Art Works Sites

In 1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo became the first European explorer to see the coast of California. This statue of the explorer "Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo" was made in cast concrete by Henry Lion in 1936. It was a Federal Art Project. It stands on the shore near the San Pedro Breakwater.

These two wood carvings by Sargent Johnson were moved from the school's former site in Berkeley. "Jungle Scenes," hanging over the reception desk, consists of two 8' x 4' lunettes made of mahogany with gold leaf. "Louis Braille" is 4' x 2.5' and hangs in the library.

In 1937, Lucile Lloyd (assisted by Ben Messick) completed a mural, "Origin and Development of the Name of the State of California," for the State Building in Los Angeles, CA. The mural received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). In fact, Lloyd was the first woman in Southern California to receive a FAP commission. The mural's three panels "tell the history of the name of California. The two side panels portray important flags that have flown over the state. The central panel shows the history and development of the state through the Spanish, Mexican, and American eras. Realistic figures trace...

From the school website: "In the 1930s the famous WPA Murals, under the direction of Grant Wood, were painted for the walls of Callanan. The school was fortunate to be chosen to have two such artistic treasures to beautify the upper portion of each stairway. The south mural Nation at Work' was painted by George Grooms in 1936. The north mural 'Nation at Play' was by Glen Chamberlain and dated to 1937. Each mural made a statement about preparing young people for participation the the adult world. They were viewed as a patriotic reflection of President Roosevelt’s aim to get all...

An exceptional mural, "History of Printing," was painted by Edward Schoenberger for the Canal Street Branch Library in New Orleans.  The library building was a pre-existing structure from the early 1900s, in a quirky Caribbean style of uncertain origins. The mural occupies the entire back wall of the main room on the second floor and is approximately 30 feet long by 10 feet high. The branch library has been closed, probably after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the building sold to private owners.  The mural was covered and damaged after the building was repurposed, but has been restored to its full glory...

The federal Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts funded a terra-cotta relief by Wheeler Williams entitled "Indian Bowman" to be installed in the newly constructed Canal Street post office. The sculpture was installed in 1938.

In 1940, Helen Lundeberg created a mosaic mural, "Quests for Mankind," for Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, CA. The mural was funded by the Work Projects Administration Art Program (WPAAP). The mosaic depicts three stages in the progress of humankind: a family of early cave dwellers, a Hellenistic teaching scene, and Renaissance intellectuals with Pisa's Campanile in the background. A second, smaller panel depicts three founding fathers signing the Declaration of Independence and three students looking at a globe. According to the school website, "the murals originally hung as five separate pieces on the outside north wall of the Assembly...

In 1939, artist George Henry Melcher completed an oil on canvas painting titled "Across the Lagoon, Malibu" for Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, CA. Located in the school's Board Room, the painting depicts an ocean lagoon, with small green islets scattered in the bay. It is framed in a wood frame measuring 36-1/2 x 30-1/4 inches. A label on the back reads: "Federal Art Project, FAP #8864, 'Across the Lagoon, Malibu', Artist: Geo. H. Melcher, BCVD 8/14/39 24 x 30".

In early 1934,  the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) sponsored ten local artists to decorate the Utah State Capitol, led by Lee Greene Richards. The others included Ranch Kimball, Henri Moser, Gordon Cope, Florence Ware, J.T. Harwood, Walter Midgley and Millard Mallin. Two large half-circle murals grace the ends of the huge central hall of the capitol building. The cupola of the rotunda has a circular mural, about six feet high, and there are four large murals at each corner atop the pillars.  They all depict romanticized scenes from Utah's past: trappers, native people, pioneers, covered wagons, the transcontinental railroad, and so forth. Millard...

These New Deal statues entitled "Communication" and "Land" were installed by Carl C. Mose in 1940 in what was then the Salina Post Office and Courthouse. The sculptures still decorate the original building which is now the Smoky Hill Museum.

The NYC Parks Department website explains: "This impressive monument to soldier, statesman and journalist Carl Schurz is the result of a collaboration between the distinguished sculptor Karl Bitter (1867–1915) and renowned architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924). Built in 1913, the monument consists of a full standing bronze portrait of Schurz in the center of a granite exedra (curved bench) with carved reliefs framed by two ornamental bronze luminaries. The entire monument is located within a large brick-paved plaza projecting from the promontory at Morningside Drive and West 116th Street. Other studio assistants and associates of Bitter may have worked on the side...

