The New Deal's Influence On American Culture Summary

Democratic Art: The New Deal’s Influence on American Culture by Sharon Ann Musher explains the roles of government funding for the arts, particularly visual artists. The book outlines how the New Deal succeeded in it’s task and failed, as well as how it has impacted the current relationship between the art world and the government. Musher’s thesis sheds light on the duality between the types of art inspired by patriotism (Federal One Art), the relationship between artists and audiences, and the opposition many artists faced due to harsh criticism of the New Deal.

The Great Depression was a national tragedy in the 1930’s causing many citizens to lose their jobs and their homes. For artists and people who were not considered to have sills of necessity, this was a time of great fear. President Franklin Roosevelt administered $27 million, which would be $461 million in 2014 dollars (Musher 1) to art projects. These projects were sponsored by the WPA (Works Progress Administration), which created jobs for around forty million American artists, who would otherwise be forced to end their art careers or starve.

There are six chapters explaining Musher’s argument: “Art as Grandeur,” “Art as Enrichment”, “Art as a Weapon”, “Art as

Usually, Federal One art displayed the common mural that represents the era of The Great depression and typically portrays hard working patriotic people. The idea was to inspire Morale, to give Americans a sense of unity during a struggling period. But, sometimes artists were not willing to have a strictly positive view. Musher explains that housing reform was advocated by artists who often cited the play, One-Third of a Nation, which is about the plight of tenement living. Musher also argues that in order to maintain funding or appeal to the broadest number of citizens, the government sometimes censored images or stories that challenged predominant narrative of race and