The Associated American Artists, founded during the Great Depression, was an enduring commercial venture that provided vital income to artists while allowing everyday Americans to acquire art - sometimes in the form of practical objects - for their homes. While there was great diversity in the styles of the art that was promoted, the most famous of the early contributors - Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood - were masters of a form of Regionalism that has come to be strongly associated with the iconic image of everyday small town America. 

The concept for the exhibition architecture was to invoke the iconic imagery of American domesticity across three scales: that of the town, of the domestic interior, and of clothing. These references, all intentionally artificial and theatrical, attempt to quietly invert the historical effect of the Associated American Artists' enterprise: everyday homes had become galleries for the work of serious artists, now the home was brought back into the gallery.