The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a division
of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was established
to provide work for unemployed citizens during the Great Depression
, 1929-1939. The FTP began in August 1935 and flourished as the
first and only government sponsored and subsidized theater program
in the United States. It was headed by Hallie Flanagan (1890-1969),
and was a way for theatrical professionals to gain employment during
the Depression. The repertoire of plays was vast, including revivals
of the classics and experimental new works like the Living Newspaper.
Because these FTP plays needed advertising,
the Federal Art Project (FAP), a section of the WPA, set up a poster
division. The Poster Division put many young artists to work designing
posters using both established and experimental methods.
Originally each poster was hand lettered and painted, resulting
in a few posters of dubious quality. Silk screening replaced this
method when Anthony Velonis joined the division. This new process
greatly increased the number of posters produced - as many as 600
posters
could be made daily. Silk screening also improved design quality,
raising the level of poster design to a form of fine art.
Unfortunately, the works of these fine artists
were lost and forgotten when World War Two began. Nevertheless,
museums, private galleries, and universities have recently begun
to rediscover America's lost history and heritage from the 1930s.
This rediscovery is due in large part to the many talented and skilled
artists of the period.
SC&A has nearly six
hundred slides of FTP/WPA posters, which are available for viewing
in SC&A's reading room or duplication on request. There is a
Finding Aid/Research Guide to the collection also available in the
reading room.
Special Collections & Archives (SC&A)
preserves and makes available to all students, faculty, and researchers
many kinds of original historical and scholarly materials. Major
subject areas for research include Northern Virginia, Planned Communities,
Performing Arts, Photography, Maps, the Civil War, and George Mason
University. Formats in SC&A include manuscripts, rare books,
playbills, musical scores, audio and video tapes, architectural
drawings, photographs, and slides. Among the most important collections
of primary source materials are the sledes of the posters of the
Federal Theatre Project.
View
the FTP Slides Collection via your desktop
