African American Artists and the New Deal Art Programs: Opportunity, Access, and Community

This book examines the involvement of African American artists in the New Deal art programs of the 1930s. Emphasizing broader issues informed by the uniqueness of Black experience rather than individual artists’ works, Mary Ann Calo makes the case that the revolutionary vision of these federal art projects is best understood in the context of access to opportunity, mediated by the reality of racial segregation.

Focusing primarily on the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Adminis...