CUMBERLAND — The Buck Creek Trail underpass beneath U.S. 40 is no stranger to paint.
Unfortunately, all of the graffiti isn’t the kind a community welcomes, especially along an amenity like a recreational path.
But that’s changing with the help of a muralist and a place-making initiative to turn an area that once drew eyesores into an attraction representing what the town’s proud of.
The three-mile Buck Creek Trail runs north and south between East 21st Street (County Road 100N) and the Pennsy Trail south of U.S. 40 just east of Carroll Road.
Koda Witsken, the artist behind Hue Murals, is creating the mural on the concrete surfaces making up the underpass that takes the trail beneath U.S. 40.
“It’ll be like an art tunnel when you walk through,” said Witsken, who studied art at Duke University and Purdue University and also designed the new branding signs identifying the four sectors along the Mt. Comfort Corridor.
The mural will highlight various flora and fauna of the area in a cohesive way along with elements representing Cumberland, Witsken said, like the sunflowers that grow around the town, butterflies, deer, fireflies and the stained glass windows of the former St. John United Church of Christ building on German Church Road that residents helped to save.
“We wanted it to be about Cumberland in a way that wasn’t cliche or largely used in other communities,” Witsken said.
Witsken started the mural last fall before pausing over the winter. Fellow artists Israel Solomon and Megan Jefferson are helping her, and she hopes to finish by the end of the month.
The mural project stemmed from Cumberland’s participation in the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs’ Hometown Collaboration Initiative a few years ago. As the community-wide effort pursued a place-making initiative, organizers decided on the Buck Creek Trail underpass, which they knew tends to attract tagging.
“We were looking at what could we possibly do to try to deter that, and do something unique with the space,” said Christine Owens, director of planning and development for Cumberland.
The endeavor received seed money from the office of community and rural affairs, along with funding from the town, Cumberland Community Arts and Spaces Task Force and the Hancock County Community Foundation.
“It’s awesome,” Owens said. “We’re really excited. We love Koda’s work, and she did a really good job capturing some images that really represent the community, and put together just a really vibrant piece to really create a destination for people not just using the trail, but to come to the community and check it out.”
Once completed, the mural will get a special coating over it that will make it easier to clean off graffiti, should anyone vandalize the piece.
Owens said the town hopes to add interactive lighting to the mural one day as well.
