after fifty years with the labor movement.

The Bread and Roses Project organizes ten art exhibitions a year. Foner once commissioned thirty prominent artists to do work-related paintings for an exhibition entitled "Images of Labor" which subsequently toured the U.S., Italy, France, and Sweden. One of Bread and Roses' greatest successes was a poster series, "African-American Women of Hope," which was followed by series on Latina, Native American, and Asian-American women. The most recent series, "International Women of Hope," is on display at the United Nations.

In June of this year, Bread and Roses sponsored an exhibition of works by New York high school students on the theme, "Why Unions Matter." Student projects explored sweatshop laborers, underpaid workers, and the problems workers face after long months out on strike.

Now available are:

• 2001 calendar, $12.95 plus $3.00 shipping and handling.
• 22-minute video and teaching guide, $26.95 plus $3.00 shipping and handling.
• 12 different Ralph Fasanella posters, each $16.95 plus $3.00 shipping and handling.

Orders, with checks payable to Bread and Roses, should be sent to:  Bread and Roses, 330 West 42nd Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10036.  For quantity orders, contact Amada Sapir, at (212) 631-4566.  For further information, visit their website at <http://www.bread-and-roses.com/>.