As children listen to stories, play games and take part in other activities in the new Foley Community Library, imaginative scenes and a menagerie of creatures adorn the walls around them.
The murals by Alabama artist Banks Compton are part of the library’s Children’s Story Grove. The mural and story area are some of the features for young people that also include a sensory room, separate children’s and teens’ activity areas, a STEAM-STEM lab and craft activities area – the Maker Meadow.
The $20-million library opened in August.
Compton, who now lives in Foley, has painted murals in 10 states, but said the library project is special.
“This was a completely new children’s space, so there was an opportunity to help establish its personality from the beginning,” he said. “The goal became to create an environment that felt whimsical, imaginative and full of discovery. I wanted children to feel like they were stepping into a storybook, but I also wanted it to feel specifically connected to Foley and this community.”
The mural created a connection with children and other patrons. Images of a rabbit wearing an aviator’s helmet and flying jacket, a lion playing a trumpet and an owl wearing a crown are popular with visitors.
“One of my favorite things that happened after the murals were created was that people started naming the animals,” Compton said. “I created something visually, but then the community started giving them personalities and identities. That’s something that I really couldn’t have designed in advance. To me, that’s when public art really starts working. I can paint it, but once people begin creating their own stories around it, it becomes part of their space rather than simply being my artwork. So, for example, I did not have names for these when I started, but this rabbit character was named Amelia Harehart. The lion became Lion Armstrong. The owl was named Prince Albert.”
Art draws children into stories and reading.
“I really like that because it blurs the boundary between looking at a storybook and actually feeling like you’re entering a storybook,” Compton said. “When you put everything together – the murals, the characters, the local references, the reading tree and, eventually, the names that the community gave these animals – the artwork becomes more than decoration. It becomes part of how children experience the library.”
The work becomes part of children’s lives over the years.
“Because this is a public building, children can actually grow up with these characters,” Compton said. “They might notice something here at 5 years old that means something completely different to them when they come back at 10. That’s one of the things I love about permanent public art, and none of this happens without collaboration. The library knew its audience and its mission much better than I ever could.”
Kate Norris, Foley library director, said the work can touch adults as well as children.
We watch kids grow up in this library and they’re going to have this for the rest of their lives. They’re gonna have this memory,” she told Compton. “You have truly made it magical. It is one of my favorite places in the library. If I’m a little gloomy, I’m going to take a walk to the children’s section because it is just magical.”
Compton, a native of Florence, Alabama, studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. One of his early jobs was working with the Kern Studios in New Orleans designing Mardi Gras floats.
He said the experience designing floats came in handy when he was working on the Foley library project, which included three-dimensional sculpture work on the reading tree.
Several of Compton’s recent works have focused on education and young people.
He also painted murals for the Baldwin County Solid Waste Disposal Authority in Summerdale and the Mobile County Juvenile Court system and Strickland Youth Center in Mobile.
The Disposal Authority project took people through the recycling process, from adults and children placing items in containers to the material being recycled. People do not think about what is involved in recycling after they drop their material in the containers.
The Mobile County Juvenile Court project included working with young people who had been brought into the juvenile justice system. Some young people worked with Compton on the mural projects and some of the brushstrokes on those paintings are theirs.
While each of the projects is very different, all of the work involves reaching out and connecting with people. Murals are about more than making a wall look better.
“Every wall comes with a completely different audience and a completely different purpose,” Compton said. “A mural from a children’s library shouldn’t solve the same problem as a mural for a recycling center. That’s actually one of my favorite things about painting murals: I’ve had to learn about a place before I can paint it. Sometimes that means learning about local history. Sometimes it means understanding an organization and what it does, and sometimes that means listening to the people who actually use the space.”
About The Author
