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I had a wonderful visit on Friday morning with Rosemary Pawlowski and Kathy Samay. It's always great to catch up with old friends, and they had plenty of new things to tell me about the Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center in Johnstown, PA. They have expanded their programming into a new effort, known as Art Works in Johnstown, which, among other things, will give artists the opportunity to share studio facilities in the Cambria City section of Johnstown. If you've ever visited the AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest, you've been to Cambria City.

I've been to Johnstown hundreds of times, and I've been mildly aware of the arts as I've traveled around town. But I was amazed at all the art venues that have been identified for the Art Works in Johnstown project. The folks at the Bottle Works are now trying to find a way to link them so that visitors and those who call Johnstown home can enjoy the diverse artistic scene around the city.

The city's architecture is a great place to start enjoying the arts in Johnstown, and there are several Historic Districts around the city. Start at Central Park, smack in the center of the central business district. On Fridays during the summer, the farmer's market offers a great selection of fresh, locally grown produce. Throughout the year, Central Park is the center of many events, such as Thunder in the Valley, a weekend devoted to motorcycles and their riders. But one of my favorite stories goes back to the days before the great Johnstown Flood of 1889. It seems that in those days it was OK to let your cow roam around town to find whatever tasty green plants it could find. Well, as the city became more urban in the late 19th century, green space got harder and harder to find, so the cows would congregate in Central Park. Needless to say, the presence of cows in Central Park kept the grass short, but it also made a visit there less than pleasant for picnickers and folks out for a leisurely stroll. They considered putting a fence around the park to keep the cows out, but that would also limit human access, and if somebody forgot to close the gate, the cows would get in anyway. They also talked about putting turnstiles instead of gates so that people could easily come and go, but they soon realized that it was the idea of a fence around the park that people didn't like. So, the city passed an ordinance that cows had to be tied up. Well, the city farmers of Johnstown got together and staged a revolt to this erosion of their liberty. They refused to tie up their cows. Now that there was an ordinance, the city police were required to enforce it, so they rounded up the stray cows and incarcerated them at the police station, waiting for their owners to come and claim them. Cows need to be fed a milked, so as long as the cows were in police custody, it was up to the police to take care of them. The newspapers had a great time with this, referring to the cops as "cowboys." Eventually, the owners did claim their cows, and livestock no longer roams the streets of Johnstown.

Once you've had a look at City Hall, the Johnstown Flood Museum and some of the other late 19th century architecture around the downtown, hit the trails. There's a great network of trails along the rivers and slopes of the city that have done a great job of combining outdoor recreation with art appreciation. The James C. Wolfe Sculpture Trail winds its way up the hillside near the Inclined Plane, a hillside dotted with the openings to coal mines that once fueled the steelworks below.

The folks at the Bottle Works have taken on an ambitious project, and they have the determination to make it happen. Check it out, and support their efforts. After all, a great city like Johnstown deserves great art.