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The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, [1] including the construction of public buildings and roads.
The Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 was passed on April 8, 1935, as a part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal.It was a large public works program that included the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the National Youth Administration, the Resettlement Administration, the Rural Electrification Administration, and other assistance programs. [1]
The WPA hired only people on relief who were paid directly by the federal government, while in contrast, the PWA gave contracts to private firms that hired workers for projects on the private sector job market. The WPA also had youth programs (the National Youth Administration), projects for women, and art projects that the PWA did not have. [24]
Collectively, the artists of the New Deal produced a vast archive: Murals, including 1,100 post office murals , [6] free-standing and bas relief sculpture, an estimated 30,000 posters, [7] more than 700 books and pamphlets and radio scripts, [8] and architectural details for scores of public buildings, in a style now called WPA Moderne. [9]
At its peak Federal One employed 40,000 writers, musicians, artists and actors and the Federal Writers' project had around 6,500 people on the WPA payroll. [3] Many people benefitted from these programs and some FWP writers became famous, such as John Steinbeck and Zora Neale Hurston . [ 3 ]
Despite this national focus on classical music, regional and local implementations of the FMP revealed the diverse musical genres in early 20th century America. Live performances of African American and Hispanic music drew attention, as did efforts in several states to document musical traditions from ethnic minorities, spirituals, work songs ...
This created a community of PWAP artists who aspired to create artworks depicting both the "haves" and "have nots" of America, referred to as Social Realists. The short-lived Public Works of Art Project was a prototype for later federal art programs, including the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Materials from the America Eats project are held in various archives and libraries around the country, including at the Library of Congress and the Montana State University Archives and Special Collections. A large digital archive called What America Ate has been created to house the digitized remains of the project. [14]