Cleveland's Industry and Art History

The steel industry had the greatest economic impact on the region, with local factories pumping out almost one million tons at the start of the 20th century. Steel was Cleveland’s life blood and came to be a defining feature of its identity.

In support of the growing art scene, a number of cultural institutions were founded, including the Cleveland School of the Arts in 1882 and the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1913.

Similarly, in this 1924 painting by Frank Wilcox’s student Carl Gaertner, it is easy to see just how integrated the site of factories and the smell of billowing smoke was in the city’s urban fabric.

The first three decades of the 20th century brought booming prosperity to Cleveland and the surrounding region. But, the stock market crash of 1929 put an abrupt halt to Cleveland’s -- and much of the country's -- success, forcing thousands out of work.

Artists were hit especially hard by the economic downturn. Not only were many of them let go from their day jobs, but they also lost many patrons who could no longer afford such a luxury as art. 

In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt enacted his New Deal to get Americans working again. 

As part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Roosevelt’s government established a special program called the Federal Art Project (FAP) to give artists, arts educators and craftspeople opportunities for work.

Due to the strength of Cleveland’s art scene prior to the Depression and the support of institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland was chosen as one of the 16 nationwide Federal Art Project (FAP) centers. 

From 1933 to 1943, the Federal Art Project employed around 350 Cleveland artists, with especially active programs in printmaking, ceramic sculpture and murals.

Much like their predecessors, Cleveland’s FAP artists looked locally for inspiration and found it in the region’s industrial history and identity. Many of the artworks produced under the FAP include themes such as steel production, rail transportation, commerce and shipping.

In addition to the many Cleveland-based artists that continue to derive inspiration from the region’s industrial landscape, a number of arts institutions have expanded the city’s international reach while still honoring its local history. 

Transformer Station, for example, stages global contemporary art installations in a former electrical substation of the Cleveland Railway Station, a physical reminder of the city’s glory days as a transportation hub. 

Cleveland even has its own international art fair. Inaugurated in 2018, FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art brings artists from all over the world to Northeast Ohio to explore what artmaking means for audiences today. 

One of the goals of FRONT 2022 was to explore “the region’s past and present scars” as a result of, among other things, its industrial history.

Cleveland has had its fair share of ups and downs, but its unique combination of industry and the arts has remained a constant through the years, forming part of a distinct identity for the city and its residents.