New Deal and the arts in New Mexico

The Wall Street crash of 1929 left many artists (as well as other workers) in the United States unemployed. Collectors who normally could afford to purchase such luxury items no longer had the means to do so. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program created funding for art projects which would inspire confidence in American life and history. The program's objective was to hire artists to create works of art for display in public buildings throughout the country. From 1934 to 1943, there were various federally funded programs for artists in New Mexico – the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the Works Progress Administration (WPA)/Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP), and the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP).

The PWAP was the first, short-lived, federally funded arts program to alleviate the economic job crisis. The program consisted of the selection of public buildings to receive various forms of art. It began in December 1933 and ended in June 1934.

George Biddle generated the idea of American artists painting murals in selected public buildings in New Mexico. By 1934, 100 artists had been assigned art projects by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in the PWAP program throughout the state. Various public libraries, courthouses, post offices and state and county buildings received original works of art in the form of easel painting, murals or decorative objects.

There were sixteen regional districts set up; Region 13 included New Mexico and Arizona. Each regional district had local representation. Many of the artists and program organizers were well-known local figures. The regional committee which helped organize and select local administrators consisted of Senator Bronson Cutting, architect John Gaw Meem and social activist writer Mary Austin. Region 13 administrators were director Jesse Nusbaum (a New Mexico anthropologist), secretary Kenneth Chapman (also an anthropologist) and regional coordinator Gustave Baumann (a well-known artist in Santa Fe).

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