On this day in 1935, Congress approved the Works Progress Administration.President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an employment program, to relieve economic woes during the Great Depression.
Joy in the Great Depression
On this day in 1935, Congress approved the Works Progress Administration.President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an employment program, to relieve economic woes during the Great Depression.
The WPA's cultural programs in writing, theater, music, and visual art provided tens of thousands of jobs to unemployed artists. The Federal Art Project, part of the WPA, is credited with producing about 2,500 murals, as well as over 100,000 paintings and 18,000 sculptures. One WPA artist, Hananiah Harari, wrote that the WPA experience provided unencumbered time to develop his art "in an environment of purpose and animation."
The Smithsonian American Art Museum collects mural sketches and other WPA-sponsored works, including this painting by California-based folk artist Josephine Joy.
Pictured: Josephine Joy, 1869–1948, Waterbirds Nesting, about 1935–39, oil, 30 x 24 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from Museum of Modern Art.