Editors’ Note: Confronting the Legacy of New Deal Art in the Twenty-First Century

This year-2025-marks the 90th anniversary of the Federal Art Project (FAP), a New Deal program that provided emergency labor relief for thousands of American artists during the Great Depression.Branded in red, white, and blue with the logo of an eagle and a palette, the FAP was the visual arts arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency that employed millions of Depression-era Americans on public infrastructure projects including roads, parks, bridges, hospitals, and schools (fig.1).