How the New Deal Treated Art as Essential to Democracy

The United States government transformed the role of the artist during the Great Depression by treating art as a vital public resource rather than a private luxury. Between 1933 and 1943, New Deal programs like the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) commissioned hundreds of thousands of works for schools, libraries, and hospitals, providing 'plumbers' wages' to struggling creators. This federal patronage supported a generation of then-unknown figures, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Alice Neel, while focusing on the 'American scene' to make culture accessible to the general public.

Senators Whitehouse and Schumer Call for ‘Proactive Measures’ to Protect Philip Guston and Ben Shahn Murals

Senators Whitehouse and Schumer Call for ‘Proactive Measures’ to Protect Philip Guston and Ben Shahn Murals

Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Chuck Schumer have publicly called on the General Services Administration (GSA) to take immediate steps to protect significant New Deal-era murals by artists Philip Guston and Ben Shahn. Their letter expresses urgent concern over the potential sale or demolition of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, D.C., which houses these artworks, and questions the GSA's ability to safeguard the pieces once the building transfers to private ownership.

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A group of artists led by Elise Engler, Joyce Kozloff, and Martha Rosler has circulated a letter urging the Jewish Museum in New York to intervene and save New Deal-era murals and sculptural reliefs from the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, D.C. The artworks, created by Jewish artists including Ben Shahn, Philip Guston, and Seymour Fogel, are threatened with demolition after the U.S. government listed the building for accelerated disposal in November 2025 and began soliciting demolition bids in December. The letter, addressed to Jewish Museum board chair Shari Aronson, has been signed by hundreds of artists and art-world figures, including Joan Semmel, Rochelle Feinstein, Joan Snyder, Lucy Lippard, and Kay WalkingStick.

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Dorothy Waugh, a pioneering Modernist designer who created the U.S. government's first in-house National Parks poster campaign during the Great Depression, is the subject of her first-ever solo exhibition at New York's Poster House. Titled "Blazing a Trail: Dorothy Waugh's National Parks Posters," the show reunites all 17 posters Waugh designed for the National Park Service between 1934 and 1936, bold experimental works that helped define a new visual language for federal design. Guest curator Mark Resnick spent three decades tracking down Waugh's story, locating documents across the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts.

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A retired General Services Administration official, Mydelle Wright, has accused the Trump administration of attempting to demolish four historic federal buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building. The allegation was made in a supplemental declaration filed in a lawsuit brought by preservation groups. Wright claims the White House is soliciting demolition bids without GSA involvement, which she says has sole authority over such processes. The Cohen building houses significant New Deal-era murals by Ben Shahn, Philip Guston, and Seymour Fogel, and has been described as "the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal." The Trump administration has halted a planned green renovation and listed the building for accelerated disposition, raising fears of demolition and loss of the artworks.