Frances Perkins Building Form

Instructions and help about Frances Perkins Building

NARRATOR: In a city famous for its' art museums, you can also find important art in unexpected places. One such place, the lobby of the U.S. Department of Labor. Commissioned by the General Services Administration and the National Endowment for the Arts for installation in the Department's New Headquarters, painter Jack Beal created breathtaking murals depicting the history of work from colonial times to the then-present, 1977. The paintings took two and a half years to complete. Appearing in the murals as models of workers are some of Beal's friends, and... even two Department of Labor employees, including Vivian Twisdale, -- now retired. TWISDALE: It was during the building dedication for the Deparment of Labor and I worked on that committee. So, therefore, we met the artists and the writers for the books and so forth, and he asked me would i like to model and I said, 'Certainly.' I would say maybe a couple of hours, so many days, because the artist lived in Connecticut. And, each ti