Post office mural earns time in spotlight (one of just 36 left make-work projects during the Depres)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090514/News04/905149864/1051/News04

CULVER — Beloved Indiana postal murals — including Culver’s own — will be highlighted this month at the Center for Culver History at the Culver Public Library.

Highlighting the exhibit will be a presentation at 10 a.m. Saturday by Jeff Kenney.

Of the many murals installed in Hoosier post offices as make-work projects during the Depression, Culver’s is one of just 36 left.

Also featured will be a smaller exhibit on other local projects put in place by such government entities as the WPA and CWA during the Great Depression of the 1930s, including Culver’s beach lodge and the now-defunct Culver Academies airport.

Another “stimulus” effort in the mid-1970s radically renovated the town park, adding basketball courts and new trails and playgrounds.

[Kat45]

1. Where are the make-work projects in THIS Depression?

Oh yeah, there aren't any!

[Toucano]

2. Wikipedia's definition of "make-work" is interesting.

"A make-work job is a job which has less final benefit than the job costs to support."

Does public art that has enriched the communal environment for seventy odd years actually qualify for this (rather) derisive term?

[KittyWampus]

6. interesting point, especially since artwork appreciates in value over time.

[MineralMan]

3. There's one of those in the little post office in

North Saint Paul, MN. It's the post office I use:

?v=0

[KittyWampus]

5. One in Freeport Long Island. And most of the PO murals were not under WPA but SFA ---->

Most of the Post Office works of art were funded through commissions under the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (later known as The Section of Fine Arts) and not the WPA.

"Often mistaken for WPA art, post office murals were actually executed by artists working for the Section of Fine Arts. Commonly known as "the Section," it was established in 1934 and administered by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department. Headed by Edward Bruce, a former lawyer, businessman, and artist, the Section's main function was to select art of high quality to decorate public buildings if the funding was available. By providing decoration in public buildings, the art was made accessible to all people." from "Articles from EnRoute : Off The Wall: New Deal Post Office Murals" by Patricia Raynor."


About the one in Freeport (I believe it's still there):

Winter scene and loading mail onto airplane, 1938 by William Gropper

[Blue_Tires]

4. my dad used to have a book about the post office murals

ugh..don't know where it is now...:argh: