Federal Art Project

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The Federal Art Project (FAP) was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal WPA Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935 until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created posters, murals and paintings; some of which stand among the most significant pieces of public art in the country.

FAP's primary goals were to employ out-of-work artists and to provide art for non-federal government buildings: schools, hospitals, libraries and the like. The work was divided into art production, art instruction and art research; the primary output of the art research group was the Index of American Design.

The FAP was one of a short-lived series of Depression-era visual arts programs, which included the Section of Painting and Sculpture and the Public Works of Art Project (both of which, unlike the WPA-operated FAP, were operated by the United States Department of the Treasury).

Notables

Some of the well-known artists supported by the project:

Berenice Abbott William Baziotes Thomas Hart Benton Leon Bibel Dorr Bothwell Eleanor Coen Stuart Davis Werner Drewes Philip Evergood Arshile Gorky Adolph Gottlieb Harry Gottlieb William Gropper Philip Guston Marsden Hartley Donal Hord

Albert Kotin Lee Krasner Jacob Lawrence Tom Lea Conrad Marca-Relli John Marin Jackson Pollock Daniel Rhodes Mark Rothko Louis Schanker Georgette Seabrooke Ben Shahn Harry Shoulberg William Sommer Alton Tobey Mark Tobey

*Willem de Kooning and Santiago Martínez Delgado were also employed by the Project but had to leave because they were not American citizens at the time.

See also

• List of WPA artists

External links

• wpamurals.com: W.P.A. New Deal Art During the Great Depression - links to each state, with examples of WPA art in each
• "Art Within Reach" - Federal Art Project Community Art Centers
• Mark K. Christ & Sandra Taylor Smith, Arkansas Post Offices and the Treasury Department's Section Art Program, 1938-1942. Little Rock, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
• Iowa-born WPA Artist Robert Tabor
• Louis Schanker and the WPA in New York
• By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
• A collection of 240 WPA Posters
• Federal Art Project Photographic Division collection at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art

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Last updated on Saturday July 05, 2008 at 12:32:54 PDT (GMT -0700)
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