Проект общественных работ искусств (PWAP) в период Великой депрессии

American New Deal work relief project (1933–1934)

The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal work relief program that employed professional artists to create sculptures, paintings, crafts and design for public buildings and parks during the Great Depression in the United States. The program operated from December 8, 1933, to May 20, 1934, administered by Edward Bruce under the United States Treasury Department, with funding from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Although the program lasted less than one year, it had employed 3,749 artists, who produced 15,663 works of art. The PWAP served as way to employ artists, while having competent representatives of the profession create work for display work in a public setting.

The first and largest of the projects sponsored by the PWAP were the murals in San Francisco's Coit Tower, begun in December 1933 and completed in June 1934. A total of 44 artists and assistants were employed, many of them faculty or former students of the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA). Among the lead artists were Maxine Albro, Victor Arnautoff, Jane Berlandina, Ray Bertrand, Roy Boynton, Ralph Chesse, Ben Cunningham, Rinaldo Cuneo, Harold Mallette Dean, Parker Hall, Edith Hamlin, George Albert Harris, William Hesthal, John Langley Howard, Lucien Labaudt, Gordon Langdon, Jose Moya del Pino, Otis Oldfield, Frederick E. Olmsted, Suzanne Scheuer, Ralph Stackpole, Edward Terada, Frede Vidar, Clifford Wight, and Bernard Zakheim. After a majority of the murals were completed, the Big Strike of 1934 shut down the Pacific Coast. Though it has been claimed that allusions to the event were subversively included in the murals by some of the artists, in fact the murals were largely completed before the strike began and none of those that were not completed by that time show any reference to the strike.

The Astronomers Monument, commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project in 1933, sits outside of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California. The Astronomers Monument was designed by Archibald Garner, and created by Garner and five other artists. Each artist was responsible for sculpting one of the astronomers featured in the monument, and in total the monument features six influential astronomers: Hipparchus (about 150 BC);  Nicholas Copernicus (1473–1543); Galileo Galilei (1564–1642); Johannes Kepler (1571–1630); Isaac Newton (1642–1727); and William Herschel (1738–1822). One of the artists, George Stanley, was also the creator of the famous "Oscar" statuette presented at the Academy Awards. On November 25, 1934, about six months prior to the opening of the Observatory, a celebration took place to mark the completion of the Astronomers Monument. The only "signature" on the Astronomers Monument is "PWAP 1934" referring to the program which funded the project and the year it was completed.

This Art Deco style monument serves as the gateway to the Hollywood Bowl, and is said to be the largest of hundreds of monuments in Southern California constructed during the New Deal. The 200 foot long, 22 foot high sculpture is also a fountain and was constructed with concrete and covered with slabs of decorative granite. The structure was completed in 1940 by George Stanley, also a contributor to the Griffith Observatory's Astronomers Monument and who is better known as the sculptor who molded the original Academy Awards' Oscar statue. The structure was refurbished in 2006.

Golden Gate Bridge was commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project in 1934. The artist, Ray Strong, painted a depiction of the Golden Gate Bridge while it was under construction. Building the Golden Gate Bridge seemed impossible at the time it was built, due to the wind and overall complexity of the bridge design. This painting was commissioned as a tribute to the engineering and design feats undertaken during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. This painting represents the American Idealism art style.

The Baltimore Museum of Art showed works by 30 PWAP artists from April 1–21, 1934, including a painting of the waterfront by Charles H. Walther. A second show was put on at the Maryland Institute in December 1934.

The Cincinnati Museum of Art hosted a PWAP show April 22 to 29, 1934, including drawings of local subjects by local artist Glen Tracy.

In June 1934, the Birmingham Public Library exhibited an oil painting of the Tannehill Furnace by Carrie Hill, a portrait of John Herbert Phillips by Mrs. Effie Gibson, and had received but had yet to display five prints by "Eastern" artists.

There was a PWAP show at the Herron Institute in Indiana in June 1934.

The Brooklyn Museum hosted a show in October 1934 of "31 contemporary artists, featuring accessions acquired through the Public Works of Art Project."

The Fine Arts Society of the Wilmington City Library put on a show of local PWAP art from October 15 to 27, 1934.