Travel through either one of Mountain Maryland’s Arts and Entertainment districts, in Cumberland and Frostburg, and you will be met with diverse genres of art in our galleries, theaters, and art spaces. But in Allegany County, there’s a whole world of art existing out in the open for all to share. The public art in our Mountain Maryland communities brings you giant works from world-class sculptors and muralists, and now, with the emergence of the Poet-Tree project, you can enjoy works in the literary arts in the public sphere.
The Poet-Tree project is championed by Frostburg State University’s Center for Literary Arts and was inspired in part by the Yoko Ono Wish Tree Project as well as the informational plaques one sees at the arboreta. Printed on metal plaques and installed on posts next to trees throughout the county, poems classified as tree-centric, tree-related, or tree-adjacent are intended to surprise and delight the curious and perhaps spark a moment of contemplation for the trees in our local cityscapes. The project itself aims to recognize the rich tradition of poets writing about trees.
“I hope that folks– local and visiting alike -will enjoy walking on the sidewalks of Allegany County and happening upon this tangible reminder that poetry is always around us,” says Jennifer Brown, the Executive Director for the Frostburg Center for Literary Arts and dreamer of the idea itself.
Visitors are encouraged to be mindful and on the lookout for these nuggets of literary art as they wander our communities and state parks. A total of 22 plaques are installed between Rocky Gap State Park (5), the City of Cumberland (4), the City of Frostburg (2), Frostburg State University campus (5), and the towns of Lonaconing (2) and Westernport (4). It’s like a game of hide and seek or geocaching (as there are GPS coordinates listed for each location) - the poems are installed near libraries, train depots, state and community parks, and the arboreta.