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Set aside a portion of the upcoming President's Day holiday this February 17th to do a little TV viewing. A coalition numbering more than 40 of Los Angeles' non-profit arts organizations is planning a 5-hour telethon that day in order to show the world what smaller organizations--most of the time overshadowed by the L.A. Philharmonics and L.A. County Museums of the cultural world--mean to the town, and the kind of talent they are laden with. And, yes, this is a major group fund-raising effort for organizations operating on budgets of under $750,000 annually.

Often strapped to maintain their programs from year to year, many non-profit arts organizations have struggled during the 1990s due to relentless and significant budget cuts and restructuring of state and local art agencies along with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Thus the telethon coalition emerges in part as a constructive response to significantly declining government support, asking taxpayers to fill the vacuum voluntarily.

Host cable station KWHY, channel 22, normally broadcasts business news during daytime hours, and Spanish-language programming at night.. In addition to music, dance and comedy performances, MCLA plans to oversee an in-studio mural project during the telethon broadcast. Details should be available for publication by the time of the next Newsletter. A number of TV spots have already been lined up by project organizers, along with a local media blitz, so you can be sure that you'll be hearing more about it--a lot more! If you need more information or are interested in helping out as a volunteer please call MCLA, (213) 481-1186.

THE FEDERAL ART PROGRAMS AND THE RIGHT TO WORK

Milford Zornes at work on his Claremont USPO mural.

One of the biggest misunderstandings when discussing the four major art programs--Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), The Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture (Section), Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), and Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP)--sponsored by the Federal government during the Depression years is their purpose. They were NOT primarily art programs, but RELIEF programs that hired artists. It was unfortunately a key point that even some of the art program administrators failed to comprehend.

From the very beginning, the programs were under intense pressure to keep costs down, employ as many as possible (in May, 1937 the WPA/FAP alone employed 37,250 people), and produce quality artwork that avoided public controversy. The money for these various programs came from Congressional appropriation, which carefully watched spending levels and public opinion. Some of these mandates could be as brief as three months (especially with Federal One, which sponsored the WPA/FAP). This continual need for Congressional approval fostered a sense of impermanence and created anxiety about the future, if any, of the programs.

Art officials, who kept pushing for a permanent national art program, never realized that the projects were kept on a short funding leash for a reason: So that they could be canceled quickly when their usefulness was over. This was not the machinations of evil "art haters" in Congress, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself. An examination of budgetary requests and correspondence between the President and program officials show that it was Roosevelt's desire that the tentative status of the programs exist.

President Roosevelt was a brilliant politician who understood not only the average American, but Congress as well. Congress gave him all the money that he requested for the art programs because he knew just how much they would go for. In the middle of the worst depression in U.S. history, to ask for and receive millions of dollars in federal funds to support artists is nothing short of a miracle. However, the President never pushed Congress or backed them into a corner over money.

While the art that was produced, especially in Southern California (just think of George Stanley's Muse at the Hollywood Bowl, of Fletcher Martin's murals at the San Pedro USPO, or Edward Biberman's mural at the Venice Post Office), was often beautiful and widely praised, they were expensive to produce, based on the man-month, the system the government used to gauge program costs. Construction projects were the bulk of the federal relief programs, and they employed thousands of people, often in rural areas, many of whom were unskilled or semi-skilled labor--which tended to keep the costs low. The average man-month for the WPA was $59 (on average it cost $59 to employ one man/woman for one month). On the other hand, the WPA/FAP man-month cost was $99.80, or almost 70% more.

The art programs hired fewer people who cost more to employ. The majority of the workers were skilled artists paid in the highest wage classification--professional--who lived in urban centers where the cost of living was higher (The government salaries were tied to pay in the private sector in each region). So on a per person basis the arts looked very expensive. Only the theater program was more expensive than art, about $200 a man-month per person, with the writer's program, music, and the historical records survey cheaper. Thus, in July, 1938, even through the art program took only 13.3% of the total Federal One budget (theater took the largest piece with 29.1%), on paper it appeared wasteful. Ultimately, roads, schools, dams, and public buildings will win out over murals, mosaics and statues, expecially if they appear cheaper.

This is why we see so many projects that require more than a solitary artist. The great success of the Long Beach Mosaic is that it required an army of workers to cut and assemble the tiles, thus reducing the average man-month cost. This is the same concept with the many petra-chrome murals that are unique to Southern California. It is not just the durability of concrete or tile to stand up to the intense local sunlight that was important, but the fact that so many people were needed to complete the projects and lowering the man-month cost.

The beautiful public art created during the almost ten-year life of the various programs served as propaganda that supported the President's New Deal ideals and reinforced traditional American values to a public badly shaken by the Depression. It was never primarily about the art, but getting as many people as possible working for as little as possible. Once World War II jump started the economy and relief was no longer necessary, the art programs were discontinued as quickly a possible.