The Culture of the 1930s the Federal Art Project Set a Predecent for

The Federal Art Project in Washington Country

by Eleanor Mahoney

In Washington State, the Federal Art Project supported artists in a wide variety of endeavors. This May 30, 1937 article from the Seattle Daily Times highlights the creation of murals, sculpture, dioramas and model ships. In August 1935, the Federal Authorities launched its most ambitious New Deal visual arts initiative, the Federal Fine art Projection (FAP). Aimed at conserving "the talent and skills of artists who, through no mistake of their own, found themselves on the relief rolls and without means to continue their work," the FAP ultimately employed more than 5,000 men and women over an eight-year bridge (1935-1943). [1] In addition to aiding the unemployed, the programme too sought, according to an early program manual, to make art accessible to the population at-large, "to integrate the fine with the practical arts and, more particularly, the arts in full general with the daily life of the community." [2] As FAP Managing director Holger Cahill explained, "The resource for art in America depend upon the artistic experience stored up in its art traditions, upon the knowledge and talent of its living artists and the opportunities provided for them, but near of all upon opportunities provided for the people equally a whole to participate in the experience of art." [3]

The FAP was i of a series of cultural initiatives launched past the Roosevelt administration during the summer of 1935. Housed within the Works Progress Administration (WPA), these artistic programs were collectively known every bit Federal I (curt for Federal Projection Number One) and included the Federal Theatre Project, the Federal Writers Projection, the Federal Music Projection, the Historical Records Survey (originally function of the Writers Project) and the FAP. Together, they represented a cardinal chemical element of President Roosevelt's "Second New Bargain," a period (1935-1938) that too witnessed the implementation of such landmark programs as Social Security and the National Labor Relations Human action.

Each of the Federal One projects had its ain director and administrative structure. Holger Cahill, for example, directed the FAP from its earliest days in 1935 until the programme's end in 1943. [four] Even so, all the initiatives fell nether the broader auspices of the WPA and were thus discipline to the funding difficulties that plagued the agency as a whole. Particularly challenging in this regard was the absenteeism of program legislation. Created past Executive Order, the WPA lacked statutory authorization for funding and was thus bailiwick to the annual Congressional appropriations process – a situation that not only left it exposed to political wrangling, but also hampered efforts at long term planning and year-to-twelvemonth organizational consistency at the state and national levels. [five]

The principal purpose of the FAP was to provide employment to artists on relief. [6] In the mid 1930'due south, over 50% of American artists were eligible for public aid according to estimates by Projection officials. [vii] "No one became rich or famous straight through this program," Northwest art historian Martha Kingsbury has written, "…but artists in areas like the Northwest received 2 very valuable benefits: the recognition and status of having a respected profession and the encouragement that implicitly went with that; and, more practically, the time and materials made available by the paycheck, which enabled them to persist in their art." [8]

Artist Richard Correll works on a Federal Art Project sponsored mural at Arlington Loftier School. He besides painted a Paul Bunyan-themed piece for the aforementioned site, amid multiple FAP works he completed. Image Seattle Daily Times, December 8, 1940. Subsequently a smash during the 1920's, the fine art market place complanate in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, with sales of both imported and American artwork decreasing some eighty% over the next four years. Employment opportunities besides fell significantly, with the number of artists and teachers of art declining by 9.2% in the 1930's, even while the population as a whole increased by seven.2%. [9] As Harry Hopkins, Manager of the WPA succinctly put information technology when discussing the artist's plight, "Hell! They've got to consume just like other people." [10] Even men and women who achieved a degree of renown later in life, including Pacific Northwest artists like Marking Tobey and Morris Graves, participated in the FAP, a testament to the weakness of any private market for art during the Depression.

