BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Voice of America -- Murals Tour

DC -- Voice of America -- Murals Tour:

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[1] VOAMUR_151022_002_STITCH.JPG

[2] VOAMUR_151022_004_STITCH.JPG

[3] VOAMUR_151022_008.JPG	[4] VOAMUR_151022_014.JPG	[5] VOAMUR_151022_019.JPG
[6] VOAMUR_151022_026.JPG	[7] VOAMUR_151022_039.JPG	[8] VOAMUR_151022_044.JPG
[9] VOAMUR_151022_048.JPG	[10] VOAMUR_151022_053.JPG	[11] VOAMUR_151022_056.JPG
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[15] VOAMUR_151022_070.JPG	[16] VOAMUR_151022_074.JPG	[17] VOAMUR_151022_079.JPG
[18] VOAMUR_151022_089.JPG	[19] VOAMUR_151022_098.JPG	[20] VOAMUR_151022_106.JPG
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[24] VOAMUR_151022_125.JPG	[25] VOAMUR_151022_129.JPG	[26] VOAMUR_151022_134.JPG
[27] VOAMUR_151022_141.JPG	[28] VOAMUR_151022_149.JPG	[29] VOAMUR_151022_152.JPG
[30] VOAMUR_151022_156.JPG	[31] VOAMUR_151022_159.JPG	[32] VOAMUR_151022_166.JPG
[33] VOAMUR_151022_175.JPG	[34] VOAMUR_151022_185.JPG	[35] VOAMUR_151022_194.JPG
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[45] VOAMUR_151022_233.JPG	[46] VOAMUR_151022_236.JPG	[47] VOAMUR_151022_239.JPG
[48] VOAMUR_151022_245.JPG	[49] VOAMUR_151022_266.JPG	[50] VOAMUR_151022_270.JPG
[51] VOAMUR_151022_277.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. VOAMUR_151022_008.JPG: Broadcasting Board of Governors International Broadcasting Bureau Voice of America
2. VOAMUR_151022_019.JPG: Ben Shahn Ben came to Washington in 1935 to work for the Resettlement Administration as a graphic artist and became part of a group of talented photographers (Ben being the only noted painter) charged with the mission of building a contemporary, photographic history of just how people -- all kinds of people lived in those days of deep Depression. Each photographer surveyed, investigated, and visually recorded different parts of the country -- a notable undertaking that would some day be celebrated as the great RA/FSA File.
3. VOAMUR_151022_026.JPG: On October 17, 1995, the "Meaning of Social Security by Ben Shahn and this Hearing Room lobby were rededicated to the memory of Ben Shahn and all artists whose works of art grace federal buildings by The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Voice of America, the General Services Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services. "... I feel that the whole Social Security idea is one of the real fruits of Democracy. There may be some limitations to my powers of exposition, but at least it is my aim to make the mural a clear and feeling picture of Social Security and, I hope, one that may be understood by average Americans." -- Ben Shahn, Letter to Edward Bruce, Section of Fine Arts and Painting, July 14, 1941
4. VOAMUR_151022_048.JPG: The Meaning of Social Security, 1942 Ben Shahn
5. VOAMUR_151022_098.JPG: Ben Shahn Ben's Social Security mural (1940-1942) drew on these photographs (1935-1938) from the Resettlement Administration / Farm Security Administration (RA/FSA) as well as those he took earlier in New York City. The mural contains his convictions but above all reflects the problems addressed by Social Security. The mural encompasses his view of America as it was, as it had been and as, he felt, it could be. Above all, it expresses his remarkable experience as an active participant in one of the most courageous, inventive and caring experiments ever undertaken by government -- Social Security.
6. VOAMUR_151022_106.JPG: Ben Shahn In his travels, Ben met storytellers, he met memorable personalities, he ate dinners in immaculate poverty-stricken homes and witnessed and photographed other homes falling apart -- roofless, sometimes with mud floors. He photographed men standing about, their hands clasped behind their backs, men sitting on curbstones, waiting, talking, women waiting in long lines before relief stations, families living in sheds made of cast-off packing boxes -- the famous Hoovervilles of the Thirties. Ben headed south, photographing as he saw fit, towns, people, changing countryside, seeking always to understand, feeling both compassion and admiration for his subjects -- now his friends. He talked, listened, joined the people in church, learned their names, often wonderful names -- Plato Jordan, Jasper Lancaster, and Terwilliger family.
7. VOAMUR_151022_141.JPG: Ben Shahn
8. VOAMUR_151022_149.JPG: You can see how they tried to repair the cracks after the earthquake
9. VOAMUR_151022_175.JPG: The personal harvest of these successive trips was a wealth of authentic detail preserved in the many thousands of photographs that Ben and others had taken. But preserved in his memory with sounds, smells, emotions and personalities was the concept that he had acquired of government itself -- a belief that of all its responsibilities, the prime responsibility of government was the well-beings of its people. The announcement of a mural competition for the Social Security building struck Ben as providing a vehicle for aligning his experiences and his beliefs in terms of that imagery that had become so much a part of him. Through his murals, Ben gave form, gave voice to ideas derived from experience and vested in hope.
