Arts Programs Sites

The Wakefield Station post office in the Bronx, New York contains a 1942 Section of Fine Arts entitled “Washington and the Battle of the Bronx” painted by Irving A. Block and Abraham Lishinsky.

The Washington at Valley Forge memorial is an equestrian statue of George Washington   (1732–1799), Commander in Chief and first President of the United States (1789–97), sculpted by Henry Merwin Shrady in 1901.  It is the centerpiece of Brooklyn’s Continental Army Plaza. In the 1930s, the memorial was restored with New Deal funding, initially from the Public Works of Art Project and later by the WPA.  The work was overseen by Karl Gruppe, chief sculptor of the Monument Restoration Project of the New York City Parks Department from 1934 to 1937.  The restoration work was filmed and can be found here. The sculpture and...

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.

Panorama of Military History - Painted by T.L. Johnson and funded by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). Covering the south wall is a tremendous mural, in brilliant colors, which features a panorama of military history. The drawing covers an area of 2450 square feet. It measures 70ft. in length, and 35ft. in height. The mural pictures 20 great historical battles most decisive and important in charting the course of civilization. Both the military dress and weapons portrayed are authentic. It includes famous military leaders in these engagements and in other brilliant campaigns. The arms history begins with the bow and arrow...

P. G. Napolitano painted a mural for Washington Middle School in Long Beach, CA. The mural, located in the school's science building, received funding from the Federal Arts Project (FAP). “Mr. Napolitano’s main interest has always been in murals, which he executes in tempra (egg white), in frescoes, and in Sgraffito which he introduced here in creative work. Much of his work is marked by the omission of pretty detail and mere decorativeness until only the essential stand out; economy of line, rhythm, and strength are the three uppermost qualities” (Wells, p. 22). Napolitano's other FAP murals in the region are...

In 1933, David Park painted the watercolor, “200 Men Making Trails on Cliff Face, Lands End—San Francisco,” for the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). This is among a series that were likely meant as studies for murals depicting Civil Works Association (CWA) projects around San Francisco. The watercolor is currently on view at the Legion of Honor in that city.

Relief workers from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helped carve out and construct the Waterside Theatre at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island. The theater has undergone renovations and changes over the years but is still very much in operation. Waterside Theater is home of the long-running play “The Lost Colony," written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Green, a native of North Carolina.  The story of the mysterious lost colony of Roanoke has been running consistently, though not entirely uninterrupted, since 1937.  WPA Federal Theater Project (FTP) actors took part in the original performances. As FTP historian...

" Myron Nutting and in 1934 when he painted the canvases under a Federal Arts Program project at Wauwatosa (East) High School, he was an art instructor at the old Layton School of Art in Milwaukee... Nutting was commissioned in June 1934 to design and paint the Wauwatosa High School murals in the school's art-deco style front lobby. The murals hang on facing walls, each in a space measuring 14 feet by 4 feet, above glazed tile walls. In a modernization during the mid-1970s, the murals, tiles and two oak trophy cabinets were covered over with plaster and wallboard. The heads...

Crescent shaped oil on canvas, 5' x 7'9". " The Harvest", by Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (1901-1980), portrays a young man and woman working together harvesting peaches provided by the rich Colorado soil. A water/paddle wheel in the background represents modern irrigation which made the abundant harvest possible. The mural also depicts the Ute Indians leaving the valley on the right side and the white settlers pushing them out from the left. By 1973, the mural was in need of a cleaning. It was shipped to Washington DC for restoration and subsequently forgotten. Until 1991, its whereabouts were unknown. The building manager...

The oil-on-canvas mural "Automobile Industry" by William Gropper was funded by the Section of Fine Arts in 1941. It was originally installed in Detroit's Northwestern Branch post office, but has since been relocated to the Wayne State University Student Center.

Michael Lenson painted "Enlightenment of Man" with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project. The New York Times wrote the following in 2003 in a retrospective article of New Jersey-based artist Michael Lenson: " moved to Newark and applied at the W.P.A. office on Halsey Street ... Soon, Mr. Lenson was designing and executing murals for the state W.P.A. program. He went on to become assistant state supervisor in charge of the other muralists in the agency. By the time the federal W.P.A. closed in 1943, Mr. Lenson had created six murals and supervised the execution of 15 more in New Jersey by...

