Strickland Youth Center Murals Mobile, Alabama

A colorful mural depicting a family scene. On the left, a woman is baking a cake in a sunny kitchen with a window showing a city skyline and sailboats on the water. A girl is rolling dough at a table with strawberries nearby. Below, a dog paws at a box labeled "Fido". On the right, an elder woman is styling a young girl's hair, both smiling, in front of a window with purple curtains and a sunset. Various objects like hairbrushes, shoes, and a soccer ball are on the floor.

Creating Public Art With Youth in Mobile's Juvenile Justice System

Alabama mural artist Banks Compton has worked with Strickland Youth Center and young people involved in Mobile County's juvenile justice system to create collaborative public art rooted in creativity, storytelling, and community.

Through workshops with youth in detention and probation programs, participants contributed original artwork and ideas to murals celebrating Mobile, Alabama, and the Gulf Coast. Rather than creating artwork simply for young people, these projects invited them into the creative process and preserved their contributions within permanent finished artwork.

Project at a Glance

Artist: Banks Compton
Partner: Strickland Youth Center / Mobile County Juvenile Court
Location: Mobile, Alabama
Completed: 2026
Project: Juvenile Courthouse Murals & Youth Art Program
Artwork: Four large mural panels + center panel + Children's Gallery
Community Participation: Youth from detention and probation programs
Funding: $7,000 Alabama State Council on the Arts grant
Purpose: Create permanent public artwork incorporating youth creativity while celebrating Mobile, mentorship, family and community

Public art installations featuring colorful painted panels with various designs, including a baseball, a heron, and cityscape scenes, set against a backdrop of green trees and a brick building.

The Heart of Mobile

Banks first worked with Strickland Youth Center in 2024 on a mural project centered on the theme “The Heart of Mobile.”

Participants were asked to consider what Mobile meant to them and how their creativity could become part of a larger story about their community. Together, the youth helped create a series of 12 murals inspired by Mobile, incorporating their individual ideas and artwork into a larger collection celebrating the city.

The project established an ongoing relationship between Banks and Strickland Youth Center that would continue through additional workshops and a permanent public art project for the Mobile County Juvenile Court.

Creating the Mobile Juvenile Court Murals

In 2026, Banks returned to work with youth from Strickland's detention and probation programs on a new series of murals for the Mobile County Juvenile Court.

The project consists of four large mural panels and a smaller center panel designed for the courthouse. The artwork draws from the landscape, landmarks, culture, and visual identity of Mobile and Alabama's Gulf Coast while exploring broader themes of mentorship, guardianship, family, leadership, and community.

Recognizable Mobile imagery creates a larger story across the panels, while smaller details encourage viewers to look more closely at the artwork and the individual contributions incorporated throughout it.

A mural with scenes of community and family activities. From left, people playing baseball outdoors, fishing and boating on the river, cooking and celebrating a birthday, and a woman demonstrating sewing or craft projects, along with children reading and playing.

Youth Participation in the Artwork

Over four workshop sessions, participating youth created individual artwork and contributed directly to the courthouse murals.

Banks provided an overall structure and design while giving participants room to make their own creative decisions through color, lettering, collage, imagery, and painting.

Some of the most important elements—including fish, flowers, and other details painted by the youth—were intentionally left untouched in the completed murals. Preserving these original marks ensures that the participants' work remains permanently visible rather than being repainted to imitate the artist's hand.

The result is a professionally designed public artwork that still visibly reflects the many people who helped create it.

A collage of nine framed colorful mosaic-style artworks featuring various animals and landscapes, including a smiling face, fish, butterfly, bird, iguana, pelican, and fish, all composed of small, irregularly shaped pieces.

The Children's Gallery

The project also includes a Children's Gallery displaying artwork created by young people involved with Strickland Youth Center and the juvenile justice system.

Presenting this work in a public and professional setting gives participants an opportunity to see their creativity treated seriously and preserved as part of the courthouse environment.

Together, the gallery and murals introduce artwork into a space that can be difficult for children and families while ensuring that young people's voices are represented within it.

A colorful mural with a woman in a white dress and crown holding a scepter, surrounded by children and a playful green dragon. The scene includes trees, a fountain, and children's artwork displayed on the wall.

Alabama State Council on the Arts Funding

The Strickland Youth Center Courtroom Mural and Children's Gallery Project received a $7,000 grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

The grant supported a project combining professional public art with direct youth participation, allowing artwork created through the workshops to become part of a permanent installation at the Mobile County Juvenile Court.

This collaboration demonstrates how grant-funded public art projects can combine community engagement, arts education, and permanent artwork within civic spaces.

Community Engagement Through Public Art

Community mural projects can offer more than a finished image. The creative process can give participants experience developing ideas, working alongside others, solving visual problems, and contributing to something that becomes part of their community.

Banks' role in the Strickland projects has been part artist, instructor, and collaborator—providing enough structure to create a cohesive finished mural while leaving room for participants to make meaningful creative decisions.

For cities, courts, schools, nonprofits, and community organizations, youth workshops, community paint days, and collaborative art-making can be incorporated directly into a professionally designed mural project.

About Banks Compton

Banks Compton is an Alabama mural artist and public artist creating large-scale, site-specific artwork throughout Alabama and across the United States.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), his work combines local history, culture, nature, storytelling, and community engagement. His public art projects range from municipal and tourism murals to schools, libraries, civic spaces, and collaborative projects involving young people and community members.

Planning a Community or Public Mural in Alabama?

Banks works with cities, courts, schools, libraries, nonprofits, institutions, and community organizations in Mobile, throughout Alabama, and across the Southeast.

Projects can incorporate youth participation, community workshops, local history, educational programming, community paint days, and collaborative painting while maintaining a professionally designed and completed work of public art.

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SCHOOL, LIBRARY & EDUCATIONAL MURALS
A colorful mural depicting a community scene with children playing baseball outside, an elderly man at a table preparing food, and a cloud with a banner saying 'Banks Compton - Painted by S.Y.C - Lead by Example - Learn from Your Community.'

  • Yes. Banks can structure mural projects so students or community participants contribute designated artwork while the overall design and final installation remain professionally managed.

  • Yes. Projects can include artist-led workshops, collaborative painting, community paint days, or other opportunities for participants to contribute to the finished artwork.

  • Yes. Funding depends on the project and organization. The Mobile County Juvenile Court mural and Children's Gallery project received a $7,000 grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

  • Yes. Banks creates site-specific public artwork for civic, institutional, educational, nonprofit, and community spaces throughout Alabama and beyond.