10. VOAMUR_151022_185.JPG: Why Conserve Art? The US General Services Administration is entrusted by the public with the stewardship of the cultural resources located within many federal buildings. Curatorial responsibilities of the National Capital Region's Public Buildings Services include the care and protection of many art objects. Conservation of art is undertaken only when necessary. Art conservation involves examination, scientific analysis, and research to determine the work's original structure, materials, and extent of loss. Conservation also encompasses structural and environmental treatments such as ultra-violet filtered lighting to slow down future deterioration. Please do not touch the murals for any reason.
11. VOAMUR_151022_219.JPG: Social Security: A Rededication, 1942 Seymour Fogel
12. VOAMUR_151022_229.JPG: Seymour Fogel American (1911-1984) Social Security A Rededication: The Wealth of the Nation, The Security of the People 1942
13. VOAMUR_151022_232.JPG: Later in his life, Fogel's paintings were less representational yet he continued to explore the spatial needs of a two-dimensional picture on a very large scale. He continued to pull and manipulate spaces, colors and linear movement to meet the need of the picture plane. In a 1959 interview, Mr. Fogel said that his paintings were not abstract, they were what he saw. Fogel was a passionate painter who could make a two-dimensional surface boil and swirl.
14. VOAMUR_151022_233.JPG: The Artist: Seymour Fogel, born 25 August 1911 in New York City, an artist, muralist, teacher and writer is identified with the Social Realist movement of the 1930's. After studying at the National Academy of Design, Fogel painted many public murals, the first of which was painted for the lobby of the Works Progress Administration Building at the 1939 New York World's Fair. He received numerous awards and honors throughout his life. Fogel's art work is included in nationally recognized museums and major private collections. Seymour Fogel's early work in federal buildings includes murals in Safford, Arizona and Cambridge, Minnesota post offices as well as this building which was built in 1942 for the Social Security Administration. The commission for these murals was won by competition. He was one of six artists selected from 375 entrants competing for the opportunity to interpret themes and ideas relating to the newly created Social Security Administration. Seymour Fogel's entry for the Social Security Competition was for the Auditorium Lobby walls however, he was selected to complete the Independence Avenue Lobby walls. Fogel attempted to use portions of panels from his original entry, but was disappointed with the results. The completed mural differs greatly from both his original entry and his first "collapsed" composition. The sketch submitted to the Department of the Treasury is the final composition however, he continued to bring the figures to life during the painting of the mural.
15. VOAMUR_151022_236.JPG: Seymour Fogel 1942
16. VOAMUR_151022_266.JPG: The Security of the People: In this panel, Fogel relates the Social Security Act to the symbolic family. He depicts an employed and literate father figure as provider, a nurturing mother figure as caretaker, and worry-free, active and educated children. The figures are placed on a convincing background of a garden. The new modern workplace for the educated is represented by the office building under construction. Like Philip Guston, Fogel envisioned a stable family unit as the backbone of the future and of the Social Security Act.
17. VOAMUR_151022_270.JPG: The Meaning of Social Security, 1942 Ben Shahn
18. VOAMUR_151022_277.JPG: The Wealth of the Nation: Here, the artist captured the continuing social transformation by depicting various types of knowledge-based employment such as scientist and architect while acknowledging the contributions of the industrial worker and machinist to the wealth of the nation. Fogel's figures are not understood as unique individuals but as symbols of the human resources that contribute to the growing prosperity of the citizens and the wealth of the nation. While Shahn painted personalities he had photographed across America, Fogel painted the human figures as symbols for ideas.
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Wikipedia Description: Voice of America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Voice of America (VOA), is the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government. Its oversight entity is the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).