Artists supported by the FAP were active in a wide diversity of areas, including traditional pursuits, similar easel painting, too as more novel (for the era) fields like community education and the documentation of folk fine art. Over the course of 8 years, FAP artists produced some 108,000 paintings, 17,700 sculptures, xi,200 print designs, 35,000 poster designs and 2,500 murals. [11] In improver, more than 100 Customs Fine art Centers opened their doors across the nation, including one very successful site in Spokane, Washington. These institutions, among the starting time to teach painting, sculpture and design outside the setting of a college or university, exposed millions of Americans to the theory and exercise of fine art. The FAP also was responsible for creating the Index of American Design, a massive plan of research, which sought to document the breadth of the nation'southward cloth civilization, cataloging over 22,000 items and producing a series of guides outlining the techniques used in the cosmos of various traditional arts and crafts. [12]

On September, 29, 1938, the Spokesman-Review ran a story on the soon to be opened Spokane Art Center. It highlighted the customs's contribution to the projection too as the quotient of work, which would soon be on display for citizens to view costless of charge. In the image to a higher place, Washington State Federal Art Project Manager R. Bruce Inverarity (at left) and Spokane Art Center Director Carl Morris mount a painting by Warren Weelock, an artist from New York. Among the most successful FAP-organized centers in the country, the Spokane Art Middle welcomes thousands of local residents through it doors during its brief few years of existence.

In general, the FAP allowed more flexibility in subject matter and style than the Treasury Department'south Section of Painting and Sculpture, a programme all-time known for sponsoring thousands of murals in post offices and courthouses. While similar themes, including regionalism, history, labor and folklore, dominated in both initiatives, FAP administrators did non crave as strict an adherence to the precepts of the "American Scene" movement as their counterparts in the Section. For case, Seattle artist Fay Chong, who participated in the FAP for a number of years remembered that, "…fortunately I was very free to do what I wanted to practise as far as subject affair; I had my pick, which was very skilful, and the same way with my printmaking. I remember I had a choice at that place, too, but there was of course a time requirement that we had to produce and so many prints or and then many paintings in a certain fourth dimension, you see, just I suppose that is a necessity for a project or for any kind of organisation." [thirteen]

Another significant departure lay in the structure of each program. Centrally managed in Washington, D.C., the Department had little to no official footprint in individual states. In contrast, the FAP, a much larger program in terms of employment, developed regional and state bureaucracies, both of which exercised a fair amount of control over projection pick, creative person recruitment and program direction.

This de-centralization, while maybe allowing for more flexibility, likewise led to conflicts with local officials, particularly those within the existing WPA state construction, who resented the intrusion of Washington D.C. appointed administrators onto their terrain. Such was the case in Washington, which was among the terminal states in the country to set up an Art Project due to internal bickering among diverse WPA managers. [14] The situation was so toxic, in fact, that many artists, fearing no program would ever take shape, deliberately misrepresented their skills on relief applications, in the hopes of gaining employment faster in some other field, even working equally laborers to brand ends meet. [15]

For most a yr, regime officials in Washington argued over the FAP's value, cost, and even the suspected presence of radical elements among eligible artists. Then WPA State Administrator George Gannon did not support the project, believing it to exist a worthless investment, given the fact that, in his words, "at that place are only xx artists in the whole state and eighteen of them cannot plow out a class of work that would justify employing them as artists." [16] Conditions eventually deteriorated to such an extent that in Dec 1935, Burt Baker Brown, Director of the Art Projection in the Western Region, asked to be relieved of whatsoever responsibility for Washington. [17] National leaders, including Holger Cahill, did not surrender, notwithstanding, and modify arrived with the appointment of a new State Administrator, Don Abel, in early on 1936. [18]

Progress came chop-chop post-obit the transition in leadership and past June 1936, a Land FAP Manager, Robert Bruce Inverarity, had been appointed and a minor Art Program established. [nineteen] "Hungry artists from the state of Washington are to be taken from the class of forgotten men and given works projects," a June 24, 1936, article in the Spokane Chronicle reported. "Painters, sculptors, poster artists, lithographers, stone cutters, wood carvers, weavers, plaster casters, and craftsmen in metals and other materials," were all encouraged to apply for employment through the FAP. [20]

