FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A mural designed by an internationally acclaimed artist will bloom this year on a building behind the community garden at the Fairhope-Point Clear Rotary Youth Club.

Ibiyinka Alao, who won the United Nations International Art Competition in 2001, will design the wall painting to be located near the city’s first youth garden that was developed by the Local Food Production Initiative, said Elaine Snyder-Conn, community garden chairperson of the Fairhope-based nonprofit group.

“Gary Gover, (of the LFPI)), contacted Nancy Raia at the Eastern Shore Art Center several weeks ago, who has arranged for Ibiyinka Alao to work with the Rotary Youth Club on the design of a mural to go behind the youth garden on Young Street,” Snyder-Conn said. “Gary and Harvey Joanning from the LFPI have power washed and painted the building white in preparation for the mural.”

Alao, an architect from Nigeria, Africa, has exhibited more than 400 paintings worldwide at places like the Harvard Business School and the Martin Luther King Center since winning the U.N. competition. He has recently been working with schools and museums from Pensacola to Mobile and made a presentation at the Fairhope Public Library earlier this month.

The mural project is one of several programs started by the LFPI in connection with the youth garden. The garden itself consists of two raised-beds constructed and planted as a project of more than 20 children at the Rotary Youth Club in December.

The LFPI is also designing a curriculum for use by the youth club in its ongoing maintenance of that garden, which will be led by Debbie Calhoun, a member of LFPI and the Master Gardener Program of the County Extension Service.

The LFPI’s work also resulted in the City Council’s approval last month of the city’s first modern community garden behind the Fairhope K-1 Center on Summit Street. That 20 raised-bed project is expected to take root in a few months after the property is leased from Baldwin County Public School System and prepared for construction by the city.

That upcoming project might also lead to another youth garden for local students.

“We will try to include some youth garden beds for the K-1 Center in construction plans this year or next,” said Snyder-Conn. “The principal of the K-1 Center has indicated that she is very excited about this opportunity.”