😁Artist Alley January 24 2023 Art Lover

January 24, 2023

Volume 23-04

Welcome to Artist Alley,

Washington County Arts Council's electronic newsletter.

We hope this publication will engage you with the arts in your community.

WCAC welcomes your ideas and support as it continues to take the lead in bringing together the community's art organizations to strengthen our region's arts culture.

For artist information, arts events, calls for art, and more visit WCAC's web page...

www.washingtoncountyarts.com.

Message from the

Hagerstown/Washington County Convention

and Visitors Bureau

The Hagerstown/Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau has joined with the Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Hagerstown Committee to “Save Our Salute.”

Leadership at Antietam National Battlefield notified the MSO in November it would not allow the Maryland Symphony Orchestra's Annual Salute to Independence return to the park citing perceived safety concerns. We offered to work with them to address those concerns, but they informed us the decision was made. (Click this Link to see “Call to Action” for full story). We appealed to National Park Service Regional Office and were again disappointed. This event is too important to our community and tourism industry to let it slip away. Please help us.

Here’s how you can help:

Share the email below to everyone in your network today so they can join our cause. We want to hit the NPS with an abundance of responses as quickly as possible, so they are quick to act, realize the Salute’s value in this community, and never again think to end it.

Sign our petition on Change.org/SaveOurSalute – an email will be sent to NPS leadership asking for them to allow this event to return to Antietam.

Join our FaceBook Group: Save Our Salute and share the page with your friends. We want people to post messages sharing their feelings towards NPS’s decision to end the event, why it’s important to our community, and/or share their family’s experience from past events that makes the Salute so special.
Note: We want to keep the public discourse as civil as possible (as I know you do). We have several people monitoring the FB Page for uncivil, profane, or threatening posts from the public. These types of responses to NPS will not help our cause and we want to do our part to keep this a strong, but respectable and civil conversation. If you see an improper post from the public, please send staff a text so we can quickly remove it.

Spread the Word and story – As schedules allow, Paul Frey, Dan Spedden, and Jim Kercheval are happy to speak with any group interested in the issue. Just have them reach out to one of them.