Within a few months of assuming the directorship, Inverarity succeeded in filing the quota of 25 artists. [21] Through hard work and outreach, he also managed to secure a number of project co-sponsors, including the University of Washington, Cushman Indian Hospital in Tacoma, the Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle City Calorie-free. In July 1936, the Everett Evening News reported on a promotional visit past Inverarity to the urban center. Describing the FAP as "an unusual opportunity for Everett'south tax-supported institutions to be decorated throughout at a trifling cost," the paper besides highlighted the potential educational value of public art. "An especially valuable phase of the undertaking," the article noted, "will be the opportunity for kindergartens to obtain wall paintings of nursery scenes and verses." [22] According to the FAP manual, Inverarity was to solicit potential partners from all public and quasi-public agencies in the state to see if whatsoever sites wanted or needed fine art. [23] "I would talk to Rotary Clubs, girl scouts, church building groups, anyone…," he remembered. [24] In addition to being tax-supported, the organizations were required to contribute the bulk of non-bacon project costs. In return, a site received the resulting artwork on indefinite loan. [25]

Among the most visible projects completed by FAP artists in Washington State were roughly a dozen murals. These included: "The Theatre of the Eastward," "The Theatre of the W," and "The Theatre in the Fourth dimension of Shakespeare" by Glenn Sheckels for the Academy of Washington Drama Department; a decorative mural for the small creature business firm at the Woodland Park Zoo; maps of eastern and western Washington for the newly constructed Public Lands and Social Securities building in Olympia; and "Landing of the Seattle Pioneers," "Pioneer Life at Alki," and "Logging on Elliot Bay" by Jacob Elshin for Due west Seattle Loftier School. Like the more famous post office murals associated with the Section, these paintings were often visually and thematically hit, capturing local folklore and history in a dramatic figurative style. In improver, the FAP stressed the educational aspect of these paintings and encouraged artists to piece of work in public and on-site and then that Americans might better understand the theory and practice of fine art also equally simply savor the last production. [26]

In this image, from the May 1939 edition of Indians at Work, a publication of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Uinta Ute creative person Julius Twohy stands on scaffolding while painting a mural at Cushman Indian Hospital in Tacoma. Twohy was the only Native artist to participate in the Federal Art Projection in Washington Country. One detail mural, "The Flight of the Thunderbird," garnered significant attention, including a story in the Los Angeles Times and over a dozen mentions in diverse Washington media outlets. Created for the Cushman Indian Infirmary (a federal facility located on Puyallup Tribal land in Tacoma) past Uinta Ute artist Julius Twohy, the impressive 72-pes painting presented the story of the Thunderbird from the perspective of various indigenous peoples. Traveling from w to east (left to correct) beyond the wall, Twohy's Thunderbird moves through different regions and cultures, shifting appearance and meaning for each group it encounters. On the far left is a effigy that evokes the Northwest Coast, a Thunderbird that might appear on a Totem from British Columbia, followed by symbols and imagery often associated with the Great Basin, Southwest (a loom), Plains (tipi and horses) and Great Lakes (h2o and canoes). In each locale, according to an interview with the artist, the Thunderbird appears to chiefs and medicine men (also depicted in the mural) providing instruction and spiritual guidance. [27]

In addition to murals, FAP artists also worked on a variety of other projects. One that received particular attending was a model of Diablo Dam on the Skagit River in North Cardinal Washington. Congenital using the dam's actual blueprints in a workshop in the Final Sales Building in Seattle, the model featured a "real physical Diablo Dam, a mountainside and a riverbed, and running water, all in a space eight feet long and six anxiety wide." [28] As well noteworthy were a series of sculptures for the Walker-Ames Room at the University of Washington, including a limestone bust of William Shakespeare by Seattle creative person Irene McHugh, besides equally a linoleum mosaic at Point Defiance (then called Tacoma Park) by Richard Correll, a politically engaged creative person who also contributed to the Communist Party affiliated Voice of Action newspaper, the Washington New Dealer and the New Masses. [29]

A series of visits from Starting time Lady Eleanor Roosevelt represented a high point for the Federal Art Projection and the WPA as a whole in Washington State. In an oral history interview recorded many years later, State administrator Don Abel remembered the events fondly, "I retrieve that probably the most enthusiastic supporter of the Art Projects and other types of projects that were not work projects was Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt," he recalled. "She was out here a number of times because her daughter lived in Seattle, and she invariably went to the dissimilar Art Projects, and particularly projects where women were involved in the Seattle surface area. I don't think that she got over to Eastern Washington, but in the Seattle-Tacoma expanse, she spent considerable time visiting all of the Art Projects and the projects involving women." [thirty]

