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1500 EYE STREET
WASHINGTON, P. C.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE WFA FEDERAL ART PROJECT
INTRODUCTION
THE FEDERAL ART GALLERIES AND ART CENTERS
TEACHING AND CHILDREN'S WORK
THE INDEX OF AMERICAN DESIGN
THE DESIGN LABORATORY
THE FINE ARTS PROJECTS
Murals
Easel Painting
Sculpture
Graphic Arts
POSTERS
PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE FILM
CONCLUSION
AC CO aPLISHMENTS OF THE WPA FEDERAL ART PROJECT
Introduction
The primary objectives of the Federal Art Project are to
conserve the talents and skills of artists who, through
no fault of their own, found themselves on relief rolls
and without means to continue their work; to encourage
young artists of definite ability; to integrate the fine
with the practical arts and, more especially, the arts in
general with the daily life of the community.
To carry out these objectives, more than 350 separate pro-
jects have been put into operation in fourty=four states
since August 1935» when the 'TPA Federal Art Project was
first organized. Since all workers in a given community
may be and usually are included in a single project, the'
actual number of projects in operation is less significant
than the extent of employment they embrace and the scope
of their influence.
At the peak of its employment, the Federal Art Project has
given work to 5300 persons in four general categories:
1, - The Fine Arts (murals, sculpture, easel painting and
graphic arts) which absorb about U8% of the total personnel;
2 - The Practical Arts (posters, photography, the Index of
American Design, arts and crafts, dioramas, and stage sets)
which abosrb about 29%; 3 - The Educational Services (Federal
Art Galleries and Art Centers, art teaching, The Design
Laboratory, research and information) which absorb about
17$: U - The Technical and .Coordinating personnel, which
comprises about G$ of the total employment.
From the Fine Arts projects outstanding examples of Ameri-
c??ipainting, sculpture, and graphic art have been obtained
by hundreds of tax supported institutions « schools, col¬
leges, hospitals, etc. Through the employment of commercial
artists, aid has been given various campaigns of social value,
such as health, safety, and crime prevention. To this end,
thousands of posters have been produced by project artists.
The efforts of artists and research workers in various fields
of historical research, especially on the Index of .American
Design, have served to clarify the background of art in Aneri---
ca and to make much valuable traditional material available
to creative artists and to the public. In the South and West,
twenty-eight Federal Art Galleries and Art Centers are now in
operation, and more than one million persons have participated
in their activities. In community centers all over the country,
tens of thousands of children and adults are being provided
with valuable training in all phases of art and art apprecia<=
tion. These avocational services have been widely hailed by-
authorities throughout the country who recognize their stren¬
gthening effect on the fabric of society.
The Federal Art Galleries and Art Centers
It is not too much to say that people in whole areas of this
country, especially in the South and West, have had few op-
portunities to enjoy art. The educational channels which
should have made this possible never reached them. In on
effort to correct this unequal distribution of cultural ad¬
vantage, as well as to rehabilitate thousands of unemployed
artists, the Federal Art Froject has evolved what is perhaps
the most important feature of its nation-wide educational
program. Since January, 1936, it has established with local
cooperation twenty-eight Federal Art Galleries and Art Centers
in the Carolina,s, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, Oklahoma,
Florida, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico.
During this comparatively short period, more than one million
persons have participated in the activities promoted by these
galleries. They have attended regular lectures by leading
authorities on art. They have received free instruction in
art classes. And they have seen exhibitions circulated by the
WFA Federal Art Project containing the work of America's crea¬
tive artists in all fields - in painting and sculpture, in the
graphic arts, the decorative and industrial arts, and the arts
and crafts.
Important phases of community interest have also been studied
and utilized in arranging exhibitions. In Chattanooga the
manufacturing background of the city has been token into con¬
sideration, In Big Stone Gap, Virginia, the pioneer arts and
crafts which form a link between the past and the present have
been shown. In Mobile, interesting collections which have lain
in storage for many years have been brought to light and
have been made to form the nucleus for a permanent museum.
In Greenville, South Carolina, a textile museum, allied
with the major industry of the district, has been estab¬
lished, In North Carolina and Tennessee, special thought
has been given to exhibits of local crafts which will at¬
tract and hold the interest of people from the mountain
sections.
