The WPA appropriated 6.7 percent of the country's GDP in 1935—$4.9 billion—to hire millions of unemployed people for public works projects. ... travel, and some served as war propaganda.

The WPA ran from August 1935 to June 1943, costing a spectacular $35 million, and employed 5000 artists. Harry Sternberg , The Family, Industry and Agriculture, Fresco, 1939 The art of the Federal Art ...

The chasm between Guston’s proposal and the completed mural hints at the reason WPA work can be challenging to engage with as art, rather than as history or propaganda: Created for government ...

From 1936 to 1939, the WPA doled out nearly $7 billion — some $90 billion in today’s dollars. The WPA also put creative professionals back to work by sponsoring plays, literary publications ...