Whoever wins the next election should take note of US President Franklin D Roosevelt's approach to arts funding during a decade of economic depression, writes Katy Hessel.
In the decade of economic depression after the Wall Street crash, US President Franklin D Roosevelt took a chance. Having come to office in 1933, he implemented a new programme to help revive the economy.
This New Deal included the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Arts Project, a scheme that employed about 4,000 artists – many of whom would have otherwise been forced to quit their careers – and paid them a weekly salary. In return, he asked artists to use their skills to contribute to society: reviving buildings and public spaces, enhancing infrastructure projects and making work that captured the essence of the era.
In the words of Roosevelt, it provided artists with a “practical relief project”. On the payroll was Alice Neel, the great painter of everyday people who weren’t so everyday, and subject of a major Barbican exhibition in London last year... Keep reading on The Guardian.
In the decade of economic depression after the Wall Street crash, US President Franklin D Roosevelt took a chance. Having come to office in 1933, he implemented a new programme to help revive the economy.
This New Deal included the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Arts Project, a scheme that employed about 4,000 artists – many of whom would have otherwise been forced to quit their careers – and paid them a weekly salary. In return, he asked artists to use their skills to contribute to society: reviving buildings and public spaces, enhancing infrastructure projects and making work that captured the essence of the era.
In the words of Roosevelt, it provided artists with a “practical relief project”. On the payroll was Alice Neel, the great painter of everyday people who weren’t so everyday, and subject of a major Barbican exhibition in London last year... Keep reading on The Guardian.