Definition of Works Progress Administration
The Great Depression in the United States began with the Black Friday stock market crash on October 24th, 1929. By 1932 unemployment had risen to more than 23 percent. Over the next few years the Federal Government began a series of counter-measures, among them the Works Progress Administration (WPA), established in 1935, reduced in scope in 1941 and discontinued in 1943.
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The WPA Mandate
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Established by executive order by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the WPA proposed to reduce severe unemployment by creating jobs paid for the federal government. Different WPA programs created substantial numbers of jobs in a wide variety of employment areas. A year after its creation, WPA programs employed nearly 3.5 million Americans.
WPA Achievements
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By the time the WPA ended, in June 1943, it had spent more than 10 billion dollars and had employed more than 8 million Americans on nearly 1.5 million different projects. According to the WPA's official history, 37 percent of these projects built highways streets and roads. Other large projects developed parks and outdoor recreation facilities (11 percent), improved sewer systems and public utilities (9 percent), and built or restored public buildings of every kind: schools, courthouses, federal office buildings and other buildings devoted to public recreation. Other large projects developed sewing and canning employment (10 percent)--a project area that reflected the otherwise relatively limited employment opportunities for women in that era.
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WPA Arts Projects
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Arts projects comprised about 2 percent of WPA funding in four areas: music, art, theater and writing. Despite the relatively low funding percentage, the WPA's arts projects significantly changed America's relationship to art and artists in at least two ways. For the first time ever, the federal government acknowledged and supported art and recognized artists as workers. The WPA also recognized African-American and Hispanic-American artists and art, their first government recognition. The works created by WPA artists offered an astonishing range of accomplishments that influenced, and still influences, American art:
The WPA's "Greatest Hits"
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The WPA recognized and supported the American Folklore and Slave Narratives Projects and legitimized social-ethnic studies. WPA initiatives indirectly supported murals in American public places by the great Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Sigueiros and Jose Orozco who, in turn, inspired and influenced American WPA muralists and painters. Over a hundred WPA-supported murals still exist in American public buildings today. A few other notable WPA achievements are LaGuardia Airport (one of more than 800 built by WPA workers), Hoover Dam and Bonneville Dam, Triborough Bridge (and 78,000 more bridges), the Federal Highway System (650,000 miles of roads), the American Negro Theater (and dozens of other regional theaters) and the first Federal Flood Control program.
Criticism of the WPA
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Despite the many economic and artistic accomplishments of the WPA, in its time many moneyed and Republican Americans reviled the program as a "federal boondoggle" and a politically inspired giveaway of taxpayer money in useless "make work" projects. Some said "WPA" stood for "We Piddle Around."
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- Photo Credit Sunset Over Triborough Bridge NYC image by crude from Fotolia.com