During a 1937 visit to Washington State, Kickoff Lady Eleanor Roosevelt examined the work of "an old ship helm" employed by the FAP as a maker of model ships. During her finish, Mrs. Roosevelt asked multiple questions regarding the projection's activities and said she "hated to get" before leaving to address the metropolis council and King County Commission. In 1939, the structure of the WPA (and by extension the Federal I programs ) changed dramatically. The newly created Federal Works Agency (FWA) assumed management of all WPA programs, thereby eliminating the agency's status as an independent entity. The Works Progress Administration shortly became the Piece of work Projects Administration, reflecting the FWA's heightened emphasis on results and accountability. With shifts in management came changes in support and funding. The Federal Theatre Project, long under attack by the correct-wing, was eliminated, while the other Federal One programs suffered deep cuts in their Federal allocations. Control shifted to u.s. and, as a effect, the Federal Art Project in Washington State became the Washington Fine art Project, with the Academy of Washington becoming the official sponsor, though the federal authorities nevertheless contributed a bulk of funds. Work continued, though morale suffered in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere every bit a result of the changes. In these later years, Inverarity, who remained Director until the Projection'due south finish in 1942, was able to initiate a few new programs, including an aggressive endeavour to open pocket-size art galleries and exhibition spaces across the state, and then that residents of smaller towns and rural areas could enjoy exposure to art. A Seattle Daily Times commodity from September 7,1939 announcing the shift in management stressed that the program would continue its mission of "the fostering fine art talent and the teaching of art to the underprivileged."

Over the course of 8 years, the Federal Art Project aided thousands of needy artists and craftspeople, including dozens in Washington Land. Like other Americans, artists were struggling to survive the Great Depression, searching for any kind of gainful employment amidst the greatest economic calamity the nation had ever known. As a result of the WPA'southward Federal 1 initiative, men and women engaged in creative piece of work like design, painting, writing, theatre and music, were able to contribute their skills, knowledge and know-how to order during a critical moment of change and uncertainty. Whether information technology was painting classes in a community center, loftier quality murals in a local high school or the opening of a rural gallery, the Federal Art Projection connected art and artists to the public in new and innovative means. Similar other New Deal programs, the Art Project often suffered from bureaucratic in-fighting and a lack formal administrative structure, but, despite these difficulties, it ultimately succeeded bringing art to the people and inspiring an enduring interest in the field among a generation of Americans.

Copyright (c) 2012, Eleanor Mahoney

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[one] On May 6, 1935, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7034, which created the Works Progress Administration. On August ii, 1935, Harry Hopkins, announced the creation of Federal Project Number One, which offered employment to relief eligible men and women in theatre, music, visual arts and writing. Text related to the purposes of the Federal Fine art Projection come from a 1935 FAP manual, cited in Martin R. Kalfatovic, The New Deal Fine Arts Projects: A Bibliography, 1933-1992 (Metuchen, Northward.J.: Scarecrow Printing, 1994), thirty.

[2] Kalfatovic, xxx.

[three] Holger Cahill, "American Resources in the Arts," in Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930's by Artists and Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project, edited by Francis V. O'Connor (Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Gild LTD, 1973), 43-44.

[iv] Cahill served as Managing director for the programme's entire duration. Born Kirstjan Bjarnarson in Iceland, he immigrated to the U.Due south. as a young child, growing up improverished in South Dakota. During his teenage years, Cahill dedided he wanted to be a writer and traveled to New Yok Urban center to pursue his dream. He took night courses ast New York University and changed his name - to Holger Cahill. Before joining the FAP, Cahill worked for various New York publications and museums, including time spent as exhibitions director at the Museum of Mod Art.

[5] Kalfatovic, xxxiii.