VOA broadcasts by satellite and on FM, AM, and shortwave radio frequencies. It is also available through the Internet in both streaming media and downloadable formats at VOANews.com. VOA has affiliate and contract agreements with many radio and television stations and cable networks worldwide.

Transmission Facilities:

One of VOA's radio transmitter facilities was originally based on a 625-acre site in Union Township (now West Chester Township) in Butler County, Ohio, near Cincinnati. The Bethany Relay Station operated from 1944 to 1994. Other former sites include California (Dixon), Hawaii, Okinawa, Liberia, Costa Rica, and Belize.

Currently, the VOA and the IBB continue to operate shortwave radio transmitters and antenna farms at two sites in the United States, located at Delano, California and Greenville, North Carolina respectively. The Delano site is famous among radio enthusiasts for having a rare installation of a TCI HRS 12/6/1 directional curtain array antenna. They do not use FCC issued callsigns.Other radio stations on US soil are required by FCC rules to have and use callsigns.

Languages:

The Voice of America currently broadcasts in 46 languages (TV marked with an asterisk):

* Afan Oromo
* Albanian*
* Amharic
* Armenian*
* Azerbaijani*
* Bangla*
* Bosnian*
* Burmese
* Cantonese*
* Creole
* Croatian*
* Dari*
* English* (also Special English)
* French*
* Georgian
* Greek*
* Hausa
* Hindi*
* Indonesian*
* Khmer
* Kinyarwanda
* Kirundi
* Korean
* Kurdish
* Lao
* Macedonian*
* Mandarin*
* Ndebele
* Pashto*
* Persian*
* Portuguese
* Russian*
* Serbian*
* Shona
* Somali
* Spanish*
* Swahili
* Tagalog
* Thai
* Tibetan*
* Tigrigna
* Turkish*
* Ukrainian*
* Urdu*
* Uzbek*
* Vietnamese

The number of languages broadcast and the number of hours broadcast in each language vary according to the priorities of the United States Government and the world situation. In 2001, according to an International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) fact sheet, VOA broadcast in 53 languages, with 12 televised. For example, in July 2007, VOA added 30 minutes to its daily Somali radio broadcast, providing a full hour of live, up-to-the-minute news and information to listeners.

Overview:

The Voice of America has been a part of several agencies:

From 1942 to 1945, it was part of the Office of War Information, and then from 1945 to 1953 as a function of the State Department. The VOA was placed under the U.S. Information Agency in 1953. When the USIA was abolished in 1999, the VOA was placed under the Broadcasting Board of Directors, which is an autonomous U.S. government agency, with bipartisan membership. The Secretary of State has a seat on the BBG. .

VOA's parent organization is the presidentially-appointed Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). The BBG was established as a buffer to protect VOA and other U.S.-sponsored, non-military, international broadcasters from political interference.

History:

American private shortwave broadcasting before World War II:

Before the Second World War, all American shortwave stations were in private hands.. The National Broadcasting Company's International, or White Network, which broadcast in six languages, the Columbia Broadcasting System, whose Latin American international network consisted of sixty-four stations located in eighteen different countries, as well as the Crossley Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, had shortwave transmitters. Experimental programming began in the 1930s. There were less than 12 transmitters, however.

In 1939, the Federal Communications Commission set the following policy:

A license of an international broadcast station shall render only an international broadcast service which will reflect the culture of this country and which will promote international goodwill, understanding and cooperation. Any program solely intended for, and directed to an audience in the continental United States does not meet the requirements for this service.

Washington observers felt this policy was to enforce the State Department's Good Neighbor Policy but many broadcasters felt that this was an attempt to direct censorship.

In 1940, the Office of the Coordinator of Interamerican Affairs, a semi-independent agency of the U.S. State Department headed by Nelson Rockefeller, began operations. Shortwave signals to Latin America were regarded as vital to counter Nazi propaganda. Initially, the Office of Coordination of Information sent releases to each station, but this was seen as an inefficient means of transmitting news. .

World War II: VOA Begins:

In January, 1942 , the U.S. government then leased 15-minute blocks of time on each station, calling the program "The Voice of America," which included the Yankee Doodle interval signal. .

VOA was organized in 1942 under the Office of War Information with news programs aimed at areas in Japan and the south Pacific and in Europe and North Africa under the occupation of Nazi Germany. VOA began broadcasting on February 24, 1942. The initial announcement of the VOA stated, “Daily at this time, we shall speak to you about America and the war. The news may be good or bad. We shall tell you the truth.” The Office of War Information took over VOA's operations when it was formed in mid 1942. The VOA reached an agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation to share medium-wave transmitters in Britain, and expanded into Tunis in North Africa and Palermo and Bari, Italy as the Allies captured these territories. The OWI also set up the American Broadcasting Station in Europe .

