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The Great Depression: The Works Progress Administration (WPA)

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Economic imbalances resulting from World War I was the main cause for the Great Depression. Consumers were unable to buy all the goods produced causing manufacturers to close businesses. Closing businesses resulted in a rise of unemployment, however, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal as an effort to alleviate poverty and unemployment. President Roosevelt believed that it was essential for the government to protect the less fortunate and improve society [1]. One of Roosevelt 's New Deal program, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), employed masses of people, saving them for poverty and despair. Those who were employed completed many of the public works during the 1930s and 40s. Under the WPA, the Federal Art Project (FAP) was created to provide work for artists as well as bringing their work to the community, allowing some Americans to see an original piece of artwork for the first time [2]. More than 100,000 paintings and murals were created through the FAP. Some of the greatest artists who created masterpieces were employed by the Project. The FAP and all other art programs were terminated with WPA in 1943. Because of the ending of the Works Progress Administration, most of the artwork since then have been lost or destroyed. The WPA sold thousands of paintings by the pound after closing [3]. Despite these losses, artworks such as Breadline-No One Has Starved, Ploughing It Under, and Coal Pickers have been preserved in museums like Crystal

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