WPA Federal Art Project

WPA Federal Art Project
Extensive visual-arts project, part of the Works Progress Administration established by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

It employed artists with a wide range of experience and styles and had great influence on subsequent U.S. movements. At its peak in 1936, it provided work for more than 5,000 artists from relief rolls. Over the eight years of its existence, its employees produced 2,566 murals, more than 100,000 easel paintings, about 17,700 sculptures, and nearly 300,000 fine prints. The project also developed an audience by establishing more than 100 community art centres and galleries in regions where art was generally unknown. The total federal investment was about $35 million. It was the first major attempt at U.S. government patronage of the visual arts.

* * *

▪ United States history
      first major attempt at government patronage of the visual arts in the United States and the most extensive and influential of the visual arts projects conceived during the Depression of the 1930s by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is often confused with the Department of the Treasury art programs ( Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture, Public Works of Art Project, and Treasury Relief Art Project), but, unlike the Treasury's endeavours the Works Progress (later Projects) Administration Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP) employed artists with a wide range of experience and styles, sponsored a more varied and experimental body of art, and had a far greater influence on subsequent American movements. This was chiefly the result of the leadership of its national director, Holger Cahill, a former museum curator and expert on American folk art, who saw the potential for cultural development in what was essentially a work-relief program for artists. Cahill and his staff learned from the Public Works of Art Project of 1933–34 that any relief program faced the problem of attempting to produce art of high quality while trying to help the unemployed regardless of talent. In the fall of 1935 a range of creative, educational, research, and service projects was organized to preserve the skills of professional artists in mural, easel, sculpture, and graphic art divisions, of commercial artists in the poster and Index of American Design divisions, and of the less experienced in art education and technical jobs. The project also developed an audience by establishing more than 100 community art centres and galleries across the country in regions where art and artists were almost unknown. Cahill stated in 1936 that “The organization of the Project has proceeded on the principle that it is not the solitary genius but a sound general movement which maintains art as a vital, functioning part of any cultural scheme. Art is not a matter of rare, occasional masterpieces.” This was in direct opposition to the philosophy of the Department of the Treasury programs, which sought to commission outstanding works rather than to provide work relief.

      The WPA/FAP employed most of its artists from relief rolls, while maintaining a small number of nonrelief artists for supervisory positions. Artists received a basic wage of $23.50 per week and were expected to turn in one work within a specified number of weeks or to work a certain number of days on a mural or architectural sculpture project. Most easel painters, sculptors, and graphic artists worked at home; muralists and poster artists laboured in the field or in project workshops. The project's greatest problem was to balance the whims and irregular schedules of the creative process with the rigid timekeeping rules of the WPA bureaucracy. Another basic problem arose when budget reductions required the WPA to eliminate artists from its rolls; when too many termination notices were received, riots and sit-down strikes often occurred among the artists. To protect their precarious employment and to improve working conditions, artists organized nationally in an Artists' Union. Its leaders worked with the WPA/FAP administrators and emulated the practices of the labour movement; in 1937 Artists' Union became Local 60 of the United Office and Professional Workers of the CIO.

      The project employed more than 5,000 artists at its peak in 1936 and probably double that number over the eight years of its existence. It produced 2,566 murals, more than 100,000 easel paintings, about 17,700 sculptures, nearly 300,000 fine prints, and about 22,000 plates for the Index of American Design, along with innumerable posters and objects of craft. The total federal investment was about $35,000,000.

Additional Reading
Milton Meltzer, Violins & Shovels: The WPA Arts Projects (1976).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • WPA Federal Theatre Project — ▪ United States history  national theatre project sponsored and funded by the U.S. government as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Founded in 1935, it was the first federally supported theatre in the United States. Its purpose was… …   Universalium

  • Federal Art Project — The Federal Art Project (FAP) was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression era New Deal WPA Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935 until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate… …   Wikipedia

  • Federal Art Project —    (FAP)    An agency of the U.S. Government during the Great Depression of the 1930s and 1940s. It provided employment for artists as part of a larger agency, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of several federal entities which… …   Glossary of Art Terms

  • Public Works of Art Project — ▪ United States federal arts project       first of the U.S. federal art programs conceived as part of the New Deal during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its purpose was to prove the feasibility of government patronage. It was organized in… …   Universalium

  • Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) — First of the U.S. federal art programs conceived as part of the New Deal during the Great Depression. Organized in 1933, it provided work to thousands of unemployed artists. PWAP projects (many of which were left unfinished) included some 7,000… …   Universalium

  • Federal Writers' Project — The Federal Writers Project (FWP) was a United States federal government project to fund written work and support writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Projects Administration, a New Deal program. It was one of a group of… …   Wikipedia

  • Federal Theatre Project — The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a New Deal project to fund theatre and other live artistic performances in the United States during the Great Depression. It was one of five Federal One projects sponsored by the Works Projects Administration …   Wikipedia

  • Treasury Relief Art Project — ▪ United States federal arts project       smallest of the federal visual arts projects conceived under the New Deal to help Depression stricken American artists in the 1930s. It was directed by the painter Olin Dows and designed to embellish… …   Universalium

  • WPA — Work Projects Administration: the former federal agency (1935 43) charged with instituting and administering public works in order to relieve national unemployment. Originally, Works Progress Administration. * * * in full Works Progress… …   Universalium

  • art — art1 /ahrt/, n. 1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. 2. the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”