Frostburg Festively Ushers in Spring with Arts Walk

Guest feature: Niki Folk works for FrostburgFirst, a Maryland Main Street Community. Follow along on Facebook and Twitter.

Nestled in the rounded Allegheny Mountains, Frostburg is a small mountain town built on more than 200 years of history and brimming with energy from the local university. Its traditional Main Street community is comprised of local shops, family-owned restaurants, and other various specialty businesses. With its rolling hills and sprawling landscape, Frostburg is the definition of a traditional, Americana small town.

With the arrival of warmer weather, the Frostburg Arts Walk will take place on Saturday, April 23rd from 3 – 8 pm in downtown Frostburg’s Main Street and various surrounding venues. The Arts Walk is an opportunity for local artists, musicians, performers, and artisans to showcase their work and talents. With more than 40 participating artists and performers featured at more than 25 locations, the Arts Walk is designed as a walking gallery tour of Frostburg’s arts and entertainment district, giving viewers an afternoon of creative stimulation and entertainment.

“Arts Walk is a great time to show off all of the amazing talents living here in Western Maryland,” says Jessica Palumbo, FrostburgFirst’s Main Street manager, “It’s great to see our downtown become so alive with the arts.”

Featured types of art will include everything from professional and landscape photography, oil, acrylics, and watercolor paintings, detailed stippling, porcelain and clay pottery, metal work, handmade jewelry and other wearable works of art, stained glass, paper filigree, fused glass, hand-crafted soaps and body products, mixed medium works, woodworks, pins-striping and more for all to browse and purchase in galleries set up in participating businesses. There will also be artist demonstrations including a lively chainsaw woodcarving and an intricate fiber demo of knitting, spinning, and weaving techniques.

The St. Michael’s Courtyard will serve as the backdrop for musical performances, solo acts and duos, as the sounds of voices and instruments fill the streets. The local high school jazz ensemble will spotlight and a street-side dance routine will feature the talents of Mountain City Center for the Arts.

Kids can participate with crafts at the library, painting at City Place, or hop aboard the arts bus for more creative and colorful fun. From face painting to adult coloring, every Arts Walk attendee of any age can join in the day’s activities.

As walkers work up an appetite traveling from gallery to gallery, they can choose to grab a bite at one of the many dining options located in downtown Frostburg, offering a wide range of food from specialty coffees and sandwiches, sushi, organic farm to table dishes, Tex-Mex, or pizza and wings. As the sun goes down and the fun moves indoors, the evening will be capped off by more band performances showcased at local bars.

The spring event is result of collaboration between business and community members, Frostburg State University students and locals, and particularly the planning organization FrostburgFirst. FrostburgFirst is one of 28 communities of the Main Street Maryland program aimed at promoting and sustaining traditional Main Street communities and acting as a liaison between business owners, city officials and residents. This Arts Walk serves as one of many events FrostburgFirst hopes to plan and promote in the future.

For any questions about the event, please contact Jessica Palumbo by email or at 301-689-6900 (office) or 301-697-9617 (cell).

For more information on Arts Walk, listen to the latest online podcast. For more on FrostburgFirst and the exciting things taking place in Frostburg, MD, visit downtownfrostburg.com.

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from https://mdbiznews.commerce.maryland.gov/2016/04/frostburg-festively-ushers-spring-arts-walk/