Through these and other numerous facilities, multitudes of
American citizens have been made conscious of their own re¬
sources as individuals, of the artistic resources of the
communities in which they live, and of the nation as a whole.
The fine arts program of the Federal Art Project is thereby
assured not only of reaching the people of America,, but of
getting a warm and intelligent reception. For the first time
in the history of this country, a sound relationship has at
Inst been established between the artist and the people: a
relationship that is certain to yield an increasingly rich
harvest in the years to come.
Teaching and Children's Work
The classes in painting, modelling, carving and weaving, which
have been formed in these Federal Art Galleries and Art Centers,
are typical of an important section of the Federal Art Program.
No phase of its work is of greater social significance than its
teaching. Hundreds of highly trained teachers of art, displased
by depression economy, are holding classes in boy's clubs, girl's
service leagues, in schools after hours, in churches and
settlements. In New York City and its vicinity, fifty-
thousand children and adults are being reached weekly-
through the teaching force of the Federal *.rt Project. .A.
widening area of social significance has been created by
the classes for underprivileged^ children, taking them off
the street and providing fresh and natural outlets for ex¬
pression. One school superintendent has stated a typical
conclusion, saying that these classes have "done more to
stabilize the schools in this city during a difficult per¬
iod than any other single agency." Educators and social
workers have also emphasized tne larger public understand¬
ing of art which has developed from these classes.
Among the settlements and community houses where this work
has been accomolished are the Hudson Guild, the Boys' Tel-
come Home, the Gramercy Boys' Club, the East Side Jewish
Settlement in New York, the Avery Memorial in Hartford, Con¬
necticut, Friendship House and the Americanization School in
Washington, D. C., and centers in Michigan, Tennessee, Vir¬
ginia, and other States.
The general range of the childrentaught under this program
has been from eight to sixteen, though many younger children
have been included. It has not been expected that all or
even a large proportion of these children will develop into
professional artists, but the high quality of much of their
work has its broad suggestiveness as to the wide spread of
■unconscious talent; and there c^n ho no doubt that this
work tends toward the development of a greater sensitive-
ness to art among this coming generation. These young
people will form a genuine audience for American art in
the future.
The Index of American Design
The giant undertaking of the Federal Art Fro.ject, now well
under way in twenty—five states, is the Index of American
Design. More than five hundred artists are employed on this
program who have already completed six thousand facsimile
renderings, both in color and black and white, which depict
the decorative arts in America from their inception well
through the nineteenth century.
European nations have long recognized the importance of such
compilations. They have been considered as important, not
by any means as a basis for imitation, but as a well spring
to which workers in all the arts might turn for a renewed
sense of native traditions in design. The Index of American
Design will be an analogous pictorial source record of the
rise and development of American design.
American decorative arts as shown in furniture, costumes,
embroideries, textiles, coverlets, ironwork, ceramics, glass,
silver, pewter, toys, as revealed in architectural records,
weathervanes, wood sculpture for decorative purposes such as
ships' figureheads and shop signs or other related crafts,
local or folk, art such asserimshft*, form the basic materials
for the Index.
All this work has been done under the direction of super¬
visors trained in the history of the decorative arts and in
their adequate representation. Experts outside of the pro-,
ject have been untiringly generous in giving their services.
The Index has received from them, as from many others, enthu¬
siastic support.
The Index of American resign will make accessible an accurate
usuable record of American design through libraries end mu¬
seums not only to designers and. manufacturers but a1 so to art
students, artists and scholars. No such compilation as this
has hitherto been undertaken in this country, and it is al¬
together probable that before any private agency attempted the
task much valuable material would have been forever lost.
