With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Jerome Stavola
Education/Curation, Painting/Drawing
1904 – 1984
WPA artist and social and political activist who opposed fascism.
- Biography/Description of Work
Jerome Stavola was born in Hartford and educated at the New York School of Design and the Norwich Art School. By 1934 he was known for “his portraits and other easel work,” and had begun to work on Public Works of Art Projects, including a mural in Hartford’s Weaver High School lunchroom. Also in 1934, he opened an art supply store and gallery on Allyn Street in Hartford. When the Hartford Federal College, a kind of community college, was opened by the WPA in 1938, Stavola began to teach art and to lead his students in protests. He and four students set up easels on the Old State House grounds and painted posters condemning General Franco in the Spanish Civil War to raise money for orphans of the war. Similarly, he was part of a committee of Italian-Americans that drafted a protest resolution against Mussolini and his antisemitism. Stavola moved from Hartford to Hadlyme by 1942, and during the war made gliders with other artists at Pratt Read Co. in Deep River.
- Sources view
- New Deal Art Along the River. CT River Museum, 2015. Amy Trout curator. Art is a Hammer. Shoeleather History of Hartford. [ http://homefront.homestead.com/artisahammer.html ] accessed 6/23/2015. Park Concert, 1935. Collection of CT Historical Society. WPA Art Inventory Project, CT State Library. [ http://wpa.cslib.org/index.php/560/stavola-jerome/ ]
- Associated Resource(s)
- n/a