Allan Rohan Crite, American, 1910–2007; associated with Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, Washington, D.C., active 1935–1943; Douglass Square, 1936; oil on canvas-covered artist's board; 23 1/2 x 27 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration 354:1943
The Work of Art: The Federal Art Project, 1935–1943
August 2, 2024–April 13, 2025- Location
- Gallery 235 and the Sidney S. and Sadie M. Cohen Gallery 234
The Work of Art: The Federal Art Project, 1935–1943 presents a remarkable group of artworks that reflect the creative efforts of artists working under difficult circumstances. During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiated a series of nationwide support programs for the visual arts. The largest and most ambitious program, the Federal Art Project (FAP), put more than 10,000 artists to work. Their artworks, in turn, decorated municipal spaces, circulated through exhibitions, and were allocated to institutions across the country. In 1943 the Saint Louis Art Museum received 256 prints, drawings, watercolors, and paintings. Around half of those were intended for use at the People’s Art Center, the city’s first interracial community art center. This group included the first works by African American artists to enter the Museum’s collection.
This exhibition draws from the particular makeup of the FAP collection at SLAM to examine how art works to bridge communities near and far. From the vantage point of St. Louis, The Work of Art asks: who was supported as an artist? For which audiences and what purposes was art made? And what does it look like to picture a nation through the eyes of artists working across its breadth?
The FAP provided expanded opportunities for professional artists, students, and viewers alike. Through its display of work made by African American, Asian American, and female-identifying artists, this exhibition celebrates the fundamental idea of art being made by and for everyone.
The Work of Art is cocurated by Clare Kobasa, associate curator of prints, drawings, and photographs; and Amy Torbert, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of American Art.
Allan Rohan Crite, American, 1910–2007; Douglass Square, 1936; oil on canvas-covered artist's board; 23 1/2 x 27 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration 354:1943
Audio guide
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiated a series of nationwide support programs for the visual arts. The largest and most ambitious program, the Federal Art Project (FAP), put more than 10,000 artists to work. Hear from curators, a conservator, and Museum educators highlighting a selection of artwork from this exhibition.
Children’s Paintings from Memphis
Thousands of young Black students took free art classes at the LeMoyne Federal Art Center in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1938 to 1941. The center opened as the result of a cooperative effort among the Federal Art Project (FAP), what is now LeMoyne-Owen College, and Memphis’s African American communities. In 1943, the FAP gave 39 paintings from the LeMoyne Federal Art Center to the Saint Louis Art Museum. Fifteen of these paintings are featured in the exhibition. Find out more about the artists through their biographies below.