Mrs. Ruland's U.S. History Class Project
WPA and the Arts
The WPA and the Arts was an administration established in 1935 during the Second New Deal. It was a relief program that helped the unemployed on a large scale. The main goal of this administration was to provide jobs to the unemployed to restore hope and keep people working. Workers built public structures such as roads, dams, public buildings, and utilities. Other than manual labors it helped out artist too. There were Federal Writer’s, Theatre, Art, and Music Projects and the Historical Records Survey. These projects gave jobs to artists, writers, actors, and musicians. Then these groups of people wrote books, organized archives, decorated post offices, schools, and other public buildings. The musicians organized symphony orchestras and community singing. Actors participated in new and old plays and brought drama to communities who only had radios.
Federal Government: Works Progress Administration (WPA). 1935-1943
This is a comprehensive web site about the Works Progress Administration, that gives general information about the topic. It also relates the WPA to the New Deal, and Franklin Roosevelt, and explains the importance of the WPA. This is a very organized, easy to read site, which also has links to other web sites with information on the WPA.
New Deal Art during the Great Depression
The Federal Arts Project was one of the divisions of the WPA. This project was meant to employ unemployed artists. This project worked with the inspiration of new art movements to capture the values of the American people.
The W.P.A. Artists Project’ is full of good information about well known artists that had become known through the WPA’s Artist Project and their area of specialty. Also you can find information on the amount of membership in these projects and on the history of some new art forms such as graffiti and when they emerged.
This site has a general outline of the five different projects that the WPA held. However, this web site has an additional and extensive summary of the FTP (Federal Theatre Project) and the controversial position it had amongst the other projects.
By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA
This web site is a very interesting, creative collection of posters pertaining to the Works Progress Administration. There are also visual presentations using the different WPA visuals. This is a cool site, and gives a good first hand account through the different pictures and paintings from the WPA time period.
This web site is extremely comprehensive, providing information on the WPA. There are sections on the five projects of the WPA on the cultural side, Federal Arts Project, Federal Music Project, Federal Theatre Project, Federal Writers Project, and the Historical Records Survey. Giving plenty more facts, and some quotes, this web site is a great web site for research and projects.
This site has good information regarding the Federal Writers Project and what it consists of. In addition it gives us information of what the members of the Federal Writers Project did in their field and what they documented.
This is an interesting site that specializes in the Federal Writers Projects interviewing of ex-slaves and discovering what truly happened in the plantation farms and of how brutally they were treated. This site gives many personal accounts of the slaves and their experiences and was an essential part of the Federal writer’s Project and was a great accomplishment.
This is a very extensive web site containing a lot of information about the WPA and its programs. It gives background information on the WPA and all the parts of it. The workers side as well as the cultural side. It gives a list of links of topic relating to it, so viewers can click on them for additional information. Caution this web site is accessible by anyone and may have false information added by other users.
This site gives a general overview on the WPA and its purpose but also specifies accomplishments on the Historical Records Survey. These couple pages gives information about the uses of the HRS today and about what it documented.
This site gives an overview of the history of the WPA and then specifies on how the WPA set up public libraries in South Carolina. This is a great site for specific research assignments and it gives useful links to other pages with useful information regarding the WPA (which have been tested).
Last updated March 28, 2008
© Marcella Ruland 1998-2008, All rights reserved
