By RAY KELLY
A 118-foot long mural and nearby sculpture garden will honor Orson Welles and other hometown heroes in Woodstock, Illinois.
Conceived by Woodstock City Councilman RB Thompson and graphic designer Michael Stanard, the mural will feature four of Woodstock’s cultural legends: Welles, Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould, the 1993 movie Groundhog Day; and the Woodstock Opera House. The mural will be displayed on the Main Street Pedway. The project will also include a sculpture garden featuring a bronze statue of Welles, as well as an information kiosk.
“There has been tremendous enthusiasm for this,” Stanard told Wellesnet. “This is going to happen. It is going to happen.”
Stanard and designer Mark Costello expect work on the mural to begin this spring or summer after the wall is properly prepped.
Noted muralist Mark J. Adamany of Rockford, Illinois, will create the artwork on the wall bordering the walkway adjacent to Classic Cinemas Woodstock Theatre. The Welles sculpture will be created and donated by artist Bobby Joe Scribner of Woodstock.
The project’s total cost has been estimated at $80,000 with more than $23,000 in funding already in place.
Those wishing to donate can find more details at woodstockmural.org/support
The panel depicting Welles has been changed from an earlier proposed design, which depicted the late filmmaker circa 1973. The new design features a late 1930s Welles at a CBS radio microphone next to a War of the Worlds poster. It still includes artwork from his landmark movie Citizen Kane.
The Woodstock City Council discussed the downtown mural during a November 15, 2016 meeting.
Welles was educated at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock from 1926 to 1931. He organized the Todd Theatre Festival in 1934 and visited the Woodstock campus in the years that followed. His eldest daughter, Chris Welles Feder, attended Todd in the late 1940s.
Gould lived in Woodstock during the final 50 years of his life and is buried there. The romantic comedy Groundhog Day was filmed in Woodstock and the Opera House is a local landmark with a rich history.
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