Art in Every Corner: The Works Progress Administration (1935-1943)

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a relief program that employed struggling Americans during the Great Depression. Over the course of eight years, the WPA funded nearly 10,000 artists to produce work for public buildings and traveling exhibitions, bringing art to people across the United States. 

“I, too, have a dream—to show people in the out of the way places, some of whom are not only in small villages but in corners of New York City—something they cannot get from between the covers of books—some real paintings and prints and etchings and some real music.” 

Franklin Roosevelt to Hendrik Willem Van Loon, January 6, 1938 

In addition to supporting a flurry of creative output and innovation across artistic media, the WPA encouraged artists to directly engage with the everyday experiences of Americans from rural communities to urban centers. Following the WPA’s closure in 1943, works of art created under federal sponsorship were allocated to institutions across the country, including what is today the Blanton Museum of Art. This exhibition celebrates the prints, drawings, and paintings the museum received and the WPA’s dynamic impact on artists who depicted every corner of American life.  

Curated by Sarah Bane, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings, Blanton Museum of Art