A New Deal mural, "The Jicarilla Apache Trading Post," was created for the 1930s old post office building in Carlsbad, New Mexico. It is now housed at the Carlsbad Museum. Treasures on New Mexico Trails: A large mural-size painting, 42" x 50" by La Verne Nelson Black (1887-1938) under the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) titled, "The Jicarilla Apache Trading Post," is a dramatic work of Jicarilla Apache Indians at the trading post some of whom are on horseback. The time of day is dusk with dark winter clouds in the background and with brighter colors on the individuals.

The metal relief at the Carmel Firehouse in Carmel CA was funded by the Federal Art Project (FAP). It was installed the year after the completion of the firehouse (1937) and sits above the fireplace on the east wall of the second-story meeting space. This metal relief of an early firetruck was designed by Clay Spohn and executed by Alonzo Chard, similar to another WPA project executed for the Adobe building in Castro Valley, CA. The scene pictured is that of a horse drawn firetruck with a steam pumper. The horses are running to a fire in a 3-story house on the...

These two elaborate hanging light fixtures supply primary lighting to the large meeting room on the second floor of the Carmel firehouse, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.  They were produced separately by Otto Koehler as a project of the Monterey WPA's Federal Art Project (FAP). We believe they were hung as the building was completed in 1937. The light fixtures have a hexagonal shape, copper sides and top with a high relief of leaves. A white glass filters light to the floor.

In 1934, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) funded a large three-panel mural by artist Arthur Ames, which was displayed in the Carnegie Library in Anaheim, California. The mural has been relocated to the Anaheim Central Public Library in Anaheim, CA. As of October 2023, the two smaller side panels are still there, but they are not viewable by the public due to the threat of vandalism. The central panel is currently viewable to the public for free at the Anaheim Heritage Center, located inside of the Muzeo Museum. The central mural is oil on canvas, 92 by 56...

Now: New Mexico Veterans' Center "The New Mexico Veterans' Center (formerly Carrie Tingley Hospital) was partially funded with WPA funds in 1937. The buildings were left vacant in 1981 when the Hospital moved to Albuquerque. In 1983 the Veterans' Administration and the New Mexico Legislature provided funds for renovation of the buildings and the establishment of the New Mexico Veterans' Center." -Phyllis Eileen Banks The "Turtle Pond" outdoor sculpture was commissioned from artist Eugenie Shonnard in 1937.

This building was repurposed in the 1980s as the New Mexico Veterans Center. Medium: terra cotta

The stone sculpture at this site, entitled "Alice in Wonderland," was likely made by Emmanuel Viviano with WPA Federal Art Project funding. Based on this post from 2009 0n the MIR Appraisal Services blog, the sculpture may have been relocated: Last Sunday, I attempted an “Emmanuel Viviano/ WPA Field Trip” all about Chicago—I wanted to scout out the Viviano public art in our city and report back to you. Sadly, I couldn’t locate any of his works… from the Carroll Playground in Oak Park (which once featured a statue and fountain of Alice), to the Nancy Hill School in Aurora (once...

The Cayuga Medical Center is home to eight sculptures, completed by six Works Progress Administration (WPA) artists in the late 1930s. The sculptures are between two and three feet tall and depict animals. They were originally installed at the children's playground at the Herman M. Biggs Memorial Hospital, north of the current Cayuga Medical Center. The sculptures were recently cleaned and restored under conservator Kasia Maroney.    

One-story, brick, H-shaped building with tile roof. This building was originally constructed by the Works Progress Administration as the swimming pool and bathhouse for Nashville's Centennial Park. The swimming pool and bathhouse were closed during the Civil Rights movement as many Southern communities simply closed pools rather than de-segregating them. In 1972, the bathhouse was converted to the Centennial Art Center, and the pool converted to a sunken sculpture garden.

"Wyoming schools also benefited from the WPA Federal Art Project , which was responsible for a number of murals painted inside the buildings. Although the list of school murals is incomplete, it includes ... a set of murals for the Cheyenne High School library by Robert True ..." "The Cheyenne ... murals are believed to have been destroyed."

