ART FOR THE NATION

Today I had the opportunity to be in Indianapolis for the day.  I used it by going to the Indiana State Museum.  I went with the purpose to see the Fancy and Frugal quilts, which I will share in another post.  But I found an exhibit that really interested me.  It is titled "Art for the Nation".  The museum had posters that were used during WWII. 

Poster art was used on the homefront to mobilize the nation around a common cause.  The message was clear and precise.  The posters urged the families on the homefront to sacrifice so that the soldiers would have all they needed.  The posters urged great effort in production, victory gardens, make do what what you have and sell war bonds.

The posters were placed in areas where there was no paid advertisements.  The most common areas were post offices, railroad stations, schools, restaurants, and retail stores.  Smaller posters were printed for the windows of homes and apartment buildings. 

These posters were not designed by the government but by artists who did not get paid for their work.  Different organizations had contests for the artists to do their best design so that they could have a large number of designs to choose from.

Seeing these posters made me think of the war that we as a nation are involved in.  What kind of posters would be designed now?  I don't know, but I do know that the WWII posters were effective.  So head on out to the museum and see what they have.