Federal Arts Project (FAP) Sites

Timberline Lodge was built in 1936-38 as a ski lodge 6,000 feet up on Mount Hood, and it still serves that purpose.  It was equally a showcase for the accomplishments of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The four-story structure was built in Northwestern rustic style using large timbers and local stone, with a striking central "headhouse" built in a hexagon around a 90-foot stone chimney with large fireplaces on all sides. The interior is a marvel of decorative elements designed to feature Northwestern native and pioneer styles in wood carving, furniture, textiles, metal work, light fixtures, stone work and paintings. The interior decor...

Timberline Lodge was built in 1936-38 as a ski lodge 6,000 feet up on Mount Hood, and it still serves that purpose.  It was equally a showcase for the accomplishments of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The four-story structure was built in Northwestern rustic style using large timbers and local stone, with a striking central "headhouse" built in a hexagon around a 90-foot stone chimney with large fireplaces on all sides. The interior is a marvel of decorative elements designed to feature Northwestern native and pioneer styles in wood carving, furniture, textiles, metal work, light fixtures, stone work and paintings. The interior decor...

Timberline Lodge was built in 1936-38 as a ski lodge 6,000 feet up on Mount Hood, and it still serves that purpose.  It was equally a showcase for the accomplishments of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The four-story structure was built in Northwestern rustic style using large timbers and local stone, with a striking central "headhouse" built in a hexagon around a 90-foot stone chimney with large fireplaces on all sides. The interior is a marvel of decorative elements designed to feature Northwestern native and pioneer styles in wood carving, furniture, textiles, metal work, light fixtures, stone work and paintings. The interior decor...

Timberline Lodge was built in 1936-38 as a ski lodge 6,000 feet up on Mount Hood, and it still serves that purpose.  It was equally a showcase for the accomplishments of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The four-story structure was built in Northwestern rustic style using large timbers and local stone, with a striking central "headhouse" built in a hexagon around a 90-foot stone chimney with large fireplaces on all sides. The interior is a marvel of decorative elements designed to feature Northwestern native and pioneer styles in wood carving, furniture, textiles, metal work, light fixtures, stone work and paintings. The interior decor...

The Timothy Ahearn Memorial in New Haven, Connecticut was created under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in 1937.

The Reptile House was the first of five buildings constructed by the WPA at the Toledo Zoo. These buildings are still in use today. FAP artist Forrest "Woody" LaPlante was one of three muralists who painted botanical backgrounds in each reptile exhibit. Most of these murals were destroyed in the 1970s, but the remaining murals were restored by LaPlante in the 1990s. The building was constructed from materials recycled from local areas, such as the Wabash Railroad shops and the former Miami and Erie canals. The architecture of the building was inspired by Spanish and Moorish styles in reference to the city's...

Topeka High School has three examples of David Hicks Overmyer’s work, two carried out under the WPA’s Federal Art Project. The first is the large painting “Pageant of Old England” which was commissioned by the Topeka School Board in 1936, completed in 1937, and funded by the FAP. It was created for the English Room, an oversized classroom that includes a fireplace, Tudor-style woodwork, and a gothic-arched stage. The painting shows a group of medieval figures passing through an English village with a large castle in the background. “Pageant of Old England” currently still hangs in the English Room. In 1938,...

In 1936-1937, Anna Katharine Skeele painted mural titled "Home Life in Old Taos" which was commissioned by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). Skeele was a Monrovia, California based artist known for her portraits and focus on Native Americans in the Southwest. "Home in Old Taos" was her first mural painting. She made several trips to Taos, New Mexico to research and develop ideas for the painting. "Home Life in Old Taos" is 8' x 30'  and is oil on canvas. It "depicts Pueblo Indian men and women working on daily tasks, such as grinding corn and collecting water from a river near...

These three murals "...and 14 others were originally created as public art specifically for Danvers Town Hall. The project began in 1934 under the joint auspices of the Works Progress Administration Artist and Writers Project and the then solidly Republican Town of Danvers. Numerous local citizens, including William C. Endicott, Jasper Marsh, Lester Couch, Harriet S. Tapley, Ivan G. Smith, Victor D. Elmere, William R. Lynch and the local VFW donated cash for the materials used in the project, while the Federal WPA Administration paid the artists' modest salaries. Principal artist of these works of art on canvas was Richard V....

Four images "crafted of square tiles square tiles that frame the vestibule beneath the clock tower," collectively titled "Youth Carrying the Heritage of the Past into the Future," are located at Trenton Central High School. NJ.com, 2014: "The mosaics were designed for the school by muralist Monty Lewis. The work was commissioned through the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project and completed in 1941."   Additional Contributor note (January 2019): "The school building closed in 2014 and has been torn down.  The mosaics were removed and stored.  They will be installed in the new Trenton Central High School building that is being errected on the...

