Experience life in the Great Depression and the impact of the Works Progress Administration through true stories, original songs, and period-inspired artwork!
Spare A Dime was conceived on a dreary winter afternoon almost a year ago today. When we -- the staff at COSACOSA art at large, Inc. -- heard that the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) had a time-travel theme, we were instantly intrigued.
"If you had a time machine, where would you go?," the PIFA information asked. And so the brainstorming began. The discussion was lively; our personal choices, diverse. Einstein's laboratory. Da Vinci's studio. The March on Washington. Socrates' farewell. An Arthurian past. A Star Trek future.
But when it came down to what place and time COSACOSA (as an organization) should chose, our needs were clear: some point in history where the lessons learned would be useful to the problems we face today. We're a nonprofit serving constituents living in some of our city's most challenged neighborhoods -- places where the going is tough even in times of economic prosperity. The parallels between the Great Depression and our current "Great Recession" immediately sprang to mind.
What gave hope to the hopeless during the Great Depression? How did the social safety nets we take for granted today come to be? The answer, at least in part, is the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the stimulus program of its time. Created by Presidential Order on May 6, 1935, the founding of the WPA was the perfect choice COSACOSA's moment in time.
And the Spare A Dime project was born.
"If you had a time machine, where would you go?," the PIFA information asked. And so the brainstorming began. The discussion was lively; our personal choices, diverse. Einstein's laboratory. Da Vinci's studio. The March on Washington. Socrates' farewell. An Arthurian past. A Star Trek future.
But when it came down to what place and time COSACOSA (as an organization) should chose, our needs were clear: some point in history where the lessons learned would be useful to the problems we face today. We're a nonprofit serving constituents living in some of our city's most challenged neighborhoods -- places where the going is tough even in times of economic prosperity. The parallels between the Great Depression and our current "Great Recession" immediately sprang to mind.
What gave hope to the hopeless during the Great Depression? How did the social safety nets we take for granted today come to be? The answer, at least in part, is the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the stimulus program of its time. Created by Presidential Order on May 6, 1935, the founding of the WPA was the perfect choice COSACOSA's moment in time.
And the Spare A Dime project was born.