Government and the Arts - Case Study Example

Other (s) Government and the Arts During the Great depression, the U.S government significantly supported programs such as the Federal writer’s projects, Federal Arts projects and other related efforts. For example, the Federal government paid writers of the time to record voices, folklore and histories across the country. The support at the time was premised on the need to hold artists to the same standards of public value as other workers in the nation. Although many writers of the time were hesitant to join the project, the Federal Writer’s Project particularly employed majority of the Americas prominent 20th century writers.

The result of the WPA project supported by U.S government was comprehensive and impressive, culminating in the production of up to 48 volumes. In addition, the Library of the Congress maintained thousands of documents from the Federal Writer’s Project as well as from the WPA’s Folklore project. In my opinion, despite the economic hard times of the Great depression, support for such projects was generally, a good government investment. For example, these projects nurtured talents across the United States and this enabled many men and women to develop their career in arts during a critical period of their professional lives.

On the other hand, the Great depression was a period of high employment and the projects provided work for artists, musicians, writers and actors during the Great depression (Adler 2). Lastly, some of the ways through which the U.S government currently supports arts include direct and indirect funding of Arts projects through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) As well as other federal agencies. Works Cited Chapter 37 (pp. 1228-1231), Federal support for the arts  Adler, Jerry. Government helping the arts in hard times: 1934: The Art of the New Deal. Newsweek. Available at http://www.

smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/1934-Picturing-Hard-Times.html http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/powerprose/wpa/