Ashville Courthouse Features Students’ Art

Published 11:54 am Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Last week art students’ work from across the county was unveiled in the temporary Ashville courtroom on the eastern side of the courthouse square.

A few months ago, County Property Manager Harold Hoyle had a crew install 27 panels as a way to dampen the sound in the courtroom. But the burlap covers were unappealing to the eye, so Hoyle got together with Odenville art teacher, Mary Morrow, and the two started brainstorming on options for decorating the panels.

The result was issuing a challenge to the schools throughout the county to paint themed panels to reflect the county.

Anything from scenes depicting the various downtowns in the county to renderings of school life are now on display in the courtroom.

“I think that it’s amazing that schools from all over the county were able to come together to create these panels,” Morrow said. “Different age groups with different artistic abilities all came together to create something amazing for the community.”

St. Clair District Judge Phillip Seay spoke to students and teachers gathered at the ceremony and said that he was enthusiastic about having the art hanging in his courtroom. “Each mural has a different story to tell about St. Clair County. I’m excited on behalf of the court system to have you take ownership [of part of this building] and it’s something that will make court a little more pleasant. I want to congratulate the students.”

Seay gave special recognition to Hoyle for his efforts to bring a bright side to the temporary courtroom. After the ceremony, Seay gave some of the younger students gathered a tour of his bench, which included letting them see his remote court camera, which he uses to make judgments from the bench to different locations in the county.

Morrow told those gathered that she was thrilled to be able to take part in the project and said that each student and art teacher should be proud of their contributions to the courtroom.

Morrow talked about the hard work that her high school art class put into the project. “We just pretty much attacked it at St. Clair [County High School],” she said. “My students did a really good job and we’re proud of them.”

“I stand amazed. It is beautiful. It’s amazing. This is the first time I’ve seen it. I feel honored to be here to observe it. I’m very appreciative of the teachers who took the time and their students to do this artwork. I think we have a great bunch of kids here in St. Clair County,” St. Clair Board of Education Superintendant Jenny Seals said at the unveiling. “I am so proud of [the students] accomplishments.”

Pell City art teacher Kelly Whittington said that her 15 students were excited to participate in the project. “They were given very little restrictions. I told them that it was supposed to be something about where we live and they all came up with ideas that mostly had to do with Pell City. One had to do with Alabama. I think they did an excellent job. They worked on it during class time and they all came in and worked on it after school and even came in early and worked on it and I’m real proud of their work.”

In the coming weeks, Hoyle said that the plan is to have the painted panels judged and prizes will be awarded to further thank and encourage the young St. Clair students for their hard work and artistic talents.