Five Colorado women artists, Gladys Caldwell Fisher, Louise Emerson Ronnebeck, Ethel and Jenne Magafan, and Laura Gilpin, were women artists who created art for the government during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Their artistic careers were impacted by the New Deal programs. It was through this unprecedented funding of the arts and its programs that these women saw their artistic careers open for them locally and nationally.

To frame the historical context of art in the Great Depression, the groundwork of arts funding in this era is discussed. This includes a description of Roosevelt's New Deal with respect to arts funding—both its pluses and minuses—and some of the controversies that arose from government funding of the arts, including the place that New Deal funding held in Colorado, specifically regarding the work of the five women artists who are the focus of this study. Also included is a brief but crucial examination of the dialogue concerning women's roles in the economic and political systems of the 1930s.

The lives of Gladys Caldwell Fisher, Louise Emerson Ronnebeck, Laura Gilpin, and Jenne and Ethel Magafan, tell a tale of survival, hardship, and personal growth. Like many others who participated in the arts programs, they benefited from the strategic arrangement of programs and funding funneled through the New Deal. Under consideration is how this funding of the arts affected their lives and their art. Exploration of the artists' lives includes the impact programs had on the marketability of their art, what influenced the images they produced for the government, the conditions under which the work was produced, and where the work was displayed.