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Art Project Panel Discussion 

1. Election of Chairman

2. Cahill: Sketch briefly the development of the Art Project. What types of employable workers, what sort of community needs, what problems found to exist in various parts of the country. The directives received from Congress: to employ needy persons at useful work. The means test: what this means in terms of employment. The 18 months rule.

What type of projects were set up to employ workers in need. Creative projects: murals, painting, sculpture, fine prints, allied arts, community art centers (their meaning in relation to community need and employment possibilities, particularly in the employment of non-creative personnel), Index of American Design (the meaning of the project as a record of American design and a source of employment for technically skilled but non-creative personnel), handcrafts, visual aids, museum projects.

3. Discussion by committee members of project activities as now constituted, with Cahill, Mrs. Holshauer, Norman, Knotts, Dornbush. 

4. Notes for Committee Discussion:

a. The failure of our society to provide employment for workers in the cultural fields. This failure most acute in the visual arts.. Is this failure a sign that this type of employment is no longer needed by our society and a hint that these workers should be trained for some other employment? Is it a sign of maladjustment? (Some of the things that have been said about this in Congress.) What is the sense of this committee? Is there a need for the extension of services of white collar type in a mass production economy based on cheap power which every year increases technological unemployment? Should cultural activities, specifically visual art activities, form a part of such a program? Has the need of such projects and their value to the community been demonstrated in the WPA ART PROGRAM?

b. Standards: What standards are to be set up for government cultural programs? How are these to be maintained? Who is to be responsible for their maintenance?

c. What is the committee's opinion of the value of the arts projects in the present emergency? Should these projects at the present time relate their work principally to community needs, or principally to the needs of the armed forces? What types of projects are most valuable in the present period?