The WPA and the Opening of the American Arts

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the infusion of state subsidies during the New Deal, which accelerated the pace of artistic legitimation and widened its path. Federal and state governments paid for the production and display of an enormous amount and variety of culture. This diversified the content and personnel in American creative fields and accelerated the transformation of many forms of vernacular culture into art. It was this world, rich with variety, in which an artistically voracious group of Americans was born and enculturated. The chapter then looks at the establishment of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). While the purpose of the WPA was to provide an income for starving artists, its unintended consequence was a radical opening of access to the arts and heretofore “illegitimate” culture. Under the WPA, the four programs referred to as “Federal Project Number One” provided subsidies for the production of visual art, music, theater, and literature.