In the northern Berkshires of western Massachusetts, plans are in the works to create an outdoor path to the arts—a 9.3-mile bicycling and pedestrian route with access to the Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, Mass Moca, the Adams Theater, art galleries, hotels and other cultural and historic destinations.
“This is going to be a very different experience, unique in connectivity with the arts and cultural institutions, going through downtowns, getting to restaurants, retailers and art museums,” Laura Brennan, assistant director of the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC), tells The Art Newspaper.
A $17.3m federal grant will be used for the current planning and design phase. The grant, awarded this month, is the result of a collaborative effort involving Berkshire Funding Focus (a BRPC government-funding initiative) along with three municipalities—Adams, North Adams and Williamstown—Mass Moca and Tourists hotel. BRPC will coordinate the ongoing partnership and manage the grant award over the course of the four-year process, according to a statement released earlier this month.
This stage of funding moves the overall project towards “100% design and shovel-ready status” in preparation for actual trail construction, Brennan says.
“For art lovers, this trail provides something unique: access to incredible cultural institutions while hopping on a bike or going for a walk,” says Morgan Everett, Mass Moca’s director of public initiatives and real estate. “It’s an experience not really replicated in other communities.”
The A2A Trail Project, short for “Adventure to Ashuwillticook Trail”, will create a route linking two existing trails, one to the north and the other to the south. The A2A Trail will connect the city of North Adams and the Mass Moca campus with the Mohican Path at Williamstown to the north and the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail at Adams to the south.The trail intersects with the Appalachian Trail, running alongside the Hoosic River for three miles through former industrial relics, waterways, underpasses and new connections to public lands.
Courtesy the the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission
Mass Moca’s campus is the A2A Trail rotary where the east-west Adventure Trail and north-south Ashuwillticook Rail Trail connect. “We have an opportunity to lend creativity, to turn ideas into actual experiences, that’s what we do with artists,” Everett says. “And projects like this are an extension of that ethos, an opportunity to do something that has a real impact.”
The route design includes connectors for trail riders and walkers to take their time, wander off for a bite to eat, tour a museum and even stay at a hotel overnight before heading back on the trail. A 1.75-mile section of the east-west trail passes by the Tourists hotel campus.
There will also be a public-art component to the trail. “Outdoor art could be installed: murals, sculpture — that’s something that will definitely be part of the design,” Brennan says. “We want to make sure that no matter how long or short of a trip you take, you encounter both nature and beautiful artwork.”
New trail construction could break ground in small segments over the course of two years, Brennan says. But there are challenges to forging the A2A Trail, uncharted by railbed or former pathways. Wetlands, floodplains, road crossings, rail crossings and neighbourhoods are considerations. “In some places, we might have to use bridges instead of pathways, boardwalks instead of pavement for short stretches to keep a contiguous trail,” Brennan says.
In 2024, more than 122,000 bicycle and pedestrian trips were recorded entering the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail at Route 8 in Lanesborough and Park Street in Adams, Massachusetts, according to BRPC. Bringing the new trail to life requires “regional thinking” and cooperation between municipalities, private businesses and non-profits, Brennan says. “We are celebrating that this is so collaborative.”