The Design Laboratory
Under the directorship of one of the outstanding designers of
the country, the Federal Art Project has put into operation
in New York City the Design Laboratory, a training school in
the industrial arts. It is the only one of its kind in America
and its faculty, comprising twenty-five specialists of national
reputation, and an advisory board of 32 prominent men in the
field, gives the work of the Laboratory authority and importanc
The Laboratory has given valuable instruction to hundreds of
industrial designers who would otherwise h^ve been unable to
develop their special talents. The school emphasizes coordi«=
nation in the study of esthetics, industrial products, machine
fabrication, and merchandising. It seeks to trnin designers
and teachers by correlating theoretical principles of design
with actual shop practice. Shops are equipped with hand and
machine tools so that students may learn the potentialities
and limitations of both. The Laboratory has already become
a valuable training ground for the industrial designers of
the future.
The Fine Arts Projects
Naturally in a^y program of this kind, the position of the
creative artist has been considered aS of primary importance.
If the main stream of American art is to continue, he must be
given a chance to develop and to nssUi.ie the leadership which
belongs to him in a sound general movement. In art tradition
may be said to have existence only as it is created anew by
each generation. No matter what the museum collections tell
us about the past, it is in the work of present-day artists
that we must look for the living tradition.
That the tradition of American art is still vigorous is amply
shown by the response of creative artists to government sup<=
port. This response has been magnificent. Their production
has been large and of high quality. They have worked <"ith
intelligence, energy, and initiative.
While the marked rise of the young artist under the Project
is not its only significant development, this tends to show
that the Project has performed a. genuine function in permit¬
ting and encouraging the growth of new talent. A. large per=
centage of 2500 Project artists employed on the fine arts
program are under thirty years of age. Many are in their
early twenties. Recognition of the importance of this young
talent has been received from many quarters.
While prizes and fellowships are in themselves relatively un<=
important, they are evidence from outside the Project of the
high quality of the work produced. In the mura.l field, one
project artist was awarded the gold medal of the Architectural
League, generally conceded to be the highest honor in decora^
tiwe painting in the United States. A. painting by one artist
was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of .Art in New York;
another was purchased by the Phillips Memorial Gallery in
Washington, B.C. Three artists have won prizes at the National
Academy of Design; fowr^at the Cleveland Museum's Annual Show.
Three ha.ve won Guggenheim Foundation fellowships, and one a
fellowship at the MacDowell Colony.
Murals
The most picturesque and dramatic of the fine arts projects
— 10 —
are those devoted to murals, since they are most widely
seen by the public end most widely commented upon. Since
August 1935 more than U50 murals have already been coraple-
ted and installed in public institions throughout the coun-
try; about seventy-five murals are in progress? and sket¬
ches are being prepared for a great many others. These
murals are requested by public institutions such as hospi¬
tals, airports, schools, court houses, colleges, etc.,
which defray material costs.
In New York City alone, more than 150 murals have been as¬
signed or given approval by advisory boards and a number
have already been completed. Of these last, the City Hospi¬
tal, Greenpoint Hospital, Seward Fa.rk and Samuel Gompers
High Schools, the Newark Airport, the Bellevue Psychiatric
Pavillion, and. the House of Detention for Women are among
the recipients.
Artists are also at work in Westchester, Nassau, dhd Ulster
Counties, Buffalo, and at West point, where a historic mural
for the dining hall of the Military Academy has been done and
work in stained glass is being undertaken.
In the State of Michigan, artists have completed work on mu¬
rals for the Central High School of Flymouth, the Wordsworth
School at Fordson, and the cafeteria of the Lincoln Consoli¬
dated Laboratory School inYpsilanti. In Massachusetts Mu¬
rals have been brought to completion at Charlestown, in Spring-
field at the Museum of Natural History, in the high schools
of Newton and Falmouth, and in the SaugUB Court House, In
Minnesota murals have "been installed in the Minneapolis Ar¬
mory, the Town Hall at Brandon, and the Gillette State and
Lymanhurst Hospitals, Wisconsin also has its share of mu¬
rals pahnted by Federal Art Project artists.
In Illinois murals have been placed in the Bureau of Water
Supply in the Chicago City Hall, the Elgin State Hospital,
the Mantene State Hospital, five schools in Oak Park, the
Medical Unit of the University of Illinois and the DeKalb
State Teachers College.
California has eight Federal Art Project murals in public
institutions in.Alameda County, one in the Academy of
Sciences in Golden Gate Park, and one in the Union High
School in Monterey.
