Winnetka’s first public mural now sits on the wall beneath the Oak Street bridge along the Green Bay Trail. On Oct. 7, members of the Winnetka chapter of the National Charity League cut the ribbon at the dedication, celebrating the artwork that chapter members helped paint. The project brought the Village of Winnetka, Friends of the Green Bay Trail and the chapter together around a design rooted in the plants and animals found along the path.
The idea took shape through a public process that stretched across several months. Village President Bob Dearborn said the proposal first reached him in November 2025 from National Charity League co-founder Deidre Campbell and Friends of the Green Bay Trail president Steve Huels. In January, chapter members presented the idea to the Village Council. The village’s Spring 2026 report later noted that the chapter and Friends had received council approval to design and paint a mural on a bridge underpass.
The January proposal considered either the Oak Street or Elm Street underpass. Members told the Village Council they hoped to partner with the village and an Evanston artist, and wanted the design to celebrate the trail and its native plant and animal life. The finished mural is under Oak Street. The January coverage offers a dated look at the project before its final site and completed design were documented later in the year.
The artist, Shayne Taylor, developed the concept after talking with chapter members about what they wanted to see. Their direction was to draw inspiration from the trail itself. Taylor told The Record that the finished mural depicts local flora and fauna found there. The village’s spring report separately describes volunteers restoring native plants at Ash Street on the Green Bay Trail. It treats that restoration and the mural as distinct efforts.
Painting the design was organized as a shared project rather than a single artist working alone. National Charity League member Audrey Miller described Taylor’s approach as a paint-by-numbers process: Taylor marked sections of the wall with numbers corresponding to colors, and members signed up for specific times to paint. More than 230 chapter members took part, according to Miller’s account to The Record.
Miller said she painted alongside her mother. On one of her last visits, about two or three weeks before the dedication, she remembered the mural as roughly halfway finished, with many of its details still to come. Returning for the ceremony let her see the completed artwork and the difference between that midway point and the finished image. Her account gives a sense of how the project moved from a design plan to a wall painted in scheduled volunteer sessions.
The work also required organizing beyond the painting itself. Miller told the newspaper that chapter members served on the mural committee, attended meetings, planned fundraising and approached people about the project. Her description places the mural within a longer effort to secure support and coordinate the work, rather than suggesting the finished piece appeared after a single event.
At the dedication, Dearborn praised the young members for bringing the concept to Village Hall and presenting it to the council. He also recognized the partnership among the civic groups and the village. The October ceremony marked the public completion of a collaboration that had first been proposed in late 2025, reviewed by the village, approved, painted over the summer and then formally dedicated.
The village’s spring newsletter had described the mural as still in its design phase and said it would feature native flora and fauna. The later reporting records what happened next: Taylor and chapter members developed and painted the design, more than 230 members participated, and the completed mural was dedicated beneath the bridge. Together, the records show how the project changed from an approved plan into public art on a well-used community trail.
For trail users, the mural adds a locally designed piece of art to the route under the Oak Street bridge. Its subject comes from the landscape the trail passes through, while the process brought students, parents, an artist, a village and a volunteer group into the same project. At the ribbon cutting, the group’s work was visible in the finished wall and in the account of the many people who helped bring it there.
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