The Federal Art Project W O R D S + D E S I G N H E AT H E R VA N D O O R N
Funded from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Federal Art Program (FPA), just about 1400 murals were painted in US Post Offices around the country in more than 1300 cities.
In the early 1930s, morale
in the United States was at an all-time low. We were still trying to grapple with massive unemployment—25% of the country’s breadwinners were jobless. Frustrated and fed up with the response of the Hoover administration, Americans were more than ready for change, and in 1932 elected Democrat presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Four months after taking office, FDR unrolled his New Deal, a series of policies and programs designed to put the country on a road to relief, reform, and recovery. The New Deal’s primary goal was to get people back to work through low-interest loans to farmers, large-scale construction projects, and most interesting by today’s standards, the Federal Art Project.
Richard Haines Dirt Track, c. 1935-1943 Courtesy of the National Galley of Art, Washington
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Spring 2021 | The Bleed | Volume 12
By 1943, the Federal Art Project (FAP), headed by Holger Cahill, employed over 10,000 artists to produce posters, photographs, large and small sculptures, murals, paintings, and many other works of art. It employed not only noteworthy creators of the time but artists of all skill levels and backgrounds. This all-encompassing approach to fill creative positions was incredibly successful. By the end of year one, the FAP employed over 5,000 artists, each paid $23.50 a week to create. In 1943, that number more than doubled, resulting in thousands of pieces of art. The majority of these were installed in public buildings, but they also graced the walls and foyers of theaters, museums, and other arts buildings and spaces. The FAP created community art centers across the country in cities large and small to serve as art exhibition spaces, learning centers, and as a way to increase the accessibility of art to
