Lesson plan Grade 11 Art & Music
New Deal Water Posters: Designing Public Art for Infrastructure
A grade 11 art lesson where students analyze New Deal-era public-works art, then design an original poster advocating for a modern water-infrastructure investment.
Objectives
- Students will identify specific visual techniques New Deal-era public art used to build support for federal water projects.
- Students will design an original poster advocating for a modern water-infrastructure investment, using at least two historical visual techniques.
- Students will write an artist statement that cites a specific factual figure supporting their poster's message.
Vocabulary
- Public works
- The city department that builds and takes care of shared things everyone uses, like streets, water pipes, and sewers. Many water careers are part of public works.
- Lead service line
- A lead service line is an old water pipe made of lead metal that connects a house to the water main. Lead can get into the drinking water, so these pipes are being dug up and replaced across the country.
Teacher overview
During the 1930s, federal New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration commissioned public art, including posters and murals, that often depicted dams, power plants, and irrigation projects in a bold, optimistic visual style meant to build public support for large infrastructure investments. This lesson asks students to identify the specific techniques that style used, then apply those same techniques to a poster advocating for a modern water-infrastructure investment of their choosing, connecting a historical means of civic persuasion to a current one.
Procedure
Session 1, hook (5 min): Show or describe two contrasting images: a 1930s public-works poster depicting a dam or power project, and a modern photograph of a water utility construction site. Ask students what visual choices make the older poster feel monumental and reassuring compared to the modern photo.
Session 1, direct instruction (15 min): Explain that New Deal-era public art often used strong diagonal lines, a limited and bold color palette, larger-than-life human figures shown working, and short slogans that framed infrastructure as a shared public achievement. Discuss why a government funding a large, taxpayer-supported project might have wanted art that made the project feel worth the investment.
Session 1, guided analysis (15 min): In pairs, students examine the reference images the teacher provides and identify three specific visual techniques the historical style used to build public support, recording each in their notes with a short explanation of the effect it creates.
Session 1, planning (10 min): Each student chooses one modern water-infrastructure issue to advocate for in an original poster: replacing lead service lines, given that EPA estimates about 4 million still remain in water systems nationwide (a November 2025 figure that replaced an older estimate of about 9 million), the lead action level is set to tighten from 15 to 10 parts per billion by 2027, and federal rules now require replacing nearly all remaining lead lines within a decade; or closing the nation's water-infrastructure investment gap, estimated at $625 billion over the next 20 years. Students sketch a rough thumbnail plan noting their central image, color choices, and message.
Session 2, studio work (35 min): Students create their final poster using at least two of the historical visual techniques identified in Session 1, incorporating their chosen factual figure as text on the poster.
Session 2, artist statement (10 min): Students write a one-paragraph artist statement explaining which historical techniques they used, what specific infrastructure investment their poster advocates for, and why they made their central design choices, citing the numeric figure they used. Collect statements alongside the posters and check that each names at least two historical techniques and one specific figure.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Provide a simplified checklist of the four historical techniques (diagonal lines, bold limited color, larger-than-life figures, short slogan) with a small labeled example of each, so students can choose two to include rather than identifying them unaided. Allow the artist statement to be written as short bullet points rather than a full paragraph.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask students to design a second, contrasting poster that argues against the same infrastructure investment from a cost-conscious perspective, using a different visual style than the New Deal techniques, then write a short comparison of which poster is more persuasive and why.
ELL supports
Pre-teach infrastructure, investment, and persuasion with the reference images themselves as visual anchors. Allow the guided analysis to be completed by circling or pointing to techniques on the images rather than writing full descriptions, and permit the artist statement to be delivered as a short spoken explanation, recorded or transcribed by the teacher.