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Formica Restaurant
1 Tabletops with Inlays

ARTISTS: Works Progress Administration (WPA)
designers and artists
ARRIVAL/UNVEILED: 1935-36 Above: The tabletops hang as a group
MEDIUM: Formica® laminate with inlays in the Discovery Center.
LOCATION: Discovery Center Lobby Far left: They were originally created for diners
in the Refectory, which is now BZ Red Hots.
Tabletops inlaid with whimsical images of Zoo animals have
entertained guests for decades. As part of the 2023 renovation
of the Discovery Center, the 20 tabletops are now prominently
displayed together on a lobby wall.
They were designed by artist John Winters of the Works created the Zoo’s early signage, murals, directional markers,
Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project and created posters, sculptures, and other printed images.
by WPA artists working at the Zoo under the supervision of Many artists and craftspeople at the time were influenced
artist Ralph Graham. When the Great Depression drove many by the European Bauhaus movement. Its design-for-the-masses
Americans out of work and temporarily halted the construction aesthetic emphasized simplicity, functionality, and clean lines
of Brookfield Zoo, WPA’s Federal Art Project was born. and the use of modern materials and technologies. The fabrica-
It included the Illinois Art Project. A number of talented tion of the tabletops with Formica inlays was an early use of
painters, sculptors, muralists, and graphic artists from Illinois this technique.

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