Henry Simon painted a series of murals entitled "The Founding of McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois." The murals were intended for that institution but never installed. "The Circuit Rider," "Bishop McKendree at the Site of the College" and "Peter Aker's Prophecy" were painted in 1941 with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project.  

This three-part mural "American Youth" by Florian Durzynski was completed with WPA Federal Art Project funds in 1937 and restored in 1999.

A set of several panels painted by William D. White in 1937 entitled "Harvest, Spring and Summer." The murals were funded by TRAP for what was then the Dover DE post office and is now the Wesley United Church Education Center. From the September 9, 1936 edition of the Sunday Star: “The saga of the life and industries of Kent County is depicted in the mural being prepared for the Dover Post Office by William D. White, of Carcroft, near Wilmington. “Mr. White is one of the many artists throughout the nation contributing his talent towards the decoration of post office buildings,working for...

A WPA-FAP stencil from 1939 decorating the children's and main reading rooms.

The West Pullman School was established in the late 19th century. During the 1930s, the WPA funded two murals for the school auditorium. The roughly 5' x 10' oil on canvas murals, by Ralph Christian Henriksen, are entitled "American Educational System" and "Americanization of Immigrants." The school closed at the end of the school year in 2013. Current status and future plans for the murals are unknown to the Living New Deal.

The oil-on-canvas mural "Nature’s Storehouse," which hangs in the lobby of the West Scranton Branch post office, was completed in 1941. The work, which was painted by Herman Maril, was undertaken using Treasury Department Section of Fine Arts funding.

In 1937, the WPA's Federal Art Project commissioned Jacob Elshin, an immigrant/refugee artist from Russia to produce a 3-panel historical mural for display in the West Seattle High School in Seattle. The panels of the mural illustrate the landing of settlers at Alki on the outskirts of Seattle, and show trade with the Seattle area native population and the development of a logging industry. The panels were originally installed in the entranceway to the high school auditorium, but were taken down prior to a remodeling in the 1950s and were temporarily lost. The Seattle Public Schools Archivist was able to...

The former post office building in Westbrook, Maine was constructed during the Great Depression and received an example of New Deal artwork: "Woodsmen in the Woods of Maine". The oil-on-canvas mural was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, and completed by Waldo Peirce in 1937. When the post office was decommissioned and parts of the interior were being removed, the "whole wall section, with door, was donated (lent) to the Portland Museum of Art," where the work is still visible.

An 8' x 6' black granite sculpture of "St. Francis on Horseback" by Beniamino Bufano located in the central courtyard of the project. It was made in 1935 but not placed here until 1945.

Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "Pursuit of the Regicides" painted in 1939 by Karl Anderson.

In 1937, Zack Hogg completed a mural at the former Public Library in Whittier, CA. Hogg received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). The Whittier Public Library was located at Bailey and Greenleaf from 1907 to 1959, when it relocated to it's current site at 7344 Washington Ave. The status of Hogg's mural is unknown.

The Works Progress Administration built a retaining wall to support the residential properties along the length of a sidewalk on Whittle Springs Rd. in North Knoxville. The wall, as well as a WPA inscription, can be found on the east side of Whittle Springs Road just south of Avondale Ave.

The school grounds contain a small New Deal sculpture by Hugo Robus entitled "Girl Weeding." It was made in 1938, probably under the auspices of the Federal Arts Project of the WPA.

Edward Laning painted the mural "The Long Hunters Discover Daniel Boone" for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts in 1942. It is viewable in the William H. Natcher U.S. Courthouse lobby.

New York's largest public radio station, WNYC, was housed in the Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. from 1924 until 2008, when it moved to an improved location. In 1939, the building's Studio B received four WPA Federal Art Project murals by Stuart Davis, Byron Browne, Louis Schanker and John von Wicht. At the live dedication of the murals, Davis made important and controversial remarks about the state of art, politics and the New Deal, referring to what this summarizer of the broadcast refers to as: "the flux and struggle around the issue of abstract art during the previous two decades,...

