Since 1937, the Roswell Museum and Art Center has enriched southeast New Mexico with its multidisciplinary collections and extensive educational programming. Located in southeastern New Mexico, the Museum's community-minded focus reflects its origins with the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Known as the Roswell Museum Federal Art Center, this institution developed out of a collaboration between the local community and the Federal Art Project. It participated in a national initiative known as the Community Art Center project, which provided arts access to rural communities and other underserved populations.

Between 1935 and 1942, dozens of these community art centers opened around the country, and offered free art enrichment to visitors through rotating exhibitions, classes, and special programs. As a Community Art Center, the Roswell Museum would showcase more than seventy rotating exhibitions, offer classes in painting, sculpture, and interior design, and serve as a venue for various local organizations and clubs. While many of these centers closed during World War II, the Roswell Museum and a few others would survive, often evolving into new institutions. As a former community art center still in operation, the Roswell Museum represents an important, living example of WPA history and its ongoing cultural legacy.

This project explores the early history of the Roswell Museum, and represents a preliminary effort toward the digitization of the museum's WPA archive, which is still housed in its library.