Federal Art Project Essay

478 Words2 Pages

During The Great Depression every family was at it’s weakest point. Harry Hopkins one of President Franklin Roosevelt closest advisor started an experimental program known as the Public Works Art Program. This program was shortly lived, however, Harry Hopkins moving from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to the Works Progress Administration created the Federal Art Project. The Federal Art Project was created by the WPA as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans. In all this project created more than 200,000 jobs in many different lines of separate work. As Harry Hopkins got started with building the WPA into the largest employer the world has ever seen slowly things got up and running. The Federal Art Project starting putting artists back to work either by creating murals, paintings, sculptures, and posters. With this happening …show more content…

The following year the WPA passed a new rule that artists are to be rotated. Over time The Federal Art Project could not handle the strain on June 30, 1943 the Federal Art Project was disbanded due to the government turned to more important matters such as WWII. Soon after in December 1943, the government auctioned off thousands of WPA-funded paintings in a warehouse in Queens. That was the end of The Federal Art Project, and the end of peace. The Federal Art Project started as a way to give artists on relief rolls to be employed and restart our economy. Despite all the troubles people faced in this dark part of time they never gave up, and instead kept striving. The Federal Art Project has had an immense impact on shaping the future of America, but also it opened up doors for so many people that felt locked in. It showed people that art was not just colors without meaning, or stray streaks without a path to follow. Art is a legacy for the past, and future generations each piece of art has an origin it all matters how far you are willing to