NATIONAL FARMING DOCUMENTATION PROJECT
A national arts and digital media documentation project
in response to the crisis in agriculture
MIGRANT MOTHER, Nimpomo, California - March 1935
Photograph Dorothea Lange.
The 1930s 'New Deal' US Government Farming archive
Led by journalist Roy Stryker, the US Government Agricultural Department initiated the 'New Deal' Farm Security Administration project to record the social, economic and environmental impact of the depression on the farming communities in the deep South. The FSA programme employed leading writers and photographers, amongst them Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Walker Evans, Marion Post Walcott, Edward Rothstein and Ben Shahn, to make records and images of the farming crisis. The resulting social and historical documents are now housed in the Library of Congress in Washington, and in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art New York. They are regarded by historians and artists as one of the great social and artistic records of the 20th century.Proposals for a national farming documentation initiative
The FSA project provides a precedent for artists and photographers to begin to frame a cultural response to the crisis caused by foot-and-mouth and the other problems facing agriculture in Britain. Following preliminary meetings in in London and Nottingham in 2001 there is a proposal to set up a national arts and media social documentation programme to record the changes taking place in British agriculture over the next five years. Writers, artists, photographers, film makers are planning to document the experiences of farming families as they live through this period of radical change. One of the aims of the project is to record and interpret the impact that the crisis in agriculture is having on the social, health, economic , and environmental well-being of farming communities. The project also aims to promote the role of the arts in combating the effects of social and cultural exclusion in rural communities in Britain.Documenting Britain's farming communities today
The programme will support artists, digital artists, writers and photographers to adopt an innovative approach to creating a social and historical archive about farming. The programme aims to generate new artistic and social documents of the highest quality as a contribution to the public debate on agricultural policy, and the future of farming communities, rural traditions, and the countryside. The programme forms part of the 'Arts and Agricultural Change' initiative, which is about promoting new cultural resources, creative partnerships and practical projects in support of farming communities in Britain.National archive, documentation and study centre
The National Farming Documentation Project is proposed in collaboration with the NFU, Small and Family Farms Alliance, WFU, and the Hill Farming Initiative, and is open to representatives from the arts, media, rural and farming organisations. A national charity to archive and administer the project is under consideration.
Programme coordinated by Littoral
and supported by the Arts Council of England, Culture 2000 and North West Arts Board
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