In 1935, the federal government created an agency called the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was intended to provide jobs for the depression era unemployed. Within the WPA, artists were a group of workers especially targeted by the Roosevelt Administration for employment. As a result, new deal taxpayers funded thousands of jobs for artists, and became the owners of thousands of pieces of public art.
In Colorado, a painter named Kenneth Evett joined the WPA arts program and was paid to make oil paintings. Two of those paintings found their way to the Manitou Experimental Forest and are currently on display in the 1930s era lodge where Rural Ways recently spent a week. Of the two, the one pictured is our favorite.
Mr. Evett went on to make a name for himself as a painter of murals. He is, evidently, most famous for the work he did in Nebraska—including installations in the Pawnee City post office and at the state capitol in Lincoln. Eventually, Evett took a job teaching art at Cornell, a position he held for more than thirty years. In 2005, he passed away at the age of 91.
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