Moe Foner was the artistic laureate of the labor movement. Although Bread and Roses is the jewel in the cultural crown Moe designed and polished, the roots of his imagination and enterprise stretch back to his dawning political awareness in the striving neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Boro Park, Brooklyn, and to his performing in the Catskills. Family osmosis also played a part. Long before they were noted labor historians, his older brothers Phil and Jack played in a band in the Borscht Belt in summer and persuaded Moe to learn the tenor saxophone.

Moe followed the triumph of the ILGWU's musical ``Pins and Needles'' by himself assembling union workers for an original musical called ``Thursdays Till Nine,'' after the department store practice of staying open one night a week. The show, which cost $8,000 to mount, was warmly reviewed by The New York Times. The opening preview, at Needle Trades High School, was attended by Irving Berlin and Harold Rome, the composer and lyricist of ``Pins and Needles.''

When the Store Workers were absorbed into Local 65, Moe became social and cultural director of that union. There he organized children's entertainment and served as emcee for a Saturday night club, which boasted a three-piece band and star turns from volunteers.

Recruited by Local 1199, then a pharmacists union, he edited the union newspaper and organized events with guests like Eleanor Roosevelt, Michael Harrington, Sammy Davis Jr. and Norman Thomas. With Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, he began the observance of Negro History Week, which morphed into the annual Salute to Freedom. In 1978 came the birth of Bread and Roses, which eventually won grants from the National Endowments for the Arts and for the Humanities.

Besides countless art shows, the ``Images of Labor'' posters and book, Bread and Roses ran workshops for union members that gave writers an opportunity to gather material for the musical ``Take Care.'' It toured 45 hospitals and then visited 11 states, where it was seen by more than 35,000 hospital workers.

Bread and Roses offerings range from theater in Spanish to concerts at Lincoln Center, monthly performances by union members reading their poetry and singing their compositions, to writing classes and lunch-hour entertainment.

Moe's work was praised by Business Week as ``the most important cultural program organized by a labor union.'' New School University awarded him an  honorary degree in 2000 for his ``passion for bringing arts to all Americans.''
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    Richard Magat is a writer and historian of philanthropy.