The WPA: How Artists were Helped by the New Deal

Speaker: Rosalind Miranda

As a lead-up to the New Deal in the USA in the 1930s & some of the artists who were helped by this program, I will start with some nostalgia about the Roaring Twenties. Even if we didn’t live through those years, it’s fun to hark back to those wild times. All good things come to an end, though, & that decade finished with the start of the Great Depression. As this is too . . . well, depressing to spend much time on, we won’t focus on the worst of it. Instead, we’ll quickly go onto the programs in the US that helped many people get through the hardest of those dreadful times. From the general programs, we’ll look specifically at those that helped the creative community. 

 Prepare to be surprised to hear about some artists who later became very famous & wealthy, but who were glad to receive a paycheck of $23.60 per week during the bad years!