The Annex contains a 1937 WPA fresco, "A Dissertation on Alchemy", by Reuben Kadish and Urban Neininger. The fresco is 9' x 11' and is located in the stairwell in the northeast corner of the Woods Hall Annex.

This walnut relief "Joy of Life" by Michael von Meyer depicting a mother and child was completed in 1937 with FAP funds.

A ten panel fresco depicting the "History of Medicine in California" was completed by Bernard Zakheim in 1936 with FAP funds. The mural is located in Toland Hall. Zakheim also painted another pair of murals in 1935 for Cole Hall: "Rational Medicine" and "Superstitious Medicine." These frescoes of ground earth pigment on incised plaster were relocated to Health Sciences West in 1967. The program behind these murals is unknown to the Living New Deal.

This 8' x 12' mural "Map of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign" was painted by Rainey Bennett in 1938, with the help of Federal Art Project funds.

These two limestone sculptures "Asclepius" and "Hygeia" were created by Edouard Chassaing in 1938 with the help of WPA Federal Art Project funds.

This mural of oil washes and casein tempera on multiple glass panes depicts "The History of Anatomy." It was painted by artists Rainey Bennett and Ralph Graham with the help of Federal Art Project funds in 1938. It was restored in 1981.

The "Great Men of Medicine" depicted in this New Deal fresco of nine 1' x 1' panels  include Pare (shown in photo), Pasteur, Darwin, Lister, Jenner, Koch, Virchow, Melpighi, and Harvey. The frescoes were painted by Edwin Boyd Johnson in 1938 under the WPA Federal Art Project.  

This mosaic mural "Signs of the Zodiac and Heavenly Bodies" was created by John Stephan in 1936 with the help of WPA Federal Art Project funds.

This 3'6" x 5' sculpture entitled the "Spirit of Medicine Warding Off Disease" was created with Federal Art Project funds and has been relocated multiple times.

In 1937, Jefferson League painted five murals for the College of Pharmacy depicting "The Story of Natural Drugs": "Digitalis," "Opium," "Cinchona," "Quinine" and "Coca and Peyote." The murals were funded by the WPA Federal Art Project.

University at Albany, State University of New York's Hawley Hall was opened in September 1909 as the Auditorium, one of three buildings (with the Science and Administration Buildings) on the original Western Avenue (Downtown) Campus. On December 12, 1927 the Auditorium was named Hawley Hall. The building served as an auditorium and gymnasium until February 1933 when the first floor was opened as the College library. Since the Great Depression the Dewey Graduate Library, at the University at Albany Downtown Campus, features numerous murals designed by William Brantley Van Ingen (1858‐1955), "a student of John LaFarge and Louis Comfort Tiffany, as...

Artist Stanton Macdonald-Wright designed a series of tile mosaics for University High School (now University High School Charter) in Los Angeles, CA. The work was funded by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). The mosaics would "fill lunettes (arched window spaces which have no windows) and will treat of music, art, and literature " (Wells, p. 24). Macdonald-Wright was supervisor for the Southern California division of the FAP from 1935 to 1943. He is considered "an important proponent of the nonrepresentational styles of art on the New Deal projects" (Kalfatovic, p. 370). Macdonald-Wright's other New Deal–funded works in the region include murals at the...

This 1' x 3.5' cast-concrete sculpture of an owl was produced with the help of the WPA Federal Art Project. The artist is unknown.

Helen Bruton completed this 10' by 20' mosaic "Sculpture and Dance" in 1936 for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. It is located on the east exterior of the old University Art Building.

These two Byzantine-style mosaic murals by Helen Bruton and F. Alston Swift were installed in 1936, two years after the Art Gallery opened. They are located on the eastern facade, flanking the building's double entrance. Each mural measures 18' by 10'. "The left (Swift) panel is said to allegorically depict music and painting. There is a woman with a violin, and a woman with an easel. The right (Bruton) panel is said to depict Sculpture and Dance (a man seated behind a partially carved stone block, and three woman dancers)." - https://www.wpamurals.org/berkel2.htm   Plaque info: worked into mosaic: W.P.A Federal Art Project 1936-1937   This small brick building northeast of...

Florence Alston Swift completed this 10' by 20' mosaic  "Music and Painting" for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in 1936. It is located on the east exterior of old University Art Building.

Two 4' high classical style sculptures flank the entrance to Grawemeyer Hall. They were built in 1939 with WPA Federal Art Project funding. The artist is unknown.

