The Great Depression left millions of Americans struggling to survive, but a federal jobs program also helped reshape the nation’s cultural landscape, funding artists whose work reflected the lives and hardships of ordinary people. Dance historian Celia Ipiotis will explore that history during an upcoming Townsend Talk at Raynham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay titled “When America Went Broke, Art Went Big.”
The presentation, to be held on Nov. 19, will examine the impact of the Works Progress Administration, established in 1935, and its efforts to employ artists during the economic crisis. Ipiotis will use archival footage from “Eye On Dance,” the television series she created and produced between 1981 and 2004, featuring choreographers Anna Sokolow and Sophie Maslow discussing their experiences during the 1930s.
“The purpose of the WPA was essentially to create paying jobs for the unemployed at every skill level,” Ipiotis said. “Now, here’s the real key to the sentence: every job for the unemployed.”
Artists were included in that workforce, receiving support to create choreography, theater, music, literature and visual art. Ipiotis said the program represented a significant departure from a system in which artists often had to teach, work in factories or find other employment to support themselves.
Before the WPA, she said, dance and most other art forms received no federal funding. Although the initiative’s arts programs were relatively short-lived, running from 1936 to 1939, Ipiotis said their influence extended across the cultural landscape.
“Although it was relatively short-lived… it was one of the radical transformers of the economic, political, and artistic trajectory in dance, playwriting, music, visual arts, and literature,” Ipiotis emphasized. “It’s an astonishing feat for America.”
The program will focus particularly on modern dance, which developed a distinct American identity during the period. Unlike classical ballet, which often drew on royal and aristocratic themes, modern dance increasingly explored urban life, poverty and the experiences of working people.
Ipiotis said the economic crisis was impossible for artists to ignore. During the Depression, unemployment and homelessness were visible throughout New York City, and performers faced many of the same hardships as their audiences.
Sokolow and Maslow will provide firsthand perspectives through the archival interviews. The presentation will also feature performance footage, including works inspired by the Dust Bowl and Woody Guthrie’s songs, as well as excerpts from Sokolow’s “Rooms,” which explored the emotional effects of cramped living conditions.
The program will be divided into segments, with Ipiotis pausing the footage to provide historical context and discuss the material with attendees. She also plans to show excerpts of the Lindy Hop, a social dance that gained popularity during the era.
The presentation will examine the influence of Mexican muralists, including Diego Rivera, whose large-scale public works celebrated laborers and everyday people. Ipiotis said their approach helped inspire American artists working during the Depression, including those participating in federally funded programs.
The legacy of the WPA also remains visible locally. Ipiotis pointed to the mural in the Oyster Bay Post Office, created by Portuguese-American artist Ernest Peixotto in the 1930s, as an example of public art produced through the program.
For Ipiotis, the subject also carries contemporary relevance. She said the WPA helped establish artists as workers whose contributions mattered to the broader public.
“The problem with culture today is the fact that it reveals the truth, and truth is not something that we’re sitting comfortably with nowadays,” she said. “That’s how I feel, which is also why I feel this is such an important program to present right now.”
Advance registration is required through Raynham Hall Museum’s website, RaynhamHallMuseum.org.
