Upstate PA's Common Canvas is a one-hour travelogue exploring the cities and towns of the Upstate Pennslvania region in Bradford, Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. Using their post office artwork as historical markers, the film examines the geographic and cultural heritage that binds the region together, as well as the qualities, which make each community unique.

In times of economic hardship, Americans need to be reminded of the qualities, which make this country great; the virtues of hard work, pioneer spirit and the ability to take on new and exciting challenges. President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew this. In the midst of the Great Depression, Roosevelt’s New Deal helped put millions of Americans back to work. In 1933, artists were called upon to do their part as well. They created works of art for government buildings, and expressing in living monuments, and Philadelphia artist George Biddle explained, and the social ideals the New Deal was struggling to achieve.

These works of art were put on public display in communities across the country, but they didn't hang in galleries. They were on display at the post office.  Each mural and sculpture reflected that town's own history and heritage. Eighty-eight such works of art were commissioned throughout Pennsylvania, the second-largest number of any state in the country.