Q. What is the history of the Mural at the Thousand Oaks Library?
How did the mural come to be?
Who painted the mural?
When was the mural created?
The mural in the Grant R. Brimhall Library was commissioned by the Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library in 1984. Funds were raised by the Friends, and by the sale of children's tiles, floor tiles, and square foot squares of the mural to the community.
Work on the mural began in 1986, by Bradley Schenck, one of over 200 artists who had competed to win the contract for the project. The location of the mural is where the Children's Library was initially located. The mural was completed in March, 1987.
Images incorporated are interpretations of characters from popular books, such as: The Hobbit, The Hound of Ulster, A Wizard of Earthsea, Puck of Pook's Hill, Otto of the Silver Hand, the Griffin and the Minor canon, the Weirdstone of Brisingamen, the Throne of the Erril or Sherill, Red Moon and Black Mountain, the Golem, the Velveteen Rabbit, and the Wind in the Willows. Books were chosen by a poll taken by area schoolchildren. The bagpiper in the mural is a portrait of our first Library Director, Marvin E. Smith, the harpist is local musician Patrick Ball.
Image of the mural, just after it was completed, April 5, 1987.