It is a most encouraging sign that, in addition to the mu¬
rals already mentioned, there are hundreds of requests for
others. In every section of the country there are waiting
lists for WPA Federal Art Project murals. It is not too
much to say that this work, as it develops, gives promise
of a truly monumental art which will express with honesty,
clarity, and power the experience and ideas of American
communities.
EASEL PAINTING.
The largest number of creative artists engaged on the WpA
Federal Art Project are working on easel pictures in oil,
watercolor, tempera, and pastel. Essentially, of course,
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the aim of this phase of the project is to conserve the skill
of artists who, without Federal aid, might lose everything
gained by years of study and work. But no less important is
the acquisition for the public of a body of art work which is
valuable in itself and which will serve to stimulate a wider
appreciation and understanding of art.
An outstanding characteristic of the easel painting under the
Project has been the initiative in meeting new problems,
coupled with an admirable command of the several media used.
These artists *> totalling about 939 - have been making their
own free and confident assertions. Figure painting and still
life have interested them very little. Few studio subjects
have appeared. This new work is often close to the quick, spon¬
taneous life which is a.t the artist's door - which, at lease, he
now perceives to be at his door. A fresh poetry of the soil has
appeared, with a. marked freedom from formula.
These artists are aware at last that in addition to painting pic"
tures which express themselves they must also speak the language
of the layman. Easel pa.intings for hospitals and other public
institutions have been placed in tuberculosis hospitals recently
completed by the State of New York, at Oneonta, Mt. Morns, and
the Hermann m. Biggs Memorial Hospital at Ithica, and in twenty^
five older institutions treating the same disease.
In New England, the Southern States, and in the West, many easel
projects have completed portraits of distinguished people famous
in the history of the localities. In California, for ex¬
ample, a, series of these portraits have boen made for the
Bancroft Library of the University of California.
In the Middle Uest, the artists of the T.".*PA. Federal Art Pro¬
ject easel project painted back—drops for the theatre pro¬
ject, and similar scenic work has been done in many cities.
Schools in many states, interested in securing paintings
for special purposes, have raised funds to carry material
costs and other cooperating groups have secured works of
FAP art on the same basis.
The number of canvases already produced by Federal Art Pro¬
ject artists runs into several thousands, yet requests for
then by public institutions have been so great that the Hew
York office reports it is unable to meet the demand in its
region. This is no less true of other sections of the
country.
It has been clearly demonstrated thajb for the first time in
the history of «mcrica the demand for art objects by the
great multitudes of people who are having their first real
opportunity to understand and enjoy them has begun to out¬
strip the supply. This healthy balance of cultural communi¬
cation between the creators and the users of art is directly
due to the efforts of the UPA Federal Art Froject.
SCULPTURE
In November 193^ there were approximately 500 sculptors work-
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ing for the Project throughout the country. California,
which appears to have "been passing through a sculpture
renaissance, has usefully eaployed about seventy«five of
the total number, New York 180, Illinois 55, Florida 25,
New Jersey 23, Oregon 16, Connecticut 16, Massachusetts 13,
have been
Ohio 16, and the remainder/absorbed by sons seventeen ad¬
ditional states.
The WPA. Federal Art Project in pla.nning its sculpture pro¬
gram has made * strenuous attempt to unite, the distinct but
related arts of sculpture and architecture. The greater
part of the Project sculpture has therefore been designed
to harmonize with architectural plans, and to stimulate a
larger demand for sculpture in public buildin gs. Many
friezes, pediments, plaques, panels, and figures have been
installed in schools, colleges, libraries, government hous-
ing units, and other public buildings. A. good deal of the
free sculpture on the Project has been designed to fit speci¬
fic locations in public parks, botanical gardens, and court¬
yards of buildings. Many casts have also been distributed
to schools and libraries.
It seems reasonable to believe that through the work of the
Project a great many people coning into daily contact with
sculpture will be trained more effectively in the under¬
standing of an art which, except in its more illustrative
phases, has always seemed difficult to the general public.
