Established in August 1935 via Federal Project Number One, the Federal Art Project (FAP) fell under the umbrella of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  The FAP represented the country's first subsidy program for all visual arts and was the largest of the New Deal arts programs.  Per Richard D. McKinzie in New Deal For Artists (Princeton University Press, 1973), the FAP "received nearly 14 times more money, aided perhaps 10 times more individuals who considered themselves artists, and brought infinitely more art to the attention of its patron, the American taxpayer."  The FAP provided daily bread, quite literally, to starving artists while ensuring that their skills didn't erode or go to waste.  Employment translated into a sense of self-worth for the artists while generating a staggering output to be enjoyed by millions of Americans.  

     As surely as Edward Bruce strove for the best public art for Federal buildings, Holger Cahill, the FAP National Director, advocated for the democratization of art:  it needn't be the domain of the affluent and studied; every person had artistic abilities and sensibilities.  Cahill--a novelist, museum curator, art critic, and authority on American folk art--believed that producing an enormous catalog of work was the best way to bring awareness of the arts to the country.  In a speech on October 18, 1939, commemorating the 80th birthday of John Dewey (American philosopher and education reformer), Cahill emphasized the relationship between art production, consumption, and appreciation:

"The creative activity in American art today is enormous.  What of the public as appreciator and participant?  The history of art seems to indicate that where the general level of art production is high the artist is reaching publics whose standards of taste are equal to his performance.  Great traditions of art must have great audiences."

     Some 35 years after Cahill's remarks, Francis V. O'Connor printed the entirety of his speech in Art for the Millions:  Essays from the 1930s by Artists and Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project (New York Graphic Society Ltd., 1973).  Editor O'Connor presented a parallel and succinct summary of Cahill's vision for art in America and the FAP:

"Thus the idea of 'art for art's sake' was firmly rejected as the basis for the Federal Arts Project.  This rejection was in keeping not only with the theoretical tenor of Cahill's thought and the desires of the socialist-oriented artists' organizations, but with the practical necessities of setting up an effective art-relief program, on a national scale, designed to employ all needy artists regardless of skill or proclivity.  The ideal was collectivism, not individualism.  Cahill's achievement was to create a program open to the artistic 'everyman.'"

     Holger Cahill served as the National Director of the Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1943 and established six regional offices, each with a Regional Director; the FAP leadership team coordinated a myriad of activities with state and local authorities, civic organizations, schools, etc.   The FAP operated in three primary Divisions: 1) Fine Arts, 2) Practical Arts, and 3) Art Education.  Fine Arts elements included Murals, Sculptures, Easel Painting, and Graphic Arts.  Practical Arts elements included the Index of American Design, Posters, Photography, and Crafts and Dioramas.   Art Education entailed Art Teaching, Community Centers, and Exhibitions. 

    The FAP hired the majority of its artists from relief rolls with supervisory positions typically filled by non-relief artists.  Artists received a starting wage of $23.50 per week.  The medium dictated where the artist worked:  easel painters, sculptors and graphic artists worked from home; posters artists and muralists created from remote locations or project workshops.  Artists were expected to deliver work products within an FAP-mandated time frame, weeks or months depending on the genre.  Unfortunately, the bureaucratic constraints of the WPA relief/payroll process didn't always coincide with the artists' creative process; in addition, a sudden reduction in Federal funds meant removal from relief rolls.  In response, artists formed a national Artists Union in 1935.  

     The FAP divisions and initiatives took art to every location of American life:  hospitals, schools, government buildings, railway stations, recreation centers, community centers, athletic fields, local theaters, etc.  Art became an integral part of the daily lives of Americans, whether as artist or audience.  In addition, FAP artists, administrators, and educators taught a generation of Americans to paint, sculpt, create graphic designs, and enjoy art exhibitions.  FAP posters drew public attention to New Deal programs, health issues, and regional treasures.  For many Americans, their first taste of and exposure to original art came courtesy of the FAP.  Within local communities and the nation as a whole, the FAP raised societal awareness of the arts as well as the inherent beauty of American folk art.  

     Nothing better captured the New Deal's focus on the dignity and sacrifice of American workers than the FAP Mural program.  The FAP muralists, many of whom were influenced by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, created larger than life art based on the struggles, dreams, and hopes of the working class.  As surely as Rivera and his contemporaries seized upon the spirit of the Mexican Revolution, so too did the FAP muralists document the "revolution" of the New Deal.  They refrained from memorializing notable historic events and figures, preferring to show their patriotism and passion via depictions of factory workers, common laborers, and the anonymous heroes of the inner city; their elegant panoramas also chronicled the engines of American production:  trains, manufacturing plants, turbines, etc.  Working Americans, in all their glory and imperfections, became viable subjects of contemporary art.    

     Thanks to the interest and oversight of Holger Cahill, the Index of American Design (IAD) identified and preserved the uniqueness of American art from the colonial period to 1900.   Comprised of a team of 400 artists, the IAD created an archival inventory of art objects created by and for Americans, ranging from the useful to the absurd to the beautiful to the esoteric.  The FAP artists prepared watercolor renderings of every conceivable product of the American imagination from 32 states of the FAP's six regions:  wedding dresses, andirons, shot glasses, bar signs, tablecloths, textiles, etc.  FAP artists collected the objects from public entities, local museums, private collections and just regular folk.  The Index's impact on modern American and worldwide industrial design remains powerful to this very day.   

     At its peak in 1936, the FAP employed over 5,000 artists; the Fines Arts Division accounted for about 50% of all FAP artists.  Upon its conclusion in 1943, the FAP had employed approximately 10,000 artists at a cumulative cost of $35,000,000.  The FAP served as the training ground for a number of now famous American artists:  Philip Guston, Moses Soyer, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Jacob Laurence, Ivan Albright, Marsden Hartley, Philip Evergood, Mark Tobey,  Reginald Marsh, and Edward Laning.  Most significantly, the FAP gave voice and vision to thousands of lesser known artists who just as ably created "art for the millions."