CHICAGO ARTS & HANDICRAFTS IN THE 20TH CENTURY
During the 1930s the Works Progress Administration had an indelible impact on the arts and crafts scene of Chicago. Organizations like the Jane Adams Hull House held programs encouraging women to participate in creating art and making crafts paid for with federal funds. This exhibit tells a small part of that story.
A group of students practicing weaving on tabletop and lap looms. The Jane Addams-Hull House founded in 1889, remained a hub of adult education into the 1930s, and in particular the Art Program which Addams cultivated in order to challenge industrialization while allowing women an outlet for self-discovery.
The Hull House advertised its workshops and art programs to the community at large.
Much scholarly work has been done to document the progression of handicrafts in Chicago throughout the 20th century showing that this progression toward the pursuit of artistic crafting endeavors, while impacted by the Federal Government's involvement with the WPA, was not formed as a reaction or result of the depression.
Murals and paintings like this one figure prominently among the art works created under federal programs during the Great Depression.
In fact, through the later part of the twentieth century and continuing today there is a vibrant art scene and culture of makers in the Chicago area.
Modern art historians now study the transformation of the arts and crafts scene in Chicago preceding and during the Great Depression.