Arts Programs Sites

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 oil-on-canvas mural is 200' long by 6' high.

The Woodminster Amphitheater design, by Edward Foulkes, is in the Art Deco style. The the inner 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 sculptures were funded in 1939 by the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) – both absorbed into the reorganized Federal Works Agency later in 1939. These were almost surely done...

Carlos Dyer, an alumnus of Woodrow Wilson High School, painted this WPA mural, "Democratic Education," on the asbestos fire curtain in the school's auditorium (also a WPA project) in 1940. The mural is 22 high x 44 feet wide. It 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...

Housed at the historic Woodrum Station post office in Staunton, Virginia, "The McCormick Reaper" is a terra cotta relief was created by Florence Bessom. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Department of Fine Arts. It was re-discovered during a 2003 renovation after having been covered for many years. Size: 3' x 7-1/2'.

"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.