b'on view a dust bowl of dog soup: picturing the great depressionNovember 19, 2019March 14, 2020 (closed early due to COVID-19)IN LIGHT OF OURcurrent political and socioeconomicAs the largest relief program in United States situation we are looking differently at the artwork history, the Works Progress Administration (WPA)from the Depression era compared to a year ago. was launched in 1935 to create jobs for millions of Images that might have seemed quaint or from people. Two percent of the overall workforce joined another time are now, more and more, becoming athe Federal Art Project (FAP), which employed up-reflection of our present reality. However dire that wards of 5,000 artists of all kinds. Art had never before may seem, it is the raw humanity shown within thesebeen part of national life and FDRs bid to raise itsmall works and the messages they convey that to this elevated status was at once criticized by some inspired the exhibition A Dust Bowl of Dog Soup: and lauded by others. Picturing the Great Depression. The exhibition includedThe aim of the art project was to give Americans approximately 50 prints and photographs from a more abundant life through a broader nationalSCMAs permanent collection, with an exception ofart consciousness.Although the FAP artists were four photographs loaned by the Mount Holyoke given free rein in the art they were to produce, there College Art Museum.were certain expectations. The emphasis was on While these works were made during hardsocially redeeming portrayals of everyday life. This times and many of them are therefore quite confron- programmatic orientation resulted in images that il-tational, they also tell a hopeful story and demonstratelustrated not just the ills of the time but also surprising the many ways the Roosevelt administration activelyexpressions of optimism. The outcome was thousands invested in artists and the arts.of art projects large and small reviving Americas art connecting people to art26'