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The Forgotten Federal Artists
CETA and Arts Employment
During the years 1974-1982, more than 10,000 artists in the U.S., and an additional 10,000 arts support staff,
were given full-time employment as part of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA).
This was the largest instance of federally-funded artists employment since the New Deal in the 1930s, yet CETA
has been virtually forgotten. The purpose of the CETA Arts Legacy Project is to preserve the history of CETA's role
in the arts, to make CETA's accomplishments in the arts more widely known, and to demonstrate the relevance
of CETA as a model for government support of the cultural sector.
CETA was enacted in 1973, with bipartisan support, in the face of an economic downturn paired with high inflation.
It was a general training and employment program, not originally seen as a source of jobs for artists, but modifications
to the program in 1974 made it possible to include artists.
The first artists project was launched
in San Francisco in 1974,
to be followed by others over the next several years: in Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia,
Washington DC, and other cities. The last, and largest, of the projects took place in NYC from 1978-81.
This site consists of four sections plus an online archive of historical resources:
CETA Arts National Overview • CETA Arts in NYC
CETA Arts Online Research Archive (co-sponsored by Franklin & Marshall College)
Contact CETA Arts Legacy Project
updated 260201