The WPA & the Golden Age · See America / Cities & States
Community Center
Works Progress Administration, 1936
What it is
The Library of Congress dates this WPA silkscreen only to a range, between 1936 and 1941, and records no individual designer.
Why it matters
It advertises the full menu of a community center - athletic activities, cultural groups, arts and crafts, music and dancing, library and forum - by picturing the equipment itself rather than the people. Flat screen-printed color blocks let a small shop run the poster cheaply in quantity, the defining economy of the Federal Art Project poster divisions.
What to notice
A silkscreened inventory of civic life: instruments, tools and sports gear stacked as an invitation.
Made by artists on the public payroll — art the country already owned.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Format
- One-sheet
- Poster published
- Works Progress Administration, 1936
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN98513448 (digital ID cph.3f05316)
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government program work (WPA Federal Art Project), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 18x24" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
