Australia and the Depression essays

Australia and the Depression essays The 1920s was a time of great prosperity for Australia. Entertainment popularity had increased with musical theatre, opera and stage comedies drawing large audiences. Transport boomed with increasing numbers in car owners and the introduction of commercial aviation in the early 1920s. The Australian Government borrowed heavily from overseas for investments during this opulent period. By the late 1920s there was a significant decline in the volume of international trade . The American stock market crash in October 1929 accelerated a decline in prices for farm commodities in Australia. Due to both international as well as internal factors, Australia was now drawn into the depression along with the rest of the world. As a result of this, the economy suffered greatly and Australia could not pay back the millions of dollars worth of loans borrowed during the 1920s boom. Effects of the depression would lead to the unemployed and unskilled in society carrying the strain of the depression. S ocial divisions would widen as the depression took a greater toll on the working class. Australia borrowed heavily from overseas during World War I in order to finance the war effort. They owed large sums of money through investments and loans. The Bruce Page Government, headed by Prime Minister Bruce, brought in the policy of Men, money, markets to attempt to solve the economic problems that faced the world. The idea was to increase Australias population and bring investment to the country. In order to do so, immigration schemes were introduced. Australia provided assisted migration to immigrants as an incentive for them to come to Australia. Many migrants that came to Australia to increase the workforce did not know how to farm. Australia borrowed money from Britain to pay interest loans from World War I, fund public works and development projects and to pay pensions. Borrowing the money from England meant that export prices decreas...

Biography of Augusta Savage, Sculptor and Educator

Biography of Augusta Savage, Sculptor and Educator Augusta Savage, an African American sculptor, struggled to succeed as a sculptor despite barriers of race and sex. She is known for her sculptures of  W.E.B. DuBois,  Frederick Douglass,  Marcus Garvey; Gamin, and others. She is considered part of the  Harlem Renaissance arts and culture revival. Early Life Augusta Christine Fells Savage  lived from February 29, 1892, to March 26, 1962. She was born Augusta Fells in Green Cove Springs, Florida to Edward Fells and Cornelia (Murphy) Fells. She was the seventh of fourteen children. As a young child, she made figures out of clay, despite religious objections of her father, a Methodist minister. When she began school in West Palm Beach, a teacher responded to her clear talent by engaging her in teaching classes in clay modeling. At college, she earned money selling animal figures at a county fair. Marriages She married John T. Moore in 1907, and their daughter, Irene Connie Moore, was born the next year, shortly before John died.  She married James Savage in 1915, keeping his name even after their 1920s divorce and her remarriage to Robert L. Poston in 1923 (Poston died in 1924). Sculpting Career In 1919 she won an award for her booth at the county fair in Palm Beach. The fairs superintendent encouraged her to go to New York to study art, and she was able to enroll at Cooper Union, a college without tuition, in 1921. When she lost the caretaking job that covered her other expenses, the school sponsored her. A librarian found out about her financial problems, and arranged for her to sculpt a bust of African American leader, W.E.B. DuBois, for the 135th St. branch of the New York Public Library. Commissions continued, including one for a bust of Marcus Garvey. During the Harlem Renaissance, Augusta Savage enjoyed growing success, though a 1923 rejection for a summer of study in Paris because of her race inspired her to get involved in politics as well as art. In 1925, W.E.B. DuBois helped her get a scholarship to study in Italy, but she was unable to fund her additional expenses. Her piece Gamin brought attention, resulting in a scholarship from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and this time she was able to raise money from other supporters, and in 1930 and 1931 she studied in Europe. Savage sculpted busts of Frederick Douglass, James Weldon Johnson, W. C. Handy, and others. Succeeding in spite of the Depression, Augusta Savage began to spend more time teaching than sculpting. She became the first director of the Harlem Community Art Center in 1937 and worked with the Works Progress Administration (WPA). She opened a gallery in 1939, and won a commission for the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, basing her sculptures on James Weldon Johnsons Lift Every Voice and Sing. The pieces were destroyed after the Fair, but some photos remain. Education Overview Florida State Normal School (now Florida A M University)Cooper Union (1921-24)with sculptor Hermon MacNeil, ParisAcademie de la Chaumiere, and with Charles Despiau, 1930-31 Retirement Augusta Savage retired to upstate New York and farm life in 1940, where she lived until shortly before her death when she moved back to New York to live with her daughter Irene.​