When visiting San Francisco I happened to hear about California's Living New Deal Project. The public art project was created as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to lift the country out of the
Depression. Here are two painted panels I found in a post office.

I know Virginia has a similar project in its post offices...I've been meaning to make a list and take a tour to visit them.
Not that I'm thinking that depressions are good things, but it does seem to me that so many wonderful things ended up coming from the one we had in the 30s. Parks, buildings, roads (like my cherished Blue Ridge Parkway), art.