The Venetian artist Pino Janni came to the US and worked under the WPA program as so many artists did when times were tough. It was a wildly successful enterprise and accepted immigrants along with native born citizens. Artists were workers and their trades were art and architecture, theater, writing. They were encouraged to portray the American scene. Much of their work was destined for federal buildings like post offices. More than 5000 artists created 225,000 works of art many of which are still extant. (Alice Neel’s early work was part of this program) They found beauty in the everyday.