WPA Art from RAM's Collection

Exhibition Website

Feb 19 2017 - Jun 4 2017

When Wustum Museum of Fine Arts first opened, it did not have a permanent collection. Any of the work on display in the galleries was borrowed from artists, collectors, and other museums as short term loans. This changed, and Wustum became an institution with an art collection, when Sylvester Jerry, the museum’s first director, was able to obtain over 260 works produced through the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Working with state and local governments, the WPA was a national program that provided jobs and income for many unemployed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

Drawn from RAM’s holdings, this exhibition includes a selection of prints, watercolors, drawings, photographs, and textiles generated through the WPA. This gift of work was visionary for Wustum and RAM in that it foreshadowed what would eventually become the collecting foci—works on paper and contemporary craft.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

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