Artists in the WPA

Established by Roosevelt in 1935, the Works Progress Administration created many jobs for people who were laid off due to the depression. The WPA was very successful because it filled the needs of the people. People wanted jobs and cities wanted their infrastructural issues taken care of since they did not have the funds to after the onset of the depression, so the WPA gave people jobs with government funds to do everything from rebuild public buildings to working on sewer systems. Not only did the WPA put many laborers back to work with jobs repaving roads and building public structures such as the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, but a division of the administration called the Federal Art Project hired many artists to create murals, paintings and sculptures.
Before the Federal Art Project was created, Roosevelt made other unsuccessful attempts to employ artists since they were not laborers and did not work for the other divisions of the WPA. After his failed attempts of creating an art division of the WPA, Roosevelt finally was successful in creating a use for the art he wanted to fund. Inspired by other politicians who envisioned art that represented patriotic American values,  Roosevelt created the Federal Art Project which was designed to both supplement artist's incomes and to fund patriotic works of art to be displayed publicly to rally the dispirited citizens.
Artists had to have applied for Home Relief to prove that they were impoverished and then had to show that they were actively creating art by submitting samples of their work to be considered for participation in the FAP. In the first few months, there were over 1100 artists working for the FAP, including Jackson Pollock, Stuart Davis and Arshile Gorky and they earned up to $24 a week. At this time, Social Realism was the preferred art style, and the FAP favored figurative art as opposed to abstract, so many future famous abstract artists painted in out of character styles in order to continue receiving a stipend from the government.
Nearly 200,000 works of art were created in total under the FAP, but unfortunately many of the works were lost or destroyed after the WPA auctioned off thousands of painting in 1943 after the dissolving of all federally funded art programs. The paintings were sold so cheaply at auctions because the government could not afford to hold on to the work that a local plumber decided to buy some in order to insulate pipes with the used canvas.
All of the programs under the FAP generated a new appreciation and awareness of the visual arts in America and helped the development of many artists who would define the Abstract Impressionist Era that began after World War II.


Sources: http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=W.P.A._Construction_in_San_Francisco_(1935-1942)
http://www.theartstory.org/org-wpa.htm