The Adams County Arts Council (ACAC) invites artists/artist teams to apply to create a mural spanning the full height of the brick entryway wall of the Adams County Historical Society’s Beyond the Battle Museum. A public Q&A session for interested artists is scheduled for Thursday, May 22 at 6 pm at the Beyond the Battle Museum, 625 Biglerville Road, Gettysburg. Artists planning to attend this session are asked to RSVP on the Adams County Arts Council’s website. Application packets for the project are due June 16. Application guidelines and RSVP for the Q&A session can be found at www.adamsarts.org/murals-and-public-art/.
This project kicks off a developing County-wide mural program with the long-term goal of a “rural mural tour” around Adams County. Founding donors spearheading the program are David and Pauline LeVan, David and Cynthia Salisbury, David Sites, Sharon Magraw, and Monica Oss and Jay Mackie. A steering committee of community stakeholders has been meeting and developing the strategic plan with guidance from Mural Arts Philadelphia for the program and its first project. The committee includes:
- Pauline LeVan, ACAC Board President
- Lisa Cadigan, ACAC Executive Director
- Marty Qually, Adams County Commissioner
- Cynthia Salisbury, Adams County Community Foundation Board Chair
- Chris Lauer, Waldo’s & Co. Creative Director and Artist
- Jeff Rioux, Director, Center for Public Service, Gettysburg College/Project Gettysburg Leon
- Robin Fitzpatrick, Executive Director, Adams Economic Alliance
- Tinsy Labrie, Community Projects Leader, Destination Gettysburg
- Andrew Dalton, President & CEO, Adams County Historical Society
- Jessica Dean, Publisher, Celebrate Gettysburg & Celebrate Hanover magazines
This first project’s theme, “Adams County: Stories Past, Present, and Future” will be developed with the selected artist/artist team over a series of community engagement events. The finished mural will be dedicated and celebrated in conjunction with The PEOPLE Project 2026, a storytelling and performance event on the same theme. Beginning in 2025, this project will engage Adams County residents, collect their unique stories, and invite them to contribute to creation of smaller works of public art to serve as inspiration for the contracted mural artist’s/artist team’s conception and design of the larger ACHS mural. Community engagement events throughout the year leading to the reveal of the mural will be part of Adams County’s schedule of celebrations for PA/America 250. Donations are welcome to help fund this project and future mural projects. The program is also supported in part by a PA Council on the Arts Creative Communities grant.
Questions regarding this project can be directed to ACAC’s Executive Director, Lisa Cadigan at lcadigan@adamsarts.org.
The mission of the Adams County Arts Council is to cultivate an arts-rich community. To see our full list of programs, make donations, or learn more about this program, visit our website at www.adamsarts.org.
Featured image caption: The Adams County Historical Society’s Beyond the Battle Museum will be the first major site for a mural and public art program in Adams County that will eventually become a “rural mural tour.”