"Three New Hampshire artists were hired to paint a series of murals for the University Library . These murals were painted under direction of Omer T. Lassonde, State Supervisor of the New Hampshire WPA Art Project. Today, the one remaining mural is in Room 141 of Hamilton-Smith Hall" (https://www.izaak.unh.edu). Each artist also wrote about his or her own work on the murals. Selections from these texts follow: The mural "Farming in New Hampshire" by George Lloyd was in the reserve room. Lloyd wrote: "This is a mural on farming in New Hampshire, It deals with the four seasons of the year—...

Murals were covered over in the 1960s and rediscovered in 2010. Medium: oil on canvas Size: 6 murals Restoration Info: The murals were rediscovered during restoration funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2010.

Edwards Hall contains six murals painted by Gino Conti, located in Edwards Hall, the main auditorium of the University of Rhode Island. The murals were created in 1941 under the WPA's Federal Art Project. They were covered over with sheetrock during a renovation during the 1960s. Until that sheetrock was removed in 2010 in preparation for another renovation, they were thought to have been destroyed. Restoration of the murals was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and re-unveiled at Edwards Hall on October 3, 2011. The Providence Journal of March 16, 1941 stated, “Of the two largest panels, one...

James Watrous painted a tempera-on-gesso mural cycle consisting of nine 6' tall panels, called "The Story of Paul Bunyan,"  in the UW Memorial Student Union. The works were painted in 1935 with funds provided by the federal government, and given the date the murals were probably commissioned by the Federal Arts Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration.  That needs to be confirmed. The murals used to hang in the Paul Bunyan Room, but have disappeared. 

The Wyoming Union building on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie houses a striking example of New Deal artwork created by Lynn Faucett for the then-recently completed building. "Among the last of the WPA murals done in Wyoming, and one that is still in place, is the seven by twenty-eight foot panel on the east wall of the University Student Union in Laramie. It depicts the "western welcome" arranged by students and faculty for incoming University President A. G. Crane in 1922. In a mock hold-up and kidnapping, students in cowboy regalia intercepted Crane's automobile outside Laramie, ushered the...

Artist Paul Julian created a series of four large petrachrome murals on the exterior of Upland Elementary School's auditorium. The murals were funded by the WPA's Federal Art Project and completed in 1942. The set of four murals depicts scenes from Upland's history: native era, mission era, Anglo settlement and citrus era.  The paintings are in a stylized social realism typical of the time, featuring muscular men at work in all four panels.  It is notable that the Indigenous people are portrayed in the same muscular manner as Spaniards and Anglos – though the cooperative labor of padres and natives seems a...

From the New Deal Art Registry: "At the Valencia Gardens Housing Project, Beniamino Bufano's glistening statue of a mother bear nursing two cubs, in smooth red granite, is a joy to the eye. Nearby are two granite seals, a granite cat with a mouse, and a granite butterfly."

"At the Valencia Gardens Housing Project, Bufano's glistening statue of a mother bear nursing two cubs, in smooth red granite, is a joy to the eye. Nearby are two granite seals, a granite cat with a mouse, and a granite butterfly." -Nob Hill Gazette

Grace Rivet Clements and Helen Lundeberg painted two 18' by 33' frescoes for Venice High School (Los Angeles, CA) in 1941: “History of Southern California” and “History of Early California.”  The frescoes were funded by the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP) and the artists were assisted by Aurel J. Leitner, Edwin T. Emery, Miriam Farrington, and Serena Swanson.  The two murals are located in the school library. Sylvia Moore writes that the frescoes "narrate the history of California in unrelated vignettes that seem to float across the walls of the library. On the east wall is the History of Early California,...

Bartholume Mako created two artworks for the auditorium foyer of Ventura High School in Ventura CA. One is a 12-foot high plaster sculpture titled "Roman Goddess" and the other is a 15 x 6-foot plaster frieze called "Roman Scene." They were paid for by the Federal Art Project of the Works Project Administration (WPA).

In 1939, Bessie Pierce Heller (assisted by Grace Measham) painted a mural, "The Map Makers of the World," for Virgil Middle School in Los Angeles, CA. The mural, a two-panel encaustic fresco located in the school library, received funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP). The south wall features Leif Erickson landing on Vineland, Marco Polo at the court of Kublai Khan, and Columbus landing on the Bahamas. The north wall features Magellan passing through stormy straits, Captain Cook exploring the South Sea Islands, and Admiral Byrd in Antarctica. The mural is signed “Federal Art Project W.P.A. ‘39” on the...

Under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), artist Rex Sorensen created a pair of wooden relief sculptures. One depicts a woman, boy, cougar and deer with a tree in the background; the other depicts a man bent over a deer. Now located in the library at Virgil Middle School in Los Angeles, CA, the rear of each relief is inscribed with the artist's name and "WPA Federal Art Project."

In 1936, George Pearse Ennis completed this stained glass window, entitled, "Life of Washington," for the Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP). It was installed in Washington Hall, the Mess Hall of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.