The Works Progress Administration
In response to the devastating economic effects of the Great Depression, the United States government developed the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which among other things aimed to create jobs for the millions of unemployed Americans. Partridge served as the Wisconsin State Director of the Federal Art Project, the visual arts arm of the WPA. Partridge strongly believed in the project, as she felt “deep sympathy for the financial situation of artists, especially during the Depression.” She worked to make sure that Wisconsin’s contribution to this social initiative to support artists and the arts was a success.
Gerrit V. Sinclair and Richard Jansen were both WPA artists in Milwaukee. Sinclair was also the first professor hired by the Layton School of Art in 1920, where he taught for thirty years. Jansen trained at the Layton School of Art, and Partridge considered him to be one of her WPA success stories. His East Side Street in Winter, created as part of this program, entered the Layton Art Collection in 1948.