CETA Arts in Philadelphia 1975-81
Exhibition dates: August 3 - October 2, 2026
Monday - Thursday, 10:00 - 4:00, Friday Noon - 4:00
Curated by Virginia Maksymowicz and Blaise Tobia for the CETA Arts Legacy Project
in collaboration with Creative Arts Philadelphia.
Reception and panel discussion: Friday, September 18 5:00-7:00
with Anne Edmunds, former administrator of the Brandywine VAPS program; Valerie Gay, Executive Director
of Creative Philadelphia; City Council member Isaiah Thomas, and co-curator Virginia Maksymowicz.
During the period 1975-1981, artists and arts organizations in Philadelphia received significant support from the
Federal Government
through the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), which was the largest
program of its type since the
Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the 1930s. Overall, CETA employed about
1.5 million people nationally
and provided job training for another five million. Among those who qualified for
CETA-funded jobs were 30,000 artists
and arts professionals who would otherwise have been unemployed.
CETA arts programs sprung up across the country.
Two of them were located in Philadelphia.
One was the Visual Artists in Public Service program, run by the Brandywine Graphic Workshop under Allan and
Anne Edmunds.
Over two years it placed artists in community settings throughout Philadelphia. They worked
half-time in these assignments
and half-time in their studios, with the intention that they would become
more employable in the private sector due to this experience.
Many went on to successful careers.
The other component of CETA in Philadelphia was funding the salaries of both artists and staff members at
approximately
twenty arts nonprofits. Organizations like the Painted Bride Art Center, which had been operating
with a volunteer staff,
were able to hire their first paid administrators. Performance groups like Philadanco and the
People’s Light and Theater Company
were able to pay some of their performers. This period of funding helped
to stabilize and even enlarge these
organizations to prepare them to flourish in a post-CETA world. Consequently,
almost all of these groups are
still active and contributing to the cultural life of Philadelphia. Even Philadelphia's
largest fine-arts institution,
the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was given crucial support by CETA, which provided
as many as 38 staff lines
(mostly museum guards) over five years (1976-81) during a period of
fiscal crisis for the City of Philadelphia.
Through photographs, video documentation and vintage ephemera, the story of CETA Arts in Philadelphia is told,
placed into a context that includes the WPA's contributions to Philadelphia in the 1930s and the
broader national scope of CETA Arts in the 1970s.
On display are original artworks by former Philadelphia CETA artists Roland Ayers, Jerry DiFalco,
Kenley A. Gardner,
Rebecca Rose Metzger, Claire Owen, James Phillips, Laurence Salzmann, Richard Watson
and Michael Williamson, as well
as photographically represented artworks by Barbara Bullock, Vince DiPersio,
Terry Fox, Cathy Hopkins
and David Tothero.
Several artrsts who worked in CETA positions elsewhere before
coming to Philadelphia are also represented by original or documented artworks:
Charles Bernstein,
Willie Cole, Jane Golden,
Virginia Maksymowicz, Meriàn Soto, Simone Spicer and Blaise Tobia.
A full catalog of the exhibition may be viewed here.