Museum Extension Project Model Makers at Work

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Museum Extension Project Model Makers at Work A photograph labeled “Model makers at work” graphically documents workers employed by Pennsylvania’s State-Wide Museum Extension Project (MEP) creating a large-scale model of Independence Hall. The MEP operated under the direction of the Professional and Service Division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that funded the creation of architectural models, costume plates, dioramas,...
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From the Editor

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on From the Editor With this issue, Pennsylvania Heritage continues PHMC’s observance of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New Deal by bringing you a fascinating account of an unusual relief program that gave work to artists and artisans throughout the Keystone State. Between 1935 and 1943, the Pennsylvania State-Wide Museum Extension Project (MEP) churned out millions of visual aids for use in the...
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Executive Director’s Letter

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Letter Two articles in this issue of Pennsylvania Heritage underscore the important roles cultural organizations have played — and continue to play — in the education and enlightenment of Pennsylvanians. Regularly contributing freelance writer Jim McClelland’s article celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia attributes its beginnings to the volunteer work...
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Art with a Purpose: Pennsylvania’s Museum Extension Project, 1935-1943

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Art with a Purpose: Pennsylvania’s Museum Extension Project, 1935-1943 Like other relief programs launched during the Great Depression under the aegis of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the goal of federal arts programs of the 1930s was two-fold: to rescue unemployed Americans from poverty and to produce something of public benefit. One of the unintended byproducts was controversy. In 1937, the Federal Art and Theatre Project unintentionally...
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Letters

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters Down Memory Lane Thanks for the fascinating article on the WPA models [“‘Art with a Purpose’: Pennsylvania’s Museum Extension Project, 1935–1943,” by Curtis Miner, Spring 2008]. When I was a kid – more than forty years ago – I helped around our grade school in a little community near Chicago. I recall seeing several architectural models in a storeroom,...
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