Federal Arts Project (FAP) artist Charles Kassler painted a 50-foot fresco, "Stampeding Buffalo" or "Bison Hunt" (1934), on the east wall of the Children's Court at the Los Angeles Central Library. Damaged by rain runoff over the years, the fresco was painted over in 1963. Kassler's extant FAP works around Los Angeles include a fresco, “Pastoral California” (1934), at Fullerton Union High School, and eight lunette frescoes (1936) at the former Beverly Hills Post Office (the current Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts).

The Central Park Zoo was built over the course of eight months in 1934 by workers employed by the Civil Works Administration and, after that program’s demise, by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. It succeeded the old Central Park Menagerie, a once popular attraction that by the early 1930s was so severely dilapidated that Parks Department officials feared its lions and tigers would break out of the rotted wood structures that housed them. Newly-appointed Parks Commissioner Robert Moses set about replacing the menagerie, not with a full-sized zoo, but with what he called a “picture-book zoo”—a smaller-scale facility meant as...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) artist Frederick George Richard Roth, who worked for the WPA as head sculptor at the Parks Department, and who also created several other sculptures in Central Park including the Dancing Goat, the Dancing Bear, and Mother Goose, plus the animal friezes at the Central Park Zoo, created this Alice-in-Wonderland themed sculpture commemorating Sophie Loeb (1876-1926). Sophie Loeb was a writer who advocated for children and for playgrounds in Central Park. Mayor LaGuardia and Robert Moses attended unveiling ceremony on October 2, 1936. The statue was originally created for Heckscher Playground, but was later moved to Levin Playground...

In 1935-36, the Arsenal was renovated by the New York City Parks Department using Depression-era relief labor paid for by New Deal programs (WPA and FERA). Afterward, the lobby walls was covered floor to ceiling with murals by Allen Saalburg and his assistants.  Saalburg was the WPA's Director of Murals for the NYC Parks Department.     In the murals, "Saalburg depicted a series of scenes depicting recreational activities, notable park structures, and flagship parks. The project was funded by the Federal Works Progress Administration."   (www.nycgovparks.org) "In 1935, Juliana Force, the director of the Whitney Museum and organizer of the first Federal Art Program in New York, introduced...

"The Columbus Monument at the south west (main) entrance to Central Park at 59th Street and Central Park West (and Broadway), created by Italian sculptor Gaetano Russo and dedicated in 1882. By the 1930s it was serverely stained by soot, its base was cracked by vibration, and natural veins in the sculpture itself were opened by vibration and weathering. It was cleaned and restored by the New Deal Monument Restoration Project under Karl Gruppe."   (kermitproject.org) As Carol Lowrey explains, “Gruppe was closely involved in the conservation of New York's public sculptures from 1934 to 1937, during which time, under the auspices...

After the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was launched in April 1935 (renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939), it quickly became the main source of relief funds and labor for the NYC Parks Department. Heckscher Playground in Central Park was one of many playgrounds in New York to be renovated or constructed with WPA funding and labor: "Before the New Deal, Heckscher Playground was the only playground in all of Central Park, and prior to 1926 there were no playgrounds at all. In 1935 a plan was announced for the "complete renovation and redevelopment of the area", to include a memorial...

"The Maine Monument at the southwest entrance to Central Park at 59th Street and Central Park West, created by Harold Van Buren Magonigle (architect) and Attilio Piggirilli (sculptor), dedicated in 1913. By the 1930s, fingers and toes of many of the statues around the base had been broken off by vandals, the bronze sword was missing, and the joinery and surface of the marble base were badly stained. In 1934 new fingers and toes and sword were created and affixed and the monument thoroughly cleaned the New Deal Monument Restoration Project under Karl Gruppe."   (kermitproject.org) As Carol Lowrey explains, “Gruppe was...

Frederick Roths's Mother Goose Statue at the entrance to Rumsey Playground in Central Park. The 1938 Parks Department press release announced the erection of the statue: "The Department of Parks announces that an interesting statue depicting famed characters of the Mother Goose series of fairy tales, has been erected in the circle at the entrance to the Mary Harriman Rumsey children's playground in Central Park, Manhattan, formerly the site of the old Casino. The statue consists of a large figure of the witch who is astride the goose's back; then on the east and west sides in bas-relief there are figures of...

This sculpture of a panther was created by Edward Kemeys in 1885. It was refurbished and remounted in 1937 by WPA workers and continues to be maintained by the Central Park Conservancy today.

In 1936, young people employed by the National Youth Administration provided the labor for construction of an amphitheater on the Reed College campus in southeast Portland. The private college supplied the materials and land with the understanding that the theater would be used by civic organizations as well as for college functions. Created in 1935, the National Youth Administration (NYA) provided part-time employment for young people (16-25) who either needed financial assistance in order to stay in school or were out-of-school, unemployed and in need. During its first four years, the NYA was managed as a program within the Works Progress...

"Milford Zornes (1908-2008), a California watercolor artist, is perhaps the most recognized artist of the early California style of watercolor painting. During the early 1930s Zornes worked for the federally funded Public Works of Art Project, producing watercolors to be displayed in public buildings."   (https://chaffeyart.wikispaces.com) The four watercolors shown here were all created for Chaffey College in 1934. Each is about 15" x 20". They are located on the main floor of the campus library.

The mural "Cotton Scene" was painted for then-new Hartselle post office by Lee R. Warthen in 1941. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. “Warthen, of Washington, D.C., produced the Hartselle panel as the result of his entry into the War Department Building Competition. Warthen did extensive research for the panel, wrote the local postmaster, and talked with U.S. House member John Sparkman, who was from Hartselle, about the local industry and activities used in the final panel.” (https://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec49det.html) In the late 1970s, the mural was moved to its current location at the Hartselle Chamber of Commerce office in...

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." While not confirmed, Michael Lenson purportedly painted a mural at Newark's Chancellor Avenue School: "nother Lenson mural might be hiding behind the wall paint in a windowless room at the Chancellor Avenue School in Newark. According to a retired teacher...

The courthouse contains a 1938 Section of Fine Arts mural by Stefan Hirsch entitled “Justice as Protector and Avenger.” During the 1930s, this mural sparked an intensely racialized controversy: "The central female figure is a reference to the Renaissance Virtue Justice—familiar to us all because she is regularly deployed in courthouses around the world. But the WPA artist explained that his 'figure of "Justice"' was 'without any of the customary . . . symbolic representations (scale, sword, book . . .).' He said that the only 'allegory' he had permitted himself was 'to use the red, white and blue for...

Rochester, New York's Charlotte High School contains a series of murals commissioned by the federal Works Progress Administration. "The eight murals, each 19 feet tall, were painted in oil on canvas in 1942 by Carl Peters for the Works Progress Administration (WPA)." (rochesterpublicart.com) "Peters’ series captures his understanding of the history of the Lake Ontario region, starting from the Native Americans who originally inhabited the land, to the final scene he called the “Triumph of the American Ideal." (https://mag.rochester.edu/murals/charlotte-high-school/) "In 1937, Rochester’s WPA art project was called “the most interesting and effective outside of New York City” by the regional director of the...

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 other artists. He also made one mural in West Virginia." "Three of Mr. Lenson's...

Rex Brandt was commissioned by the PWAP to paint five murals for Chemawa Junior High School in Riverside, CA. At the time, Brandt was a student at Riverside Community College. When the school was remodeled in 1973, the murals were presumed lost. However, four of the five have happily since been found. Two now hang in the refurbished school, and two are in storage at the Riverside Art Museum. The Riverside Unified School District is still hoping to find the fifth. An attempt to have the murals restored is also currently underway. "The panels in storage are 48 inches by 60 inches...

The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens were established well after the advent of the New Deal. However, some WPA efforts can be seen at the site. "The site for the Children's Village is centered in what used to be a city parks shop. This site included a large native stone garage (now the classroom/laboratory) and rock wall which now surrounds the Children's Village. The garage and wall were constructed in the early 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration." (Wikipedia)

The Chief Johnson Totem Pole was raised in 1901 and restored by Native carvers enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) between 1939-1941. The carvers trained at the Saxman workshop did the restoration work. The restoration work was part of a larger U.S. Forest Service program focused on the restoration of totems and Native cultural assets. The original caption for a National Archives image of the Chief Johnson totem reads: “The Chief Johnson” Pole is a fine example of Alaskan Indian totem pole carving. The pole has been restored at the original location, which property has been deeded to the Federal Government...