Connecting and Growing With the Future

Written by Mary Anne Burke

Slated for a first pitch in Spring 2024, Hagerstown’s new baseball team, and the Downtown Stadium & Event Center, bring fresh excitement to downtown Hagerstown and its home-plate neighbor, The Hagerstown Cultural Trail.

As you see in the accompanying photograph, dirt is being moved and steel girders rise daily for the home of Hagerstown’s newly named team in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB), the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars. You can watch livestreamed daily stadium progress through a time lapse video cam provided by Visit Hagerstown, Powered by Magic Lantern Productions and TRUELOOK at www.visithagerstown. com/hagerstown-ballpark-project-time-lapse

The widely acclaimed Hagerstown Cultural Trail, dedicated in July 2017, sits adjacent to the new multi-use Sports & Event Facility. Anchored by The Mural of Unusual Size (“Building Blocks” by Hense), the Arts Trail links the Downtown Arts and Entertainment District with City Park and the Museum of fine Arts.

The City Center Development Plan outlines Hagerstown’s vision of Downtown as “the commercial, institutional, and cultural center of the region.” The plan includes eight Catalyst Projects of which “Linking City Park/Washington County Museum of Fine Arts (WCMFA) and A&E District with Trail and New Housing” was prioritized as number five of eight efforts.

Hagerstown’s Cultural Trail has become a key attraction for visitors and residents alike. Originally envisioned as a “connector,’ the trail is a major focal point of Hagerstown’s Community’s City Center Plan developed more than 10 years ago. Phase One was met with local and statewide recognition.

Through the years with support from the City of Hagerstown, the Maryland State Arts Council and the Washington County Arts Council, Hagerstown’s Cultural Trail has added multiple pieces of public art, including “Faces” of local residents, floral gardens, and a walking path as well as a butterfly garden.

Following the completion of Phase One of the Cultural Trail and the expansion of both the Maryland Theatre and the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts, it was time to move forward. The City of Hagerstown and the City’s Public Art Commission began Phase Two.

Additional “Faces” by local photographers have been added both to the Trail and Artists Alley. A street facade as a remembrance of a long-ago business was constructed according to historical accuracy and a new ariel sculpture has been commissioned and installed. This continuation of the Trail travels north to University Plaza, a community park often used for music, artisan markets, and children’s activities.

According to an Americans for the Arts Green Paper, “Cities gain value through public art – cultural, social, and economic value. Public art is a distinguishing part of our public history and our evolving culture. It reflects and reveals our society, adds meaning to our cities and uniqueness to our communities. Public art humanizes the built environment and invigorates public spaces. It provides an intersection between past, present, and future, between disciplines, and between ideas.”

The Green Paper emphasizes that public art is freely accessable. “Public art does something that neither a public space without art nor even a museum with all its art can do: it can capture the eye and mind of someone passing through our public spaces. It can make us pay attention to our civic environment; it can encourage us to question what’s around us.”

Hagerstown and Washington County are a perfect example “10 Great Reasons to Support Public Art” from an Amherst, Md., publication. “It boosts local economies. Businesses supply materials and labor; restaurants, hotels and transportation companies benefit from a site that attracts visitors.”

Play Ball! and Celebrate the Arts Trail!