New Deal Art
During the Great Depression in the United States many creative workers found employment in federal government programs. Various projects of the WPA provided income for artists, musicians, actors, writers and craftsmen.
Like the popular Chautauqua presentations, the WPA projects often reached isolated areas of the country. For many rural citizens these programs introduced them to their first theater, art or symphony experience.
Books available at the library that offer more information:
- Wall to Wall America: Post Office Murals in the Great Depression
- American-Made: the Enduring Legacy of the WPA
- Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art Out of Desperate Times
- Posters of the WPA
- Dorothea Lange: a Life Beyond Limits
Links to additional information online:
- New Deal Programs offers resources from the Library of Congress.
- Art of the New Deal from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
- New Deal Network is an online resource from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.
- A New Deal for the Arts from the National Archives online exhibit.
- WPA Murals listings are online by state and include images.
- The Smithson Institution as a portion the Federal Art Project , Photographic Division collection online.
- The New Orleans Public Library has the WPA Photograph Collection online.
- The Soul of a People features the work of WPA writers and photographers from the Smithsonian Channel website.
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