How a New Deal Program Sparked Livingston Arts Center and the New Deal Gallery
Through the generosity of Livingston County, in late 2008, the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts completed the renovation of Livingston Arts Center, approximately a two-year project. The Arts Center (Building 4) sits on the Livingston County Campus in Mount Morris and was part of the former Mount Morris Tuberculosis Hospital. Building 4 was a four-unit apartment, housing the hospital’s physicians and their families.
During the Great Depression, work programs were created to help the millions of Americans who were unemployed, and this included programs in the arts. The Mount Morris Tuberculosis Hospital was the recipient of a collection of 230+ easel paintings.
The hospital operated from the late 1930s until 1971 and was turned over to the county in 1973. Since the hospital’s close, Building 4 and most of the buildings on the campus have been used by the county for offices. When the county acquired the hospital, it also acquired its painting collection created in the New Deal.
After 1973 the works of art were distributed among Livingston County buildings until the Millennium celebration in 2001. They were displayed at that event and then stored until 2007, when the county and Genesee Valley Council on the Arts began planning Livingston Arts Center and the New Deal Gallery (the permanent home for the collection).
It is hoped that the paintings will be the focus of tourism, family activities and civic pride for our communities. The paintings are seeing the light of day for the first time in seven years or in some cases even longer. They all require some restoration … at minimum cleaning of both the painting and its frame.
Visit the image gallery section to learn how you can play an important role in the longevity of the collection.
Photographs on this website of the Livingston County WPA Art Collection are used with permission from the Fine Arts Program, Public Buildings Service, U.S. General Services Administration.
Special thanks to New York State Senator Dale M. Volker for his support and acknowledgement of this historic art collection.
