Description
During the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s and into the early years of World War II, the federal government -- as one of its efforts to employ some of the millions of Americans then without work -- supported the arts in unprecedented ways. For 11 years, between 1933 and 1943, federal tax dollars employed artists, musicians, actors, writers, photographers, and dancers. Never before or since has our government so extensively sponsored the arts. This book, based on a 1997 exhibit at the National Archives and Records Administration, tells the story of these short-lived, but remarkable, cultural endeavors. The New Deal arts projects provided work for jobless artists, but they also had a larger mission: to promote American art and culture and to give more Americans access to what President Franklin Roosevelt described as "an abundant life". The arts protects covered the entire country and reflected the broad diversity of American life. They supported African-American and Yiddish theater; employed Native American, Hispanic, women, and black artists; sponsored contemporary dance; and preserved traditional folk songs and stories. The projects saved thousands of artists from poverty and despair and enabled Americans all across the country to see an original painting for the first time, attend their first professional live theater, or take their first music or drawing class. The arts projects also sparked controversy. Some politicians believed them to be wasteful propaganda and wanted them ended; others wanted them expanded. Project directors hoped they would become permanent and lead the way to a greater acceptance of the arts in American society. Artists sometimes foundthemselves caught up in these disputes over artistic expression. The topical organization of A New Deal for the Arts reflects several of the important themes found within New Deal art -- the projects' use of American history; their celebration of the common man and woman; their support for the New Deal: their political activism and the art that was a product of these concerns; and their sponsorship of "practical" arts.
