Teal Alley mural painted by CCU students, professor receives Quattlebaum Design Award
The Quattlebaum Design Awards are given out by the city of Conway and Conway Downtown Alive to recognize and thank those who choose to be a part of the community and make a positive impact. The awards, named after C.P. Quattlebaum, the first mayor of Conway, were established May 24, 1999. Winners are selected annually by Conway’s community appearance board. CCU’s mural project was recognized in the category “Outstanding contribution to quality development, restoration, landscape, or design by an organization or individual.”
Teal Alley is located on Third Avenue in downtown Conway. It has become a popular photo spot for the CCU’s students, faculty, staff, and community members and visitors.
Arendt described the beginning of the project: “The visual arts department was approached in Fall 2020 to design and start discussions about this collaboration. I did the design for both murals that were approved, and then we set up an internship for student participation.”
Eleven students majoring in visual arts joined the project, which gave them real world experience to create a large-scale art piece.
“It was great because we were still within in the first year of COVID, and it was a chance for students to work together and actually be physically in the same place since we were outside,” said Arendt.
The mural was painted by Arendt and her students during the Spring 2021 semester. Upon its completion, they put a cornhole set and other games and chairs in Teal Alley to encourage people to gather there.
“To see Teal Alley continually be recognized by the city as being important, that is a really great feeling,” said Arendt. “I think it’s good for the students because it might give them the push that ‘I might want to do that when I graduate.’ It gives us validation that we are on the right path. To see how positively the design, imagery, and space has been received by the public is really great.”