ARTISTS AT WORK: A FILM ON THE NEW DEAL ART PROJECTS
Courtesy National Archives
When President Franklin Roosevelt took office during the Great Depression, nearly 10,000 artists were out of work. Over the next decade, a series of programs known as the New Deal Art Projects was developed. Under the WPA and other programs, thousands of artists were able to earn a living while devoting themselves to their art work. Interviews with Ilya Bolotowsky, James Brooks, Joseph Delaney, Harry Gottlieb, Chaim Gross, Lee Krasner, Edward Laning, Jacob Lawrence, Alice Neel, and Joseph Solman are included. ARTISTS AT WORK chronicles the New Deal effort to spread “art to the millions” through the country’s first comprehensive art education program. The Artists Union and related political activities are explored, as are the destruction and loss of works of art produced under the New Deal Programs.
35 minutes. Released 1981
Produced & Directed by Mary Lance
Narrated by Morgan Freeman
Courtesy Archives of American Art
“Valuable and unmatched insight into the period.
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Courtesy National Archives
