Mr. B’s Notes on the Impact of the Great Depression on
the Arts
Overview
During the Great Depression, for the first time, the federal government took a
significant interest in the fine arts as exemplified by Federal Project Number One. Despite
the dire living conditions, the federal government stepped in to create a role for the
government that brought fine arts to ordinary people and preserved vast amounts of collectible
items for future generations.
The private sector, including novelist and movie studios, created many new works, some
addressing the Depression while others provided escapism. Other diversions included music.
Folk music and blues became more visible. The radio also played an important part in popular
culture as radio stations penetrated rural heartlands, as well as the cities.
The Federal Government and the Arts

Urged by his wife, Eleanor, who felt the arts should not just be for the elites,
President Roosevelt supported the arts for another reason; it would employ many
people.
1.Initial involvement began with the Public
Works of Art Project (PWAP) division of
the Civil Works Administration (CWA). A major focus was the commissioning of murals
(a usually large picture painted directly onto an interior or exterior wall) for public
buildings such as schools, libraries, and other public buildings.
Artists were commissioned, in the first instance, because they were on relief and also, of
course, for their skills. Iconic American painters who participated in the program
included; Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, and Grant Wood. The program was
short-lived and ended when CWA was abolished in 1934.
2.
Federal Project Number One (FPNO):
Federal Project Number One (FPNO) began in 1935.
The program was much larger than the previous arts programs and would encompass many
different art forms including theater, music, writing; it would also contribute to
documenting local culture, along with gathering and organizing historical records.
A year after the FPNO began; more than 40,000 people were employed in various projects
across the country:
I.
FPNO had a significant dramatic arts section that operated until 1939. Not only did
it remove over 12,000 people from the relief rolls, but it established Community
Theaters across the country. Ethnic production companies produced AfricanAmerican, French, German, Italian, and Yiddish dramas. The famous American actor,
director, writer and producer Orson Welles was among the participants.
II.
The visual arts section contributed more than 20,000 works of art ranging from
paintings to stained glass to sculpture from artists such as Jacob Lawrence
(African-American painter) and Mark Rothko (Jewish-American Painter.)
III.
Arts education was an important component of the Federal Arts Project with 100
arts centers that served millions.
IV.
One of the historically significant projects was the recoding of narratives from
former slaves.
V.
Additionally, artists created more than 2,000 different posters to publicize
theatrical and musical performances.
3.
Farm Services Administration:
An unlikely agency, the Farm Services Administration, was the source of many of the
iconic images of the Great Depression. The FSA hired scores of photographers which
included some of the finest of the era such as Dorothea Lange.
They were sent out to document conditions for workers on the road, in camps and on
farms. Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” portrait, for many the image of the
displaced Dust Bowl farmer, is but one of thousands of photographs that the FSA used to
tell the story of rural life in the United States.
The Private Sector and the Arts
Popular art forms in the 1930s included movies, radio, music, and literature.
Two themes emerge:
 Art that addressed the times
 Art that allowed audiences to escape reality for a little while.
1. Literature:
Magazines often provided popular diversion and escape. Life magazine began publication
during the 1930s, filling its pages with pictures of spectacular scenes and glorified
personalities.
The Great Depression has been the subject of much writing, as authors have sought to
evaluate an era that caused financial as well as emotional trauma. Perhaps the most
noteworthy and famous novel written on the subject is The Grapes of Wrath, published
in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded both the Nobel Prize for
literature and the Pulitzer Prize for the work.
William Faulkner also emerged as an important American writer, examining southern life
in novels such as A Light in August, published in 1932.
Disillusioned with capitalism, many intellectuals and writers—including Langston Hughes,
and Ernest Hemingway—formed allegiances, direct and indirect, to the Communist Party.
Along with other intellectuals, these writers joined the Popular Front, a political group
active in aiding the leftist forces in the Spanish Civil War against fascist powers.
Hemingway’s 1940 novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, portrays the life of an American
soldier fighting in the Spanish Civil War against a fascist dictatorship.
2. Movies:
While thousands of people struggled to find a paying job, Hollywood entered a golden age.
People flocked to watch movie stars during the Great depression. The kinds of movies
that Hollywood produced during the depression underwent sharp changes as the public
mood shifted.
During the depression's earliest years, a profound sense of despair was reflected in the
kinds of characters Americans watched on the screen: a succession of gun-toting
gangsters, prostitutes, sleazy backroom politicians, cynical journalists, and unethical
lawyers. In film, comedies were the most highly attended of all genres in the early
1930s. The Marx Brothers became huge stars, often appearing in farcical productions
depicting get-rich-quick schemes.
Threats of boycotts from many Protestant and Catholic religious groups led to selfcensorship by film producers. A renewed sense of optimism generated by the New Deal
combined with self-censorship produced new kinds of films in the second half of the
Depression decade. G-men, detectives, western heroes and other defenders of law
increasingly replaced gangsters.
Walt Disney, the pioneer animator, produced films Americans loved to see. One of his
most well-known animations was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney’s films
provided entertainment for all ages and became a part of American culture
The end of the decade brought Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, both from
1939, two of the most popular films of all time.
3. Radio & Music:
Between 1929-1936, about 600 stations were operational in the U.S. The reach of radio
was enormous. Between 1930 and 1937 “radio homes” reached about 80%. Mass
communication and entertainment could reach Americans within their own homes, and
capitalized on by business advertisers, artists, and politicians.
For the first time, radio penetrated rural areas and shows such as The Lone Ranger, The
Adventures of Superman, Dick Tracy, and comedians Burns and Allen (George Burns and
Gracie Allen) filled the airways.
The most popular forms of music that continued in the 1930s, either as live acts or over
the radio, were folk, blues, and jazz.
Much like the spirituals and gospels created during slavery, blues music directly reflected
the situation of black men and women in the 1930s.
In the mid-1930s, as the Great Depression stubbornly refused to lift, jazz came as close
as it has ever come to being America's popular music. It had a new name now — Swing —
and its impact was revolutionary. Swing rescued the recording industry. In 1932, just 10
million records had been sold in the United States. By 1939, that number would grow to
50 million. Swing — which had grown up in the dancehalls of Harlem — would become the
defining music for an entire generation of Americans.