Learn about the 1930s through eight exhibitions: The Depression, The New Deal, The Country, Industry, Labor, The City, Leisure, and American People. Artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection are supplemented with other primary source materials such as photographs, newsreels, and artists’ memorabilia.
Users can explore this virtual space and find information by clicking on people and objects. Visitors can gather artworks and place them in their bin for later documentary production.
The theater’s feature presentation is a series of interviews produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Abstract Artists Describe the 1930s. Additionally, user-created documentaries can be viewed from the theater’s balcony. Go to the theater’s projection booth to find PrimaryAccess and a movie-making tutorial.
The site is modeled on the Weinberg Center for the Arts, a former Art Deco movie palace, in Frederick, Maryland. A 3D rendered version of the movie palace was created in 3D Max. Actors were filmed using green screen techniques and edited using Final Cut Pro and After Effects. The finnal programming was done in Flash.
