School, Library & Educational Murals
Murals That Transform Places of Learning
Banks Compton creates custom murals and public art for schools, libraries, children's spaces, youth organizations, and educational environments throughout Alabama, the Gulf Coast, and across the United States.
From immersive children's library environments to student-painted school murals, each project is designed around the people who use the space. Banks works collaboratively with educators, administrators, students, and community leaders to develop artwork that can encourage imagination, celebrate local identity, support educational goals, and make learning environments more engaging.
Projects can range from a single feature wall to large-scale installations incorporating multiple murals, student participation, interactive elements, and sculpture.
Featured School, Library & Educational Murals
Foley Community Library | Foley, Alabama
Banks created approximately 1,500 square feet of murals and a sculptural reading tree for the children's section of the Foley Community Library.
The storybook-inspired environment combines whimsical animals, nature, local references, and hidden details designed for children to discover as they explore the library. A large sculptural tree extends the artwork beyond the walls, creating a centerpiece for reading, programming, and imagination.
The project demonstrates how murals and dimensional artwork can work together to transform an educational space into an experience.
Strickland Youth Center | Mobile, Alabama
Banks' multi-year work with Strickland Youth Center has brought young people involved with Mobile County's juvenile justice system directly into the mural-making process.
Projects have combined individual art activities, collaborative painting, storytelling, and large-scale mural panels inspired by Mobile and the experiences of participating youth.
Rather than simply having students fill in a predetermined mural, Banks' approach emphasizes creative ownership, incorporating young people's drawings, ideas, marks, and perspectives into the finished artwork.
Demopolis High School | Demopolis, Alabama
Created with support from the Demopolis City Schools Foundation, Banks worked alongside Demopolis High School art students to transform two exterior alcoves at Tiger Court.
Inspired by Vincent van Gogh and Impressionism, the murals combine tiger imagery, school pride, academics, and athletics. Students participated in the process by preparing the walls, creating the background, transferring the design, and painting portions of the finished murals.
The project gave students an opportunity to experience the process of creating large-scale public artwork while leaving a permanent contribution to their school.
Environmental Education | Summerdale, Alabama
A large mural created for Baldwin County's recycling and educational facility uses public art as a tool for environmental education.
The artwork illustrates the journey of waste and recyclable materials while incorporating animals, landscapes, and approachable imagery for younger visitors. Elements of the mural imagery were later adapted for educational exhibits and a mobile outreach trailer, allowing the visual storytelling to extend beyond the original wall.
Rotary Youth Club | Fairhope, Alabama
Banks transformed a garden shed at the Rotary Youth Club into a collaborative mural centered around gardening, butterflies, and pollinators. A large tiger swallowtail stretches across the shed doors, while flowers, monarchs, and other garden imagery surround it. Children participating in the program helped paint and contributed their own drawings of butterflies, insects, dragonflies, and flowers, which Banks preserved in the finished mural.
Pensacola School of Liberal Arts | Pensacola, Florida
Banks created a colorful monarch butterfly mural for the School of Liberal Arts in Pensacola, connecting art with the school's outdoor pollinator garden. The mural illustrates the monarch life cycle through milkweed, caterpillars, a chrysalis, butterflies, and native flowers. Students also participated in the painting process, turning the project into a hands-on opportunity to connect art, nature, and environmental education.
Student & Youth Mural Projects
Banks has collaborated with students and young people on mural projects throughout Alabama and the Gulf Coast.
At University Charter School in Livingston, Alabama, students participated in downtown community murals celebrating local wildlife, nature, and civic pride.
At the Rotary Youth Club near Fairhope, young artists contributed butterflies, insects, flowers, and their own illustrations to a garden mural centered on plants and pollinators.
At the School of Liberal Arts in Pensacola, Florida, students helped create an outdoor mural illustrating the monarch butterfly life cycle alongside a pollinator garden.
These projects demonstrate different ways student participation can be incorporated according to the age group, environment, educational goals, and needs of each organization.
More Than Painting a Wall
Student Participation & Collaborative Murals
Students can participate in a mural project at many different levels.
Depending on the project, Banks can lead students through drawing, brainstorming, design discussions, wall preparation, transferring artwork, painting, and collaborative art activities.
Participation is structured around the age and abilities of the group while allowing Banks to complete the detailed work necessary to maintain a professional finished mural.
Whenever possible, student contributions can remain visible in the final artwork, giving participants a genuine sense of ownership over the space they helped create.
Murals Designed Around Your Educational Goals
Every educational mural begins with conversation.
Banks works with teachers, librarians, administrators, architects, organizations, and community partners to understand how the space is used, who will interact with it, and what the artwork should accomplish.
A library mural might encourage reading and imagination. A science or environmental mural might illustrate concepts students are learning. A school mural might celebrate history, mascot traditions, or school identity. A youth program may use the mural-making process itself as an opportunity for creativity, teamwork, and self-expression.
The goal is not to place the same style of artwork into every institution. The artwork is developed specifically for the people and environment it serves.
Children's Murals & Interactive Environments
Murals for children can become more than background decoration.
Artwork can incorporate hidden objects, local animals, storybook characters, scavenger-hunt details, photo opportunities, educational imagery, and elements children can discover over repeated visits.
For larger projects, Banks can also explore ways of combining murals with dimensional or sculptural elements, drawing on his previous experience creating large-scale sculptural artwork and Mardi Gras floats.
The result can turn a hallway, reading room, classroom, courtyard, cafeteria, or children's library into an environment children remember.
Educational Murals Throughout Alabama & Beyond
Based in Foley, Alabama, Banks is available for educational mural projects throughout Alabama, the Gulf Coast, the Southeast, and across the United States.
His educational and youth-focused projects can be found in communities including Foley, Mobile, Demopolis, Livingston, Fairhope, Summerdale, Opelika, and Pensacola.
Projects can be developed for:
Schools • Libraries • Children's Spaces • Universities • Youth Organizations • Educational Centers • Museums • Community Centers • Environmental Education Facilities • After-School Programs
About Banks Compton
Banks Compton is an Alabama mural artist and public artist creating large-scale artwork centered around storytelling, nature, local culture, and community.
A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Banks has created more than 100 murals across 10 states. His background also includes large-scale sculptural work building Mardi Gras floats in New Orleans, an experience he has carried into projects that extend beyond traditional painted walls.
Banks approaches educational projects collaboratively, listening to the educators, administrators, students, and organizations who know their communities best before developing artwork specifically for the space.
Bring Art Into Your School, Library or Learning Space
Whether you're imagining a colorful school hallway, an immersive children's library, a student-led community mural, or artwork that helps teach a particular subject, Banks can develop a mural project around your space, audience, and goals.