About the Exhibition
The Milwaukee Handicraft Project
Handmade for Hard Times
Past Exhibition
March 28–June 15, 2014
MOWA | West Bend
About the Exhibition
March 28–June 15
Hyde Gallery
The Milwaukee Handicraft Project (MHP), led by Elsa Ulbricht and her students from the Milwaukee State Teachers College, was one of the most innovative and successful Depression-era work programs in the country. Between late 1935 and early 1942, it employed around five thousand women and sold their handmade crafts to state and county facilities. Ulbricht welcomed and implemented a diverse and integrated workforce—an unprecedented vision of inclusiveness most obviously expressed in the production of African-American dolls.