Mobile Artist, South Graduate Led Mural Project at Strickland Youth Center

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Posted on March 5, 2024

Thomas Becnel

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For a mural about Sam Lackland, founder of the Azalea Trail, Riley Brenes worked with teenagers at the Strickland Youth Center, a juvenile detention facility in Mobile.

They started with a history lesson about Lackland, the force behind the beautification campaign in the late 1920s. Then they began sketching city scenes and then painting a 16-by-8-foot mural. Their final work of art fits the “Make Your Mark” theme for this weekend’s Festival of Flowers in Cathedral Square.

Brenes, a 2010 fine arts graduate from the University of South Alabama, has worked as a transition program coordinator at the juvenile detention center. He believes painting and gardening projects help give purpose to Strickland youths.

“When they’re in painting classes, they’re just kids,” he said. “Their minds are busy. They’re doing something good. Painting is like that.

“I honestly believe that art is a way for these kids to become part of the city. They need work. And they did amazing work with the art and gardens.”

He also painted smaller murals for the entrance to this year’s festival. One features the University of South Alabama, while the other describes the Daughters of Charity, who founded Providence Hospital.

The Lackland mural will be on display behind the stage area in Cathedral Square. A Strickland mural from the 2019 festival remains on display on Museum Drive across from the Mobile Museum of Art.

The Festival of Flowers, an annual fundraiser for what is now USA Health Providence Hospital, has been named a “Best of Bama Charity Event” by Alabama Magazine. Teams of artists, florists and designers create showcases and compete for the bragging rights of a People’s Choice Award. There will be live music, outdoor seminars and select food vendors. A donation is required for entry.

On Thursday, there will be a Festival of Flowers Gala from 7 to 10 p.m. On Friday, the festival will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; ArtWalk coincides from 6 to 9 p.m.

On Saturday and Sunday, festival hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Seminars include “Caring for Your Garden,” by Mobile County Master Gardeners, and “Gene’s Gold: The Story of the Aromi Azaleas,” by Amelia Rose Zimlich, a 2022 South graduate.

Kendall Hurley, a development specialist for the Providence Hospital Foundation, helps organize the Festival of Flowers. Murals from the Strickland Youth Center, with support from Circuit and Juvenile Court Judge Edmond Naman, have become part of the scene. (Naman is also a USA graduate.)

“We promote them every year,” she said. “And Judge Naman always supports us, and a way of giving kids a positive outlook.”

Brenes, who grew up in Mobile, studied art at South. The faculty encouraged him to follow his vision.

“If it hadn’t been for them, I think I would have left Mobile,” he said. “They showed me that there is a place for me here. They backed me 100 percent.”

After graduating, Brenes traveled to India and was inspired by an artist who did public art in poor neighborhoods. He returned to Mobile, opened a studio in a vacant building and worked with the Mobile Arts Council to start a youth program called CHARTing New Directions.

At the Strickland Youth Center, Brenes began teaching art to teenage offenders. He eventually helped create a new role, as transitional program coordinator, to prepare young people for when they leave juvenile detention.

Last year, Brenes left to work as a property manager in Mobile. He says he’s recharging his batteries while pondering the next step in his art career.

“I started as a detention officer, so I could fully understand what they needed, and get to know the kids, which was probably my favorite part,” he said. “There are some great people at Strickland.”

Naman, in a post on social media the week Brenes left, noted that Brenes’s “powerfully beautiful murals and lush green gardens” serve as reminders of the “true potential of the children we serve.”

“Most importantly, he was a true friend to the children that needed him most,” Naman wrote. “He has a magical touch with children who are lost and hurting and always seems able to bring out the best in them.”

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