Abstract: During the Great Depression of the 1930s in the United States, the federal government tried
several avenues to lift the heavy unemployment within the country. One of these was the
Works Project Administration (WPA), 1935-1943. Artists and musicians were particularly
hard hit during this period. In an unprecedented effort not to loose the talents of the country’s
artists, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a section of the WPA called Federal
Project One. This focused exclusively on the arts and encompassed separate Federal Projects
for Theater, Music, the Visual Arts, and Writers. Within the Federal Music Project (FMP)
were sections for instrumental and vocal performing groups, music copyists and binders, and
music teaching. During this period, many unemployed private music teachers were retrained
to become music teachers in the rural schools of America. This research paper focuses on the
teacher education components of the FMP. Since the project was run similarly in many
states, one state may serve as an exemplar for all, in this case the state of Michigan. Included
are primary source information about the rural school needs assessment for the state, teacher
training workshops, and the interrelationship between the teacher education section and the
other music sections of the WPA. Although it never came to fruition, the WPA/FMP was
perhaps the greatest attempt in the United States to provide federal support for the arts. The
music teacher education component was a vital component.