Asian transmissions started with one transmitter in California in 1941; services were expanded by adding transmitters in Hawaii and, after recapture, the Philippines. .

By the end of the war, VOA had 39 transmitters and provided service in 40 languages. .Programming was broadcast from production centers in New York and San Francisco, with more than 1,000 programs originating from New York. Programming consisted of music, news, commentary, and relays of U.S. domestic programming, in addition to specialized VOA programming.

About half of VOA’s services, including the Arabic service, were discontinued in 1945..

The Cold War:

In 1947, Voice of America started broadcasting in Russian with the intent to counter more harmful instances of Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies. Soviet Union responded by initiating aggressive, electronic jamming of VoA broadcasts on 24 April 1949.

The Arabic service resumed on January 1, 1950, with a half-hour program. This program grew to 14.5 hours daily during the Suez Crisis of 1956, and was 6 hours a day by 1958. .

In 1952, the Voice of America installed a studio and relay facility aboard a converted U.S. Coast Guard cutter renamed Courier whose target audience was Russia and its allies. The Courier was originally intended to become the first in a fleet of mobile, radio broadcasting ships (see offshore radio) that built upon U.S. Navy experience during WWII in using warships as floating broadcasting stations. However, the Courier eventually dropped anchor off the island of Rhodes, Greece with permission of the Greek government to avoid being branded as a pirate radio broadcasting ship. This VOA offshore station stayed on the air until the 1960s when facilities were eventually provided on land. The Courier supplied training to engineers who later worked on several of the European commercial offshore broadcasting stations of the 1950s and 1960s.

Control of the VOA passed from the State Department to the U.S. Information Agency when the latter was established in 1953. to transmit worldwide, including to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and to the People's Republic of China (PRC). In the 1980s, the USIA established the WORLDNET satellite television service, and in 2004 WORLDNET was merged into VOA.

During the 1950s and 1960s, VOA broadcast American jazz, which was highly popular, world wide. For example, a program aimed at South Africa in 1956 broadcast 2 hours nightly, along with special programs such as “The Newport Jazz Festival”. This was done in association of tours by U.S. musicians, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, sponsored by the State Department.

Throughout the Cold War, many of the targeted countries' governments sponsored jamming of VOA broadcasts, which sometimes led critics to question the broadcasts' actual impact. For example, in 1956s, Poland stopped jamming VOA, but Bulgaria continued to jam the signal through the 1970s. and Chinese-language VOA broadcasts were jammed beginning in 1956 and extending through 1976. However, after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, interviews with participants in anti-Soviet movements verified the effectiveness of VOA broadcasts in transmitting information to socialist societies. The People's Republic of China diligently jams VOA broadcasts (see Firedrake). Cuba has also been reported to interfere with VOA satellite transmissions to Iran from its Russian-built transmission site at Bejucal.David Jackson, director of the Voice of Amrica, noted "The North Korean government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful."

In the 1980s, VOA also added a television service, as well as special regional programs to Cuba, Radio Mart� and TV Mart�. Cuba has consistently attempted to jam such broadcasts and has vociferously protested U.S. broadcasts directed at Cuba. In 1985, VOA Europe was created as a special service in English that was relayed via satellite to AM, FM, and cable affiliates throughout Europe. With a contemporary format including live disc jockeys, the network presented top musical hits as well as VOA news and features of local interest (such as "EuroFax") 24 hours a day. VOA Europe was closed down without advance public notice (even to its own audience) in January, 1997, as a cost-cutting measure. Today, stations are offered the VOA Music Mix service.

Post Cold War (1991 – present): Changes in services:

In 1994, the Voice of America became the first broadcast-news organization to offer continuously updated programs on the Internet. Content in English and 44 other languages is currently available online through a distributed network of commercial providers, using more than 20,000 servers across 71 countries. Since many listeners in Africa and other areas still receive much of their information via radio and have only limited access to computers, VOA continues to maintain regular shortwave-radio broadcasts.

The Arabic Service was abolished in 2002 and replaced by a new radio service, called the Middle East Radio Network or Radio Sawa, with an initial budget of $22 million. Radio Sawa offered mostly Western and American popular music with periodic brief news bulletins.
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