“Boondoggling” entered the American lexicon as a term to describe these and other government projects that critics deemed wasteful or pointless. WPA arts programs drew frequent criticism from Congress and the lay public. Nonetheless, unions protested the WPA for its refusal to pay wages as high as those in the private sector. The WPA avoided cost-saving technologies and machinery in order to hire more workers. WPA construction projects sometimes ran three to four times the cost of private work. Some politicians criticized the WPA for its inefficiencies. The answer to both questions was “the WPA.” and the San Francisco Mint.Ī Gallup poll in 1939 asked Americans what they liked best and worst about FDR’s New Deal. Notable examples include the Hoover Dam, the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. buildings constructed as part of Great Depression relief projects is often referred to as “PWA Moderne” (for Public Works Administration, another New Deal program) or “Depression Moderne.” The style blended neoclassical and Art Deco elements. Holger Cahill, a former director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, was the national director of the Federal Arts Project throughout its duration. That group included renowned artists such as Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Lee Krasner. In addition to Pollock, the WPA employed a number of other abstract and experimental artists that would go on to form the New York School, an avant-garde art movement of the 1950s and 1960s. After World War II, Pollock became a major figure in the abstract expressionism movement. He worked as a mural assistant and later an easel painter between 19. Some of them later became world-renowned.īefore his art could earn him income, American painter Jackson Pollock worked for the WPA’s Federal Arts Project, a component of Federal One. History Shorts: How Artists Helped End the Great DepressionĪt its height, Federal One employed 5,300 visual artists and related professionals. The WPA arts programs led to the later creation of the National Foundation of the Arts. She later praised the project in columns and speeches and defended it against critics who saw the arts as a waste of money.īut Federal One comprised a small part of WPA expenditures: Roughly $27 million of the nearly $5 billion that had been earmarked for WPA work programs went to the arts. Sculptors created monuments, and actors and musicians were paid to perform.įederal One also established more than 100 community art centers throughout the country.įirst Lady Eleanor Roosevelt lobbied FDR to sign the executive order establishing Federal One. national parks and “American scenes” in public buildings. Roosevelt intended Federal One (as it was known) to put artists back to work while entertaining and inspiring the larger population by creating a hopeful view of life amidst the economic turmoil.Īrtists created motivational posters and painted murals of U.S. These programs employed artists, musicians, actors and writers. In addition to its well-known building and infrastructure projects, the WPA also oversaw a group of programs collectively known as Federal Project Number One. Here's How the Great Depression Brought on Social Security Federal Project Number One
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