African-Americans as part of the city's sixth annual Inter-Racial Sunday. This led to a fund drive to purchase one of his best-known paintings, Little Brown Girl. The Great Depression came just when it seemed Hardrick was poised to reap the rewards for his work and dedication. Hardrick continued to paint and exhibit. On December 18, 1933, Hardrick applied for a Civil Works Administration Public Works of Art Project program and was selected for the project planning committee. In 1934, he was awarded a commission from the WPA to paint a mural for Crispus Attucks High School. The mural, titled Workers, portrayed 3 African-American foundry workers pouring molten metal, a subject Hardrick would have been familiar with due to his own work in a foundry. It was presented to the high school principal Russell Lane, who refused to install the mural due to its depiction of the laborers and his concern that it would dampen student aspirations. By 1940 Hardrick's declining health prevented him from working in the family business and he began driving a taxi. He would often sell paintings out of the trunk and, while driving around, see a subject he would ask to paint. If a man or woman agreed, he would drive them to his studio and complete the portrait in a few hours. In 1941, his wife Georgia died and Hardrick moved to his parents' house on Prospect Street with three of his children, Raphael, Georgia, and Rachel. He used the attic for a studio. By 1943 his daughters had married and he left. In 1946, his friends Rufus and Emily Wharton offered him their basement as a studio and residence, which he accepted. He continued to paint until unable due to advancing Parkinson's disease. When he died on October 18, 1968, he was a nationally recognized artist in spite of living his whole life in Indianapolis. Art Hardrick's first exhibition was in 1904 at the age of 13 at the Negro Business League convention and he also exhibited his work in 1904 at the Indiana State Fair. His first major exhibition was at Allen Chapel, A.M.E. Church in 1914. In 1928 he also painted a mural at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis entitled "Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well." Hardrick's work was showcased at the 10th Annual Exhibition of Works by Indiana Artists in 1917. Hale Woodruff and Hardrick shared a