Big Deal
The WPA lifted Americans' spirits in times of struggle. Do its striking visuals still make a mark?
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In 1935, Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration under the aegis of his New Deal program. "We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon," FDR had said upon its creation.
The Congressionally funded shebang gave jobs and money to the unemployed of all stripes during the Great Depression. Until it was shut down in 1943 during the boom-time that was WWII, the WPA was America's largest employer. It built buildings, paved roads and set up education programs. It clothed, fed and housed the needy.
For all of its jobs and participants of every race, creed and age, the WPA is often viewed through the kaleidoscope of the arts — specifically the iconic, familiar posters originally commissioned as a visual representation of the WPA's credo. But what's their purpose today, aside from nostalgia?
"I still think posters make a mark," says Ennis Carter, founder of Design for Social Impact and The Social Arts, both creative organizations dedicated to the idea that design can get people motivated. "The question is whether there are posters that promote social issues as a mouthpiece of society. That's what the WPA posters did."
Carter, author/editor of the gorgeous new Posters for the People: Art of the WPA (Quirk Books, $50) and organizer of this weekend's Posters for the People Art Expo and Film Festival, has devoted her career to the idea that, as Design for Social Impact's motto states, "People respond to striking visuals." Through those visuals, Carter says, the WPA represented a hopeful government approach to solving problems brought on by economic crisis. "It may not have been perfect, but WPA's sentiment was positive and uplifting, and that's important for us to remember in times of prosperity or in times of challenge."
During this eventful weekend, held at City Hall, FDR Park, South Street's Magic Garden and various neighborhood locations, films old and new will unspool, courtesy of Scribe Video. Field competitions will be held, as will cookouts serving Depression-era food (soup, bread) and nouvelle taste sensations like Franklin Fountain's "Grapes of Wrath" ice cream. Mambo Movers will schlog the gear. With everybody pitching in, it feels like old times.
But in reality the event is all about the posters and what they represented to the people we've lately been referring to as "Main Streeters" — during this country's first major economic downturn. Take, for example, "Work with Care" and its depiction of man, machine and their interplay. Or "Ride Together, Work Together" (pictured), which continues to be relevant.
Anticipating the 75th anniversary of FDR's New Deal presidency, Carter spent 10 years researching and compiling info about the WPA posters — epic, iconically American works often anonymously rendered by artists whose designs are stylized celebrations of the civic-minded and the duty-bound.
"The WPA brought people together to rebuild a nation in crisis and covered the gamut of infrastructure, social services, as well as art. I'd have to say that the real art was in belief that it could happen."
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Some 935 of the known posters are housed in the Library of Congress; in 2000, they digitized their collection and put it online. But there were 35,000 designs and 2 million posters created, according to Carter, most existing in public and private collections. That's why she's made it her duty to find them. "We've traveled to historical societies, homes, museums, libraries and other off-the-beaten-track repositories. Most of the time, we find the posters in unbelievably good condition. People just stashed them away — if they didn't throw them out." The first thing she did upon discovering these lost relics? "Swoon," Ennis says, "then hopefully take a picture. ... We captured everything digitally, which is the purpose of our WPA Living Archive — it's a virtual archive that allows us to have a comprehensive collection without actually having all the posters in our hands." The Living Archive, which will be unveiled Friday, currently contains "well over 2,000 posters to display from places all across the country," says Carter.
In addition, WPA posters from the Design for Social Impact collection, and a private collector, are on display at the Thomas Eakins House (1727-29 Mount Vernon St.) through this weekend. Made on heavy chipboard that could last forever and printed with industrial-strength inks that hold up, the posters themselves are definitely better than any of the photographs. "If you've seen the book, you can only imagine how fantastic the originals are," says Carter, daring us to experience these public works in a public manner. Just how the WPA intended it.
Fri.-Sun., Oct. 24-26, various locations, 215-922-7303, postersforthepeople.com.
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