PENSACOLA, FL
CUBED 2023
CUBED is an outdoor mural installation and live mural painting performance consisting of two 8ft x 8ft cubes flanking Museum Plaza in downtown Pensacola. The cubes each consist of 4 walls measuring 8ft x 8ft per side.
This year in 2023, we had a total of 12 walls available this year for artists to design and paint custom works of art – two cubes are located at the Museum Plaza and one cube is at City Hall. A Call to Artists invited qualifying artists to submit a concept, to which over 20 artists submitted. STOA Architecture sponsored this event and selected the 12 finalists/teams.
See the artists painting their murals on Saturday, March 4th, 2023 between 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Banks Compton is always looking for an excuse to chat; it’s one of the reasons painting murals suits him so well.
“I love painting murals and having people in the community stop by and talk to me,” Compton said. “That’s probably my favorite way to work is just explain what I’m doing, teach them about how I paint something that large and learn more about where these people are from. That, to me, is super gratifying.”
Compton, a full-time mural artist living in Foley, Ala., loves how accessible murals are as an art form.
“Murals serve as a relatively inexpensive way to really transform an area,” Compton said. “It makes walking safer; murals actually slow down traffic because people are looking at the artwork. It puts a smile on people’s faces. I think they do a lot of communal good.”
Compton often finds himself in Pensacola, though, with friends he has made here. His goal is to paint a mural in all 50 states; so far, he’s done four: Alabama, Mississippi, Arizona and Rhode Island.
Spoiler alert—he hopes Florida is next—maybe even Pensacola.