WPA Federal Art Project / Posters for the People

I have created a slide show to highlight some of the posters that were created under FDR's Work Project Administration during the depression.

The work on these posters, and many other public art works, kept many artists, actors, musicians, dancers and writers off the dole, during the depression.

The Federal Arts Project was instrumental in bringing art to the masses. In the end, FDR's New Deal Art Programs brought to the public 2, 566 murals, 17,774 sculptures, 108,099 easel paintings and 240,000 prints.

The poster division of the FAP brought the art of graphic design to a level never before achieved. The silk screening process was perfected at this time, for the purpose of printing large quantities of posters. Over 2 million posters of 35,000 designs were created during the 6 year program.

Few of these posters survive. The Library of Congress is now in possession of about 900 of these works of art.

Please take a look at the slide show for a sampling of these beautiful posters.

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