• Post Office Mural - Rocky Ford CO
    The mural "The First Crossing at Rocky Ford" hangs in the lobby of the historic Rocky Ford post office. "With the Great Depression, fewer people could afford to patronize the arts, severely impacting the careers of artists. The Treasury Departments Section of Fine Arts provided employment by sponsoring artwork in federal buildings. Many of the post offices constructed during the Depression were decorated with murals or other artworks commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts. Funds for artwork were based on 1% of the total appropriation for the buildings construction. Victor Higgins was hired to paint a mural above the postmasters...
  • Taos County Courthouse (former): Higgins Mural - Taos NM
    "When the new courthouse was completed in January 1934, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) commissioned four of Taos’ premier artists to paint ten murals in the facility as part of the New Deal, to alleviate some of the crunching poverty resulting from the Depression... Emil Bisttram, Ward Lockwood, Bert Phillips, and Victor Higgins...would become known as the 'Taos Fresco Quartet.' The original intent of the project was to have 13 panels of murals - 11 narrow vertical ones, a round medallion over the entrance, and Higgins’ large central Ten Commandments piece. The ten completed murals were...