Collection Information

Size: Sound recordings: 1 sound tape reel ; 5 in.

Transcript: 22 p. (on one microfilm reel)

Format: Interviews of Louie H. and Virginia Ewing conducted by S. Loomis are also on this tape.

Summary: An interview of Joy Yeck Finke conducted by Sylvia Loomis on 1964 Jan. 9 for the Archives of American Art.

Fincke speaks of her background in Washington state and Oregon; going to work for the Federal Emergency Releif Administration (later the Works Progress Administration); meeting Vernon Hunter and becoming his secretary; how artists were selected for the project and how work was assigned; the work that was done by the Index of American Design in the Southwest; how Vernon Hunter supervised the project; art centers that were run by the project; community and public perception of the project; and the project's effect on artists' careers; She recalls Patrocino Barela.

Biographical/Historical Note

Secretary to director of Index of American Design; Albuquerque, N.M. Index of American Design director in New Mexico was Vernon Hunter.

Provenance

This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Transcript: microfilm reel 3419 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.

Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Joy Yeck Fincke, 1964 Jan. 9. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.