[half dozen] The FAP'southward mission differentiated it from another New Bargain public fine art initiative, the Section of Painting and Sculpture (the Department). Managed by the Treasury Section, the Department did not accept an creative person's financial need or employment status into account when awarding commissions and instead used the blind contest as its main selection machinery

[7] According to an Associated Press commodity published in the Seattle Daily Times on Oct thirteen, 1936, FAP Managing director Holger Cahill estimated that at that place were 12,000 artists in the U.S. in 1936, of which 58% were in need of relief. Cahill reported that if he had the funds, ii,500 boosted artists could be brought onto the WPA relief program, in add-on to the 4,500 currently employed. "Fine art becomes an industry; Sales First to Climb," Seattle Daily Times, October thirteen, 1936, p.35.

[8] Martha Kingsbury, Art of the Thirties; The Pacific Northwest ( Seattle: Published for the Henry Art Gallery by the Academy of Washington Press, 1972), xi.

[9] Judith G. Keyser, The New Deal Murals in Washington Land: Communication and Popular Democracy, (1000.A. Thesis, Academy of Washington, 1982), 21

[10] The men and women employed by the FAP did non become wealthy by whatever means and many struggled to survive on their modest salaries of no more than $100/month. Bruce Bustard, A New Deal for the Arts (Washington, DC: National Athenaeum and Records Administration in association with the University of Washington Printing, 1997) 7; Kingsbury, 11.

[11] Bustard, 9; Keyser, 50.

[12] Keyser, 53.

[13] Oral history interview with Fay Chong, 1965 February. xiv-20, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Establishment. Accessed September 6, 2012.

[14] Keyser, 84-85.

[15] Robert Bruce Inverarity, "Letter to R.C. Jacobson, Acting Administrator for State of Washington Works Progress Assistants," April 27, 1936, Tape Group 69, Records of the Works Progress Assistants, Regional and State Correspondence - Washington Land, microfilmed by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C; Regional WPA Manager Joseph Danysh expressed similar sentiments in a newstory publihsed in the Bremerton Journal, July ii, 1936, "Starving Artists to At present Relish Life."

[xvi] Judith Thousand. Keyser, 84-85.

[17] Ibid, 84

[18] Ibid, 85.

[xix] Born in Seattle in 1909, Inverarity was the son of prominent local booster, lawyer and theater manager Duncan Inverarity; a connection that aided him equally he sought out project partners. A 1928 graduate of Garfield High School, Inverarity had already gained a degree of local notoriety by the fourth dimension he was 18. Continuing almost six and a half tall, with a mop of blond hair and a seemingly permanent pipe in his rima oris, the young artist was certainly memorable. A contour piece in the December iv, 1928 edition of the Seattle Star, described him every bit "one of the most unusual people in Seattle, no matter how you await at him. He'due south Seattle's youngest recognized artist. He'southward taking an active part in introducing 'modern art' to a metropolis that knew him as a school male child…"Less than a decade removed from High School, Inverarity had already worked every bit an instructor at Cornish Higher, the School of Creative Art in Vancouver and the University of Washington before joining the Federal Fine art Project.

[20] "Will Put Washington Artists Back on Job," Spokane Chronicle, June 24, 1936.

[21] Keyser, 86.

[22] "WPA Offer Artist Work on Buildings," Everett Evening News, July 11, 1936.

[23] Federal Art Projection, Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project Manual (New York: 1935), 8.

[24] Keyser, 86.

[25] Federal Art Project. Art in Democracy: Sponsors, Friends and Members of the Federal Art Project, Works Progress Administration (New York: Federal Art Project, Works Progress Assistants, 1938), 31

[26] I have not been able to locate a cardinal listing of all FAP murals completed in the state. As a effect, the figure of "roughly a dozen" is based on a review of paper stories, archival records and a diverseness of secondary sources.

[27] Keyser, 87.

[28] "Federal Art Project Makes Model of Skagit Dam Site," Seattle Daily Times, May thirty, 1937, 7.

[29] Keyser, 89.

[30] Oral history interview with Don G. Abel, 1965 June ten, Athenaeum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Accessed September 6, 2012.

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Source: https://depts.washington.edu/depress/FAP.shtml

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