Third time’s the charm? Century Walk mural finds new home at Naper Settlement

Thirty years after it was first introduced to Naperville, a Century Walk mural has found a new home in the lower level of the Century Memorial Chapel at Naper Settlement.

In its third iteration, “The Printed Word” mural tells the story of how written communication has evolved in Naperville, starting with the printing press and David Givler, publisher of the now-defunct Naperville Clarion, to the internet age and the founding of Positively Naperville.

“(It’s) excellent,” W. Brand Bobosky, founder of Century Walk Corp. said. “(The artist) made some changes, but they were all for the better and it’s kind of neat to see.”

Both the mural and Bobosky, who started the public art initiative in 1996, were honored at its unveiling ceremony Wednesday. Though the nonprofit has dissolved, Century Walk’s legacy lives on in Naperville with a collection of art pieces that span 53 locations across the city.

“I often ask people, ‘What would you think of driving through downtown Naperville, looking at a bunch of bare brick walls?’” Mayor Scott Wehrli said. “You remember what that time looked like. Now when you drive by, you see art in just about every place, and that would not have happened if it wasn’t for Brand’s vision and his visits to other communities to see what we could be like.”

Originally painted in 1996 on the outside of the Naperville Sun’s former downtown location on Jackson Avenue, “The Printed Word” features previous Sun publishers Harold and Eva White and other iconic journalists from the city’s past. It was removed two years later when that building became home to a Pottery Barn store.

“It was devastating when the news came that after two years it was going to go down,” Bobosky said.

“The Printed Word” was one of the first murals the group pursued and Bobosky said he needed that mural to help sell the value of the public art initiative to Naperville residents.

It would find a new home on the Van Buren Avenue side of the Ellman’s Music Center building on Main Street in 1998, but that site was lost in early 2012 when the music store closed and the Q-BBQ restaurant moved into the building.

In 2023, Bobosky approached Orland Park-based artist Diosdado “Dodie” Mondero about re-creating “The Printed Word” for a third time. The mural’s original artist Timm Etters died in 2021.

“It feels like a missing puzzle (piece), knowing Brand,” Mondero said of the mural’s revival. “It’s like he can’t let it go. He wants to complete it. He wants to make sure that piece of puzzle is back in and he was looking for the right person to do it.”

Mondero had already worked on a number of art pieces for Century Walk and Bobosky felt confident he could re-create Etters’ style. While Mondero got to work on the piece in 2023, the third rendition of the mural would not be finished until 2026 due to uncertainty around where the mural would be located and future Century Walk funding.

“I had to pause until I decided I can’t wait anymore and I’ll just go continue and work on it until I’m done,” Mondero said.

Painting an updated version of “The Printed Word” some 27 years after the second one presented an opportunity for Mondero to add some of his own flare, including the addition of a paperboy at the center of the mural.

“The paperboy in the center, he commands it,” Mondero said. “He’s got his horn, so that’s the feeling I wanted to convey, where he’s announcing and telling the story (and) the history.”

He also added an antique printing press on the left side of the mural and a 3D printer on the right side to highlight the evolution of technology and the tools used to tell the Naperville story. A sunset in the background helps remind viewers of the future and that a new day is always on the horizon.

For the third edition, Bobosky wanted to include Positively Naperville and its publisher Stephanie Penick, who started the paper in 2001.

“It was very touching,” Penick said Wednesday. “When I first started my paper, there were people who were really, really upset because, ‘Oh my god, what’s the Naperville Sun going to do?’ … and (Bobosky) knew what I was trying to do and so he’s been a (support) for all these years.”

While the third edition of “The Printed Word” may not be located outdoors like other Century Walk artwork, the lower level of the chapel is frequently used for field trips and camps at the museum, Naper Settlement President and CEO Rena Tamayo-Calabrese said. Bobosky hopes children who see it learn a thing or two about the history of communication in the city.

“I’ve got grandkids that are in their teens and they’ve had their own phones for 10 years already,” he said. “I just think that in another 10 years, kids will be going there and seeing that mural and they’ll be wondering, …. ‘What’s a newspaper?’ If you can slow down the process or preserve it and show the value, then I think that’s what we intend to do.”

cstein@chicagotribune.com