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Graphic A.rts
Today on the Frint Project an extraordinary versatility has
come into being. Not only lithography bat every known branch
of the graphic arts has its practitioners. Encouragement to
technical experiment, the supply of needed materials and well«
equipped Federal 4rt Project workshops have helped to produce
a most comprehensive diversity of media,, often treated with
real mastery: lithography, lithotint, color lithography, etch=
ing, aquatint, wood block, linoleum cut, colored wood block,
and wood engraving. Each artist - and there have been as
many as 2}0 employed at one time - is free to select the medium
most sympathetic to his own vision.
Many hundreds of the prints produced by Project artists have
been framed and hung in tax-supported public buildings and
institutions. Hundreds of others have been gathered into
portfolios to be placed in public libraries, schools, and
colleges. The remaining prints are circulated throughout
the country in exhibitions arranged by the Froject and co¬
operating organizations.
As night be expected from its history in this country, the
print is extremely sensitive to the contemporary environment,
and is an art rich in social content. It would almost be pos¬
sible to reconstruct a. soci-1 history of our period from the
prints produced on the 'TPA. Federal -Art Project, The prints
give a fresh and vital interpretation of life as it is lived
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in America today. Every aspect of the American scene is
reflected in them: the whole kaleidoscope of American life.
Posters
The Poster Froject has employed as many as M-7b artists to
carry out its enori-ous task. In a single month, in the
New York district alone, more than 17,000 silkscreen posters
were produced by a personnel of fifty-three workers.
The work of this section consists in general of announcing,
illustrating, and promoting the many civic enterprises of
such municipal departments as fire, police, health, and
education. Posters have been supplied to promote better
citizenship, public health, municipal cleanliness. They
have been prepared for industrial re-employment bureaus,
State Conservation Departments, and many of the "TPA pro¬
jects. They have been used to wage a pictorial war against
vandalism, noise, crime, disregard of public property. The
Poster Projects in Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland,
New York, Boston, St. Paul, and Philadelphia have been most
active in this work, which has proved itself to be of enor¬
mous social value.( New York includes Rockville Center, Long
Island, poster project.)
Photography and the Film
Central photographic projects have been set up in the larger
art centers for the taking of photographs requested by the
various.art projects in the district as necessary to their
records. More than prints and an equal number of en«
largements have been made to document the activities of the
Federal Art Project. Typical examples of early American de«
sign and objects of cultural importance have also been photo---
graphed. Several photographers in New York are recording the
"Changing Life of New York" which is to form a permanent . rec«=
ord of contemporary life in America's largest metropolis.
The Film Project has produced its first educational motion
picture, "The Technic of Fresco Paintin--," which demonstrates
dramatically how a. fresco mural is prepared and painted. The
film uses for its subject the mural of James iviichael Newell,
"Evolution of Western Civilization," now nearing completion in
the library of the Evander Childs High School in New York.
This film has been shown to the public in conjunction with Fed<=
eral Art Froject exhibitions, -°nd is now making a tour of the
Federal Art Galleries and. A.rt Centers. Other educational films
of this type and calibre are in preparation.
Conclusion
The idea which seemed most fruitful in contemporary art —
particularly as shown by the work of artists under the Froject
— has been that of participation. Though the measure of secur«
ity provided ty the government in these difficult time has been
important, a sense of an active participation in the life and
thought and movement of their own time has undoubtedly been
18 -
even more significant for a large number of artists, partis
cularly those in the younger groups.
A new concept of social loyalty and responsibility of the
artist to his fellow raan seems to be replacing the individual®
istic concepts which guided the social and creative conduct
of the artist in the past. An end seems to be in sight to the
kind of detachment which removed the artist from common experi¬
ence, and which,at its worst, gave rise to an art merely for
the museum.
It is fortunate that, under government auspices, an opportuni¬
ty for the development of significant new tendencies has been
provided during these crucial times. The outcome is full of
promise for the future. Certainly there is no dearth of genu¬
ine talent in this country — talent of a rich order. Under
the most difficult circumstances, American artists have shown
themselves ready to attack new problems and to make fresh ad¬
aptations. They are growing in stature and in power. They
have the technique, the discipline, and the impulse to carry
American art to nev/ heights. The question for the future is
whether they may continue to maintain that sound relationship
with a wide and actively interested public which has been
shown to be essential for a living art.
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