Federal Art Project

Scheme developed by the US government's Works Project Administration (WPA) to support artists during the Great Depression of the 1930s. More than 4,000 artists were employed and paid a monthly salary under the scheme. Their tasks included designing government posters, producing art for the Index of American Design, establishing art education centres, and teaching. Some artists were involved in the WPA's prominent Public Works of Art project, creating paintings and sculptures for public places, including murals depicting the ‘American scene’. Photographers such as Dorothea Lange were asked to document the plight of poor communities.

The scheme marked the federal government's first acknowledgement of the significance of the arts in American life. The future effects of the project were probably underestimated at the time; it is now known that it enabled thousands of artists to continue developing their work at a time when it would have been impossible to survive on sales alone. The project also encouraged a community spirit among artists, which laid the foundations for future art movements, such as abstract expressionism. Artists who worked under the Federal Art Project included Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Arshile Gorky, Thomas Hart Benton, Ben Shahn, Jacob Lawrence, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, and Willem de Kooning.