WPA Posters for the Federal Arts Project – The Artsology Blog

I happened upon a section of the Library Of Congress website where they have a collection of WPA Posters related to art. The Work Projects Administration (WPA) Poster Collection consists of 907 posters produced from 1936 to 1943 by various branches of the WPA. These posters promoted projects that reflected one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts.

I thought it was interesting to see that in the late 1930s, the United States government had the idea to organize an exhibition of art by art teachers as well as another exhibition of art by children. The posters for both of these exhibitions can be seen below.

A few more details on these posters: the Art Teachers poster was created by Anthony Velonis (1911-1997), who was an American painter and designer born in New York City who helped introduce the public to silkscreen printing in the early 20th century. The horse image on the children’s art poster was an actual child’s artwork, although the child artist’s name is unknown.

Both exhibitions took place at the Federal Art Gallery on West 57th Street – I wasn’t familiar with the federal government ever having a “Federal Art Gallery” (as opposed to any sort of national museum), and in trying to research it, I’m not coming up with much, but I do see that on December 27, 1935, the WPA opened the Federal Art Project Gallery at 225 West 57th Street in New York City, and one of its first exhibitions were rare watercolors by Jackson Pollock, who was a WPA artist. For artists (such as Pollock) to be considered for the WPA and the Federal Art Project, they first had to apply to confirm that they were impoverished and then submit samples of their work to demonstrate they were actively creating art. Once approved, an artist’s stipend was about $24 per week. If this history interests you, you can learn more about it here and here.