During the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s and into the early years of World War II, the Federal government supported the arts in unprecedented ways. For 11 years, between 1933 and 1943, federal tax dollars employed artists, musicians, actors, writers, photographers, and dancers. Never before or since has our government so extensively sponsored the arts.

- The National Archive

The online exhibition A New Deal for the Arts gives a brief but thorough history of how the New Deal and WPA supported the arts.