Art of the New Deal Group 2 by Course Materials

INSTRUCTIONS

coursematerialbackup — 2017-08-21 21:28:07 UTC

Make TWO posts:

ONE:

- Choose one of the pieces of art - a painting or drawing, NOT a photo or poster -

(https://content.scu.edu/digital/collection/p17268coll6/search) that you think represents some facet of American life during the Great Depression or the New Deal well.

Post:

- A screen shot of the image

- The name of the piece and the artist

- A description of why you chose it, including how you think it connects with the experience of American life during this time (tied to some kind of evidence)

- Include the topic and your name in the heading of your post (example: The 3 Rs - Wade Merrill)

TWO:
- Make a new post responding to the following:

The Great Depression was the ultimate American crisis. If government funds had to be spent on New Deal relief efforts, all of that money should have gone towards things that solved immediate emergencies or made a lasting difference: food relief, infrastructure, economic stimulus, etc. There is no reason tax payer money should have been spent on things like art and music. Tie your opnion to evidence from course materials.

- Place your post near the bottom prompt and include whether you agree or disagree in the title (example: Agree - Wade Merrill)

POST ONE

coursematerialbackup — 2017-08-21 21:28:07 UTC

Place your artwork post below

POST TWO

coursematerialbackup — 2017-08-21 21:28:07 UTC

Place your post about New Deal spending on arts projects here.

End

coursematerialbackup — 2017-08-21 21:28:07 UTC

Art of The New Deal- Jianxun Gao

jianxunjiqnxun — 2018-06-28 23:36:10 UTC

This art is called the "USA Work Program WPA," the artist of this art is unknown but that did not affect this 'propaganda' being extremely successful in FDR's enemy's eyes. THe reason why I chose this piece of art because This movement being part of The New Deal, really helped out the unemployed, and the poor in need during and after the great depression, thousands were able to find jobs to provide for both the community and for themselves."The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and, later, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) put unemployed men and women to work on projects designed and proposed by local governments. .... Together, they provided not only tangible projects of immense public good, but employment for millions."(American Yawp, Chapter 23 section VII)

"California Industrial Scenes" Deedee Lane

2025-02-24 00:36:03 UTC

I chose this because it shows the life of people during the Depression. In the background, a camp could be seen maybe even representing Hoovervilles. It includes a woman who is seen doing laundry in factory wastewater and another with her back turned and appearing to be doing some sort of labor-intensive work "American suppositions about family structure meant that women suffered disproportionately from the Depression." (The American Yawp) these women are seen to both be suffering greatly. Next to the camp it also shows men in suits and well-dressed maybe representing how "The needy drew down whatever savings they had" (The American Yawp) and how even some who were well set off fell into poverty. There is also a man in jeans who may be a worker dumping water into the huge amount of waste water coming from the factory. This may represent how little his involvement in the factory is and how "one in four Americans who wanted a job could not find one and, of those who could, more than half had to settle for part-time work." (The American Yawp) showing that he wants to help but he is only given little work.

Relief - Emily Reichert

2026-02-19 14:18:43 UTC

Balful Influence by Edward Hagedorn

I chose this image to represent the great depression because the monster that is at the top of the picture looks like it is casting something bad on the United States. I interpreted the monster as the great depression raining on the United States. I think this connects to the experience of American life during this time by showing how dark a time this was for people. This shows how dark this time was by having a bit of a creepy feel to it and having no color at all. In chapter 23 of the American Yawp, it states, "Individuals, families, and communities faced the painful, frightening, and often bewildering collapse of the economic institutions on which they depended." This goes along with the image because this quote shows how the people were frightened at this time, just like this picture gives the person looking at it an uneasy, scared feeling. The people were begging for relief during this scary time.

Agree - Emily Reichert

2026-02-19 15:55:51 UTC

I agree that the taxpayer money should not have been spent on things like art and music. These things are not needs that the people should have had their taxes going to. their taxes should have been going to things that were needed like food relief, infrastructure, and economic stimulus. In the American Yawp it says that "Americans looked to their government as the last barrier against starvation, hopelessness, and perpetual poverty." This shows that the people were practically begging the government to spend the money on their needs not art and music. In times like these money cannot just be spent on useless things like art and music because this then give less money to other things like food relief programs that could actually help the people that lost their jobs and are not making enough money to feed their families.

