Chuck Gabbert in front of several murals adorning his building. (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media)

A “joiner” is sometimes defined as a person who specializes in the art of fine woodworking, specifically someone adept at joining pieces of wood together, like in furniture making. The term may be more commonly referred to as someone who enjoys joining and supporting groups or campaigns. Chuck Gabbert, a woodworker and local arts lover who owns C.T. Gabbert Remodeling and Construction in Peoria, is both.

“I’m a woodworker by trade, which is an art in itself, but I love all the arts,” said Gabbert, whose appreciation for the central Illinois arts community is most evident through his eclectic “Art Park,” where he turned a rundown, weeded parking lot at the corners of McArthur and Adams streets on Peoria’s near-south side into a vibrant area festooned with interchangeable 10-by-20-foot full color murals, sidewalk art and brightly painted planters. For years, a battered MG sports car, adorned with flowers and artwork, sat perched on the corner. But that’s a story for later.

“The Art Park lets artists — some of which are barely artists, and some are really, really good artists — get their work out into a public forum,” added Gabbert, 68, who has operated C.T. Gabbert Remodeling and Construction, located at 1323 SW Adams Street, since 1987 after starting the business at age 21. “This area needed something down here to look at other than just another old brick wall.”

Chuck Gabbert says, “The Art Park lets artists get their work out into a public forum.” (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media)

His business, anchored by family members, including his wife, Becky, son, Joe, and daughter, Kari, is best known for custom bathroom and kitchen remodeling. However, the versatile Gabbert crew is equally proficient at everything from custom millwork, window replacement and basement overhauls to whole-house construction.

“Just about anything you can think of, we’ll do. That’s my motto: if you can think of it, we can do it,” said Gabbert, who, in addition to developing an early interest in woodworking, enrolled in art classes in high school and college.

This motto was the thought process Gabbert applied to his Art Park, where the murals are commissioned from local artists who are asked to submit high-resolution digital photographs of their artwork for conversion into vinyl tapestries. Photographs and artwork of a horizontal nature, rather than vertical in direction, are best suited for the mural conversion process, which is completed by a Missouri company before being shipped to Gabbert.

The artists are awarded $200 by Gabbert for their submission, and the murals cost in the vicinity of $300 each. This means Gabbert has around $500 of his own money invested in each mural, five of which are on constant, rotational display and between 50 and 60 are held in storage.

The artists are awarded $200 by Gabbert for their submission, and the murals cost in the vicinity of $300 each. (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media)

The C.T. Gabbert Art Park, for lack of an official moniker, was dreamt up by Gabbert after agreeing to host an art sale in the parking lot of his business over a decade ago. Doug and Eileen Leunig, co-founders of Big Picture Peoria, were participants in the event. A Danish muralist and graffiti artist, Ard Doko, was visiting Peoria. Doko created a mural during the gathering, which brought together local artists and craftspeople who set up tables and booths to showcase and sell their wares. Despite shaky weather, the event was a major success and a source of future inspiration to Gabbert.

“I looked at Doug (Leunig) and said, ‘this could be a big deal,’” Gabbert said. “The Art Park was already in the works, but Big Picture Peoria came out of that (event).”

The Leunigs remain close associates of Gabbert’s, though the inspiration for the rotating mural wall belongs to Gabbert, who recruits most of the mural artists himself or with assistance from Peoria Arts Partners or Big Picture Peoria.

After originally intending to have murals painted directly onto the brick south wall of the business, Gabbert was dissuaded from the idea by an acquaintance who recommended removable vinyl tapestries as the medium for which to convey the artwork. The first mural to be displayed by Gabbert, a plain blue tarpaulin decorated with artwork intended to represent combined waste and sewage overflow discharging from Peoria’s subterranean sewers into the Illinois River, was, unsurprisingly, not well-received by city leaders.

“They were having the (Sun Foundation’s) water festival at the Civic Center, and Peoria High School kids had painted that (image) on a blue tarp. It was basically an image of crap flowing down the river,” Gabbert said, grinning at the recollection. “The city didn’t like it. They didn’t like the whole idea.”

Revenge was perhaps exacted by the assignment of a nuisance ticket to Gabbert for the placement of his beloved MG sportscar, which was plopped on the streetcorner — sans engine — and decorated with living plants and graffiti-like artwork in an effort to aesthetically enhance the dilapidated intersection.

“The car was just primered and painted, and we hadn’t yet paved the parking lot. ‘Milt Green,’ as we call our MG, got a ticket so I called (past Peoria) Mayor (Jim) Ardis, who was my neighbor across the alley growing up, and he said he’d check up on it. I said, ‘this car is art,’ to which he said, ‘it just looks like a junky car to me.’ I said, ‘that’s what the guy who wrote the ticket said, too,’” recalled Gabbert, who eventually had the ticket rescinded with the cautious blessing of the city.

Milt the MG, who is currently enjoying a sabbatical from public life, has been struck by wayward vehicles twice. The hardy import escaped a third battering, when, after being moved just prior to a parking lot resurfacing, a speeding auto flipped on its roof and skidded through the area where the vehicle had been parked, crashing into Gabbert’s building. “He would’ve been destroyed,” Gabbert said of the fortunate Milt.

Some well-known regional artists have contributed artwork for murals in the Art Park, including the Leunigs, Lonnie Stewart, Bob Doucette and Bill Hardin. Most, however, are contributed by up-and-coming local artists seeking a receptive public medium in which to display their work. These are the artists Gabbert encourages to get in contact with him.

“Sometimes I have people call out of the blue wanting to put something on the wall, and I’m usually pretty accommodating,” he said. “I’ll ask them to take a photo of their work, then I’ll put it in 300 dpi (dots per inch) and send it off to St. Louis to be printed. I have four or five ready to send off now, including one from Lonnie Stewart.”

Joining together two of his passions — art and construction — Gabbert’s Art Park now enjoys the tacit blessing of the city of Peoria and is often seen in tourism photographs, brochures and websites. Its presence spawned something of a neighborhood arts revival, with other nearby businesses also making efforts to clean up and beautify the area via brightly hued artwork and urban flower gardens. The Art Park is now regarded as a must-see destination for those seeking a firsthand look at Peoria’s burgeoning grassroots arts scene.

Gabbert can be reached with questions about displaying local artwork at his Art Park through his business, C.T. Gabbert Remodeling and Construction, at 309-637-2110.