Byron announces third in series of murals throughout downtown

    This summer, the City of Byron will continue its initiative to use murals to enhance the experience of living, working, and visiting Byron. Their third mural, designed by Rockford artist Brett Whitacre, will appear on the front of City Hall at 232 W. 2nd St.

    Byron’s other two murals already include “Eye of the Tiger” by Lisa Frost, done the summer 2022 on the west side of W. 2nd St., and “Union Street Beacon” by Fatherless, a print collective from Rockford made up of Javier Jiminez, Greg Lang, Dave Menard and Ben Rider, done the fall 2023 on the south side of 209 N. Union St.

    The City Hall mural will utilize shapes and colors across the multi-elevation building front to express flow, depth, and movement. The imaginative and thought-provoking composition has no obvious depictions, thus allowing the viewer to interpret what they see.

    Brett Whitacre is a self-taught artist who started working with paints and materials in his late 20s. Although he has an altered perception of color (color blindness), using all families of colors together helps him understand them, and he has been known to include 50-100 individual hues in any one piece. Whitacre has murals across the Stateline including several in downtown Rockford, Loves Park, and Beef-a-Roo locations in Rockford and Missouri. His murals can also be seen throughout Chicagoland, as well as in Pecatonica and Stillman Valley. He states that his ultimate goal is to create a positive composition using color and hue. His studio is in downtown Rockford where he makes and sells smaller art year-round.

    The city is providing opportunities for sponsorship in the amount of $250, $500 or $1,000. Sponsorships include sponsor names being featured on all promotional materials, press releases, and social media announcements. A permanent display plaque will be mounted on the building at the completion of the project. The plaque will feature the name of the artist and title of the design, as well as a listing of the sponsors that donated towards the project. A description of the mural and listing of sponsors will also appear under the Mural section of My Community on the City of Byron website, www.cityofbyron.com/community, as it also does with the other murals.

    Work on the mural will begin soon. For those interested in a sponsorship or would like any additional information, please contact City Clerk Caryn Huber at 815-234-2762 or [email protected].