"Children at Play" - Kara Yerrick

yerrickk — 2026-02-22 20:24:22 UTC

I chose this piece because this painting is the embodiment of how a child of the time would act while doing regular activities, like playing. During the Great Depression, children would take on jobs and work with their parents to obtain more money because of the whole ordeal of the banks crashing. So, when the crisis of the Great Depression happened women and children entered the labor force (American Yawp). A handful of a generation of kids only knew work and they knew that once they were grown enough that they would have to join their parents working too. But this picture is illustrating the results after the New Deal. According to the American Yawp, the New Deal had made the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which created the NRA, the act made sure there were codes for work environments, increase wages while decreasing hours and, most of all, it ended child labor. So, after the act, children were not need and couldn't be in the work force. This painting is showing how kids are acting like after the New Deal, trying to play at a playground but looking a little awkward or no having fun because all they knew was work, not playing with friends.

Agree - Kara Yerrick

yerrickk — 2026-02-22 21:41:32 UTC

I agree with the statement "there is no reason tax payer money should have been spent on things like art and music." At the time of the Great Depression, art and music were not the biggest priority. According to American Yawp, most Americans were unemployed and living in a cramped housing were relying on bread lines and soup kitchens for survival. Because of a majority of Americans relying on these establishments, funds should be spent on running these instead of using the money towards the arts and music. The money could also be used towards rebuilding the banks or businesses that truly need it. People with career in the arts and music do need to get paid to make a living but the majority of society would work in everyday jobs. So, the taxpayers money that would go to the arts and music would be going towards a small group of people in the society at the time and the arts and music does not have the ability to restable the economy of the United States.

"Bay Scene" Trevor Santrucek

santruct — 2026-02-22 22:08:31 UTC

I chose the bay scene because of how it represents the environmental impact that these big companies had on the world. Yes, they had an economical impact, but the environmental impact of these countries was also a significant thing that caused health issues for these people that could not afford proper treatment. In this image, it has very dark tones, showing that it was a very dark time in our country, showing the grief that our people had to go through. The hill type represents people looking in from the outside, seeing what had happened to towns that they once loved. I stayed in an election; many people had to work twice as hard, forcing the children to go to work just to even come close to being able to survive. And this time many people sold their shares, and their stocks that they had bought just to get by, which sunk the stock market, causing the Great Depression.

Agree-Trevor Santrucek

santruct — 2026-02-22 22:19:05 UTC

I agree with the statement that government funds should not go towards programs like art in a time of need when there are other issues at hand, such as feeding families and solving economic issues that have been caused by the crashing of the stock market, leaving families in hard times that had put things on payment plans. There are more people affected than just those on payment plans. Going from people who invested in the stock market to the number of people who sold their stocks. decreasing the overall value of the company that they invested in, it left people in hard times. The funds that were allocated towards art programs should have been allocated to economic relief and food programs to help balance out the major issue that had fallen into play. If these measures would have been taken sooner, I feel that we would not have fallen into this deep of a depression, and we would have been out of the depression sooner. Find important that we do have funding going to art programs; we also need to balance out what is a need and what is not necessary for day-to-day life.

Industries of California-Harrison Dorman

2026-02-23 00:34:50 UTC

I choose this piece to describe its versatility and how you can see it and what it means with both the new deal and the great depression. During the great depression California was one of the many states that was forced to find a new way to support its people and a major role in this was its canning business. This industry as depicted in the picture was a key part in keeping California alive while losing a little business in the beginning, due to people not being able to buy expensive canned foods. During the last portion of the depression it was a vital part of creating stable jobs that were needed so badly during this time. After doing further research I found that Santa Clara was the fruit canning capital of the world during the late 1920's and into the 1930's.

Agree-Harrison

2026-02-23 00:48:56 UTC

When I think of taxpayer money during the great depression I think of it going to things that keep the U.S. running, not things like art. The money could've helped many people with food aid housing aid things like that. To think that the people who were scraping by had to pay for taxes that got spent on things like music when they are going to bread lines every day to keep their family alive is horrible. Now I don't think there should have been a complete shut down of funding for the arts, maybe just a pause or a deduction to help the country when they needed it most. I think the new deal act could have benefited a lot more if more funding had been available to bring our country out of the depression