Already renowned for its fall course “Chesapeake Semester,” an interdisciplinary study of the Chesapeake Bay region, Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society (CES) is offering another unique summer course, “Headwater to Bay,” a journey geared to inspire artistic interpretation.

Chesapeake historian, writer, and CES instructor Kate Livie will co-direct the summer program with husband and Program Manager of “Chesapeake Semester” Ben Ford. Together they will introduce a group of students to the Bay region as they “hike, paddle, cycle, camp to meet the Chesapeake’s people and landscapes, up close and personal”— and interpret their experience through various art forms.

Since 2012, Ford directs the College’s CES academic course “Chesapeake Semester” a 16-credit initiative that spends one-third of the semester in the field meeting with farmers, artists, poets, and watermen along with a comparative study that includes an 11-day trip to Guatemala and Belize where they study similar environmental conditions in different parts of the world. 

“I like to say that we’re using the Chesapeake as a case study to understand more deeply that the issues that are facing any coastal community worldwide,” he says.

Livie, author of the acclaimed book Chesapeake Oysters: The Bay’s Foundation and Future, notes that the success of the Fall program inspired a different approach to learn about the Bay history and culture but through the lens of a creative.

“The fall program has been so successful, the College is really interested in how we can maximize the summer months to provide more experiential programs across disciplines within the College…so Ben and I saw an opportunity to