WPA Federal Art Project, 1935–1943

The Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project was a New Deal relief program to fund the visual arts. From 1935 to 1943, the Minnesota division of the FAP employed local artists to create thousands of works in many media and styles, from large works of public art to posters and paintings.

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created by Franklin D. Roosevelt. This sweeping plan, one of the "alphabet agencies” of the New Deal, was intended to employ millions of jobless Americans to carry out public works projects like constructing buildings, bridges, and roads.

But the WPA didn’t just employ people to construct bridges and buildings; it also funded visual artists, writers, musicians, and performers. From 1935 to 1943, the WPA’s Federal Art Project (FAP) provided work and support for visual artists in many media. According to Holger Cahill, the FAP’s national director, the ultimate goal of the project was to integrate the fine and practical arts with the daily life of American communities. While supporting Minnesota artists was at the center of the FAP, the program didn’t only give funding to artists to create artworks. The project had three other goals: to promote and support art education, to produce research in art, and to focus on how art could serve Minnesota communities.

Art production, the largest area of the FAP, was split into several divisions. Hundreds of works of art were created, in media including painting, sculpture, printmaking, murals, and photography. Some, like prints and oil and watercolor paintings, were made for exhibitions in galleries. Others, like large-scale murals, were made to enhance Minnesota buildings. There was also a division for posters and educational art. Poster artists designed and produced works that promoted public health and safety programs, advertised concerts and plays, and publicized the accomplishments of the WPA.

Most FAP artists worked in a realistic style called American Regionalism. Their techniques, however, ranged from the scrupulously realistic to a looser, freer, more impressionistic style. The subject matter was mostly “the American scene.” Artists created landscapes and scenes of farms and working farmers. They painted cityscapes and Minnesota’s industries—lumber mills, factories, and iron mines–as well as its people.

Many of Minnesota’s best-known artists were painters on canvas and paper: Clement Haupers, Dorothea Lau, Syd Fossum, Dewey Albinson, Cameron Booth, and Elof Wedin, to name just a few. Dorothea Lau’s Workers (1934–1941) is a quintessential FAP artwork. In her painting, workers (like those who were then building WPA projects) are painted in the soft strokes and realistic style typical of American Regionalism.

Haupers, the director of the FAP in Minnesota, was well known for his colorful, expressive landscapes. Works like The New Highway #61 seem to pull the viewer into the frame of the painting and down a newly constructed road. In The Meeting, oil painter and printmaker Syd Fossum illustrated the role of the “ordinary man” in the Minnesota community. Printmaking was also important. Stanford Fenelle, Alexander Oja, and Clara Mairs were some of the best known printmakers. Oja’s Filling Stations is a good example of an FAP cityscape.

Many FAP murals were also inspired by Minnesota. The mural program was intended to fulfill the FAP’s goal to serve local communities. It brought art to wide audiences and built the public’s awareness of art through installing large works of art in public places. Many of the themes in these murals drew inspiration and imagery from Minnesota themes. Subjects were generally optimistic and focused on straightforward scenes of everyday Minnesota life and history—landscapes, farming and farmers, workers, and Native Americans. Among the artists that painted murals were David Granahan, Miriam Ibling, John Socha, Elsa Jemne, Lucia Wiley, John Norton, André Boratko, and Richard Haines.

Some FAP murals in Minnesota remained on display in government buildings, schools, zoos, and historical sites for decades. Granahan’s best-known work, painted with his wife, Lolita, in 1938, was for the St. Cloud Post Office. The mural, depicting the Stearns County granite industry, was aquired by the Stearns History Museum in 1979. After restoration, it was put on museum display in 1989. In the trophy room of the Minneapolis Armory are Lucia Wiley's History of the National Guard, and Early Minnesota by Elsa Jemne. John Norton, a Chicago painter, depicted the founding and growth of St. Paul in four murals in the third floor Council Chambers of St. Paul City Hall and Ramsey County Courthouse.

In addition to producing their own work, many FAP artists also taught in educational art centers established in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth. These centers offered low-cost art classes, lectures, and exhibition space. Like the public art programs, the art center program was intended to promote art and artistic creativity to wide audiences. In Minneapolis, the FAP worked to develop a regional art center, the Walker Art Center, using the collections of the lumber baron T. B. Walker as the starting point for what is now a major American collection of modern art. It was meant to serve as a “meeting place for all the arts”—to be a museum for the collection and a champion of new and innovative art for all.

The Minnesota Artists’ Union (MAU; later the United American Artists of Minnesota – Local 86) was founded at the same time as the FAP and counted many FAP artists as members. The MAU lobbied for stable employment and relief for the artists working under the WPA, as well as for the promotion of Minnesota art and culture.

In 1939, federal budget cuts resulted in layoffs and reduced funding for the WPA, causing a nationwide series of strikes and protests. Minnesota FAP artists joined these protests, setting up picket lines and rallies around the St. Paul WPA headquarters and the state capitol. Many of these artists, including the president of the MAU, Syd Fossum, were arrested and temporarily jailed.

Also in 1939, as World War II was beginning, the New York World’s Fair opened, with a division dedicated to showcasing the WPA FAP. Represented at the Exhibition of Contemporary American Art were Haupers, Fossum, Wedin, Albinson, and other Minnesota artists.

The non-defense-related activities of the WPA were scaled down quickly following the entrance of the United States into World War II. Across the U.S., art-related projects were incorporated into the war services division; many ceased to exist. In Minnesota, strong local support and efficient administration allowed the FAP project to continue on a smaller scale until June 30, 1943, when the WPA FAP program officially ended nationwide.