Chase Bank brought its interactive Chase Market Square experience to Alabama for the first time Saturday, setting up inside Southbound Food Festival’s Food & Fire event at Sloss Furnaces with an original piece by a Birmingham muralist as its centerpiece.

The bank commissioned Dewon Moton, who has been transforming spaces around the Birmingham area with murals for more than a decade, to build a work specifically for the festival.

Moton created the piece digitally in Procreate, stacking dozens of layers into a circular composition meant to represent Birmingham’s food culture and the places residents gather.

“I think the shape shows unity because it’s connected,” Moton said. “I feel like all of us experience these places at least once or twice while we’re here, at least in one day.”

Moton said his favorite part of the piece was the lighting, which he tied to the small nighttime gatherings and parties he sees around the city.

“I feel like that’s an important connection point as well,” he said. “We all spend time hanging out in these areas.”

Inside Chase Market Square, festivalgoers could personalize a complimentary Chase-branded belt bag with collectible pins at what the bank called its Customization Station.

Guests received a “Pin Budget Card,” earned points and decided how to spend them on pins, a setup Chase described as “a fun, highly visual experience that introduces simple budgeting concepts in an unexpected way.”

Jennifer DiSalvo, the bank’s market director for the Yellowhammer State, was on hand to discuss why the bank chose Southbound for its first Alabama festival activation, along with its expanding footprint in the state.

Chase is in the middle of tripling its Alabama branch count, from 11 to 35 locations by 2030.

JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon has said Alabama is building the workforce model the rest of the country needs, and the bank has committed $2 million to expand capital access for Alabama small businesses.

Moton, who started painting at age 7, said working with Chase pushed him toward more precision than his usual commissions. “It was fun working with Chase,” he said.

“I feel like very precise, very nice people, and I feel like the detail, the attention to detail that they helped me understand, so I convey the right type of artwork was really important… I like working with Chase.”

He said food, and Birmingham’s barbecue scene in particular, sits at the center of how the city gathers. “I feel like it matters because that’s the connection point,” Moton said.

“Like having food, food at the table with the family. I feel like that’s kind of like the gathering situation, and when we get to share our stories and have our moments with our most important people.”

Food & Fire, now in its fourth year, also featured the Southern Living Tailgate Stage and the Coca-Cola Music Stage, with sets from Marc Broussard and Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen.