Finding Your Way
Finding your way along the busy streets of Annapolis is not a job for novices. Nor is locating a place to park. Even landmarks, museums and cultural districts can be elusive.
So since 2013, the City of Annapolis has had a wayfinding signage program. But not so many signs.
Gateway signage and a few signs to help drivers, bikers and pedestrians find major destinations, and city-owned parking garages were funded and installed in downtown in 2017 with grants from the Maryland Heritage Area Authority and the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board.
Many of the planned signs remained unfunded.
Absent were signs for the Banneker-Douglass Museum, the Annapolis Arts District, the Wiley Bates Legacy Center, the Stanton Center, the Martin Luther King Foot Soldiers Memorial, Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts and MTPA/Stage One. Also missing are signs for private parking garages.
The Annapolis Arts District — a group of galleries, creative professionals, organizations and businesses along inner West Street — has stepped up to point the way to these important destinations as well as to state, county and privately owned parking garages.
“The Annapolis Arts District wanted to make sure that arts and cultural destinations in the district were included in the wayfinding program,” said Erik Evans, executive director of the Annapolis Arts District.
Help came in the form of a $10,000 grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. The city council must formally accept the donation before the signs are placed.
Meanwhile, the Arts District has consulted with City Planning and Zoning on locations. The City has also budgeted money for most wayfinding signs designated in the original 2013 program.