For those of you familiar with the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, you may not think of it as a bastion of public art. However, there may be a few murals in Royal Oak that you do not know about. The first is a set of three panels that lie in the old Dondero High School, celebrating the history of Royal Oak and the promise a solid career path through a devotion to studies. As antiquated as these works may seem in our eyes, they have a little-known cultural significance. Restored in 2004, these murals are a product of the FAP (Federal Arts Program) created by FDR during the Great Depression. Painted in 1938 to comfort and inspire the American people during a time unyielding bleak, the Dondero murals are representative of public art that causes people to look to the past for strength and inspiration. (more…)