New Deal Federal Art Project Research Collection
1934-1982
Works Progress Administration WPA Federal Art Project
Correspondence, photographs, printed matter, and research notes gathered or produced by Barbara Bernstein for a grant-funded film entitled “Silver Lining” and a related but presumably unpublished typescript. Bernstein’s aim was “to make available to the public a whole era’s worth of good and valuable art that for a long time [was] inaccessible, not so much lost as unidentified.” Bernstein sought works created not only through the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, but also those sponsored or funded by lesser known New Deal art programs such the PWAP (Public Works of Art Program), the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture (later, Treasury Section of Fine Arts), and The Treasury Relief Art Project. The scope of Bernstein’s research encompassed only surviving, large-scale works of New Deal art in public places in Illinois, including those found de-installed but in storage.
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Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:
archives@artic.edu
Holograph papers, typed papers, printed papers, photocopies, and black and white photographic prints.