Thesis--Wisconsin. / Title from title screen (viewed Mar. 15, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-77). Online version of the print original.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-77).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1981. / Title from title page screen, viewed March 21, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Richard Salome (chair), Barry Moore, Max Rennels, Raymond Wiman, H. Dean Hustuft. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-172) and abstract. Also available in print.

This thesis addresses the relationship between art and society by examining the production of culture on the Oregon Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The author examines the social conditions and decision-making processes which shaped the art that was produced and determined who produced and who consumed the art of the FAP. Also examined are the changing social relations of art prior tCI), during, and after the WPA's Federal Art Project. The research for the thesis utilized inductive methods of research aimed at theory construction rather than theory testing, although theoretical questions guided the gathering and analysis of data. Most of the data were obtained from primary sources, including interviews with fifteen people who had varying degrees of familiarity with the Oregon FAP; letters of correspondence, memos, and other primary documents on the Oregon FAP were used extensively. Secondary sources supplemented these primary sources by providing an overview of the national FAP and providing comparative data on the New York City FAP. An important factor in the establishment of the national FAP was the political activism of artists, particularly in New York. In Oregon, where only a handful of artists were politically active, the upper class administrators of the FAP seemed to have had more autonomy in shaping the direction of the program. It is argued that in many cases the goals of the FAP, to provide employment for artists on relief and to use the skills of these people to create socially useful projects, were undermined due to the orientations and inclinations of administrators and business sponsors of the projects who emphasized the professional art aspect of the FAP rather than the relief, socially useful aspect of the project. Nevertheless, the Oregon FAP brought about a change in the social relations among the artist and the art audience; not only was art made more available to the Oregon public through the public display of art works, and through the free instruction of art at community art centers, but artists, themselves, were for the first time employed to exchange their labor, as artists, for a wage. In this sense, the FAP was seen as a kind of "cultural revolution," although an examination of the social relations of art following the 1930s reveals that the cultural revolution took the form of an entrepreneurial, petit bourgeois revolution, rather than the socialistic revolution many artists had hoped for. It is suggested that the nature of this revolution stems, in part, from the characteristics of the FAP, where artists were government employees, yet were administered by a bureaucracy staffed by an elite which traditionally had been the patrons of art. The conclusions of this thesis are stated in the form of tentative propositions that await further testing in subsequent comparative studies of the FAP.

The New Deal was one of the largest government programs implemented in the twentieth century. Yet only recently have historians begun to explore the impact of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on American culture by studying its smaller programs such as the Federal Writer's, Theatre, and Art Projects. This paper explores the life of Caroline Wogan Durieux, a New Orleans artist, WPA Federal Art Project (FAP) administrator, and representative for the United States' State Department, centering upon Durieux's career from 1917 to 1943. Durieux's work with the FAP, and later the State Department, helped to redefine the role of art in American society by making art widely accessible to the public. With her influential connections in New Orleans society and her commitment to public art, Durieux bridged the gap between art for the privileged few and art for the masses.

The number of Americans who did not suffer in some way from the depression of the thirties was small, indeed. This was a period of great travail for the United States and the entire world. However, it was also one of the most interesting and innovative periods in American history. President Franklin D. Roosevelt exhibited forceful and quick reactions to the economic and social problems besetting the nation. Not the least of these measures of mitigation was the Works Projects Administration and the inclusive WPA cultural projects. These projects contained an art program, a writers' program, a theatre program and a music program. The contributions of these programs were varied. A great deal of monetary value was produced by such respected Americans as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothco, Stuart Davis, Richard Wright and Vardis Fisher. Monetary return did not comprise the major value or design of the programs. The first priority centered on providing useful employment to unemployed and creative citizens. This employment program was unique in that it strived to place the unemployed artist in a position in which he could use his artistic talent. The sculptor was not forced to dig ditches or lay pipe. He was given a job that utilized his true vocation, such as work on Mount Rushmore or sculptures for a children's playground, or even the instruction of sculpturing to an eager class of adults. This was probably where the real value of the program became patent. The artist was able to regain his self-respect and continue in his work. The state of Utah presented a useful example of the worth of WPA cultural programs. In a state as small and rural as Utah, a viable and workable program was effected. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that if the cultural programs were of value to Utah, the significance to the larger states and the rest of the nation cannot easily be dismissed.

Honors Thesis (History)--Oberlin College, 2001. / Title from home page. "May 2001." Description of resource as of: June 19, 2001. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-242).