A year after Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson literally took the door off his office as a symbol of government transparency, that same door returned to him this week in a far more colorful form, thanks to a group of junior high art students.
Students ages 12 and 13 in the Art I and II program at Dunbar Creative and Performing Arts Magnet School presented Stimpson with the door, which they had transformed into a painted celebration of Mobile landmarks and traditions, including azaleas, Mardi Gras imagery, BayFest and the region’s seafood culture.
“I think this is incredible,” Stimpson said upon seeing the finished artwork.
Removing the door from his office had been among Stimpson’s first campaign promises during his 2013 run for mayor, framed as a symbolic commitment to greater transparency in city government. True to that promise, the door came off its hinges the day after he was sworn into office. Stimpson recalled being uncertain at the time whether the door would even come off cleanly, since one of the hinge screws had been stripped, and said he spent much of the following year wondering what to do with the door as it sat around the mayor’s administrative offices.
That uncertainty was resolved when the Dunbar art students, led by their teacher and school principal, approached the mayor’s administration with the idea of painting the door themselves. The students settled on a design built around the “One Mobile” theme, the same slogan Stimpson used throughout his campaign against former Mayor Sam Jones. The project took the students roughly a week to complete.
Stimpson said the finished piece will be put on permanent display at the front of the administration’s assembly area on the tenth floor of Government Plaza, where it will serve as a visual reminder to his administration that transparency and openness in city government should never be allowed to fade into the background.
Stimpson pointed to the city’s administration as an example of that continued commitment, citing a recent $2.2 million investment in new software intended to improve transparency in areas including city finances, budgeting and permitting, while also streamlining automation within Municipal Court and Code Enforcement. He described the technology upgrade as a significant step that ties multiple city functions together under a more transparent framework going forward.
During the presentation at Government Plaza, Stimpson also took time to pose for photos with the visiting students, capping off a project that blended a symbolic campaign promise with a hands-on collaboration between city hall and Mobile’s public school students.