New York's largest public radio station, WNYC, was housed in the Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. from 1924 until 2008, when it moved to an improved location. In 1939, the building's Studio B received four WPA Federal Art Project murals by Stuart Davis, Byron Browne, Louis Schanker and John von Wicht. At the live dedication of the murals, Davis made important and controversial remarks about the state of art, politics and the New Deal. This summary of the broadcast explains that: "In a ceremony clearly designed to be light and “festive,” according to the announcer, Davis squarely addresses the...

New York's largest public radio station, WNYC, was housed in the Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. from 1924 until 2008, when it moved to an improved location. In 1939, the building's Studio B received four WPA Federal Art Project murals by Stuart Davis, Byron Browne, Louis Schanker and John von Wicht. Schanker's is the only one still remaining in the building (no longer operating as the WNYC center). At the live dedication of the murals, Davis made important and controversial remarks about the state of art, politics and the New Deal, referring to what this summarizer of the broadcast...

New York's largest public radio station, WNYC, was housed in the Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. from 1924 until 2008, when it moved to an improved location. In 1939, the building's Studio B received four WPA Federal Art Project murals by Stuart Davis, Byron Browne, Louis Schanker and John von Wicht. Schanker's is the only one still remaining in the building (no longer operating as the WNYC center). At the live dedication of the murals, Davis made important and controversial remarks about the state of art, politics and the New Deal, referring to what this summarizer of the broadcast...

This image shows artist Lucienne Bloch at work on a fresco entitled "Cycle of a Woman's Life" for the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village, New York City. The mural was completed in 1936 under the WPA's Federal Art Project. The concept for the mural was influenced by Bloch's apprenticeship with Diego Rivera, in which he urged her "... never paint mere decorations, but to always include a message appropriate to the building, Bloch s proposal for Cycle of a Woman's Life was accepted and the project was completed in 1936. Now lost, the mural pictured a children's playground in a...

The Wood Art Gallery in Montpelier, Vermont was the recipient of "W.P.A. Fedaral Art sculpture and paintings" in 1937. The works are "on permanent loan from the U.S. government."

The Woodhaven Station post office in Jamaica, New York contains a 1941 Section of Fine Arts mural painted by Ben Shahn entitled “The First Amendment.”

This large WPA Federal Art Project mural by Richard Coe and Sidney Van Sheck was completed in 1936 and restored in 2009. The full inscription is "Gloried Be They Who Foresaking Unjust Riches Strive in Fulfillment of Humble Tasks for Peace Culture and the Equality of All Mankind."

The Woodminster Amphitheater design is Art Deco (Moderne) by Edward Foulkes. This is especially clear in the appearance of the south facade, which looms over the cascade and the rest of the park (though now somewhat shrouded by untrimmed trees).   The capitals of the inward columns have capitals with lion-head reliefs and the two outer flanking columns are topped by human torsos.  Lower down, on the sides of the facade, are two bas-relief panels. The name of the amphitheater is inscribed along the top.  There are also decorative element on the ceiling of the corridor below. The design of the sculptures and...

Carlos Dyer, an alumnus of Woodrow Wilson High School, painted this WPA mural "Democratic Education" upon the asbestos fire curtain in the school's auditorium (also a WPA project) in 1940. At 22 x 44 feet, the mural depicts a multiracial group of students engaged in academic and extracurricular activities—including art, music, and sport—against a beach backdrop. In a nod to the city's aerospace industry, a plane flies overhead. "At its present state it is raised so that only the bottom few inches are exposed revealing the words 'Let us seek here truth in the name of liberty and peace, justice...

"Three mural panels by Ralf Edgar Nickelsen are located on the second floor of the Main Library. The murals are titled: Reading of the Mail – Communication of Ideas (87” x 204”). The women reading their mail and conversing represent the manufacturing workers of Worcester in the 1930’s. Street Building – The Foundation of All Communication (97” x 204”). This depicts men building a road in the 1930’s. Farming in the Worcester Region (97” x 382”). This depicts agricultural activities in the Worcester area prior to 1910. Men are reaping and women are gathering the fallen stalks into sheaves. Wheat and rye were...

This collection of WPA art is now housed in the Octavia Fellin Public Library in Gallup, New Mexico The collection consists of 29 listed items including furniture, oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, etchings and sculpture. All items were obtained from the Gallup Arts Center (a WPA Arts Center) when it was demolished to make room for the City Hall in Gallup New Mexico. Documents at the library detail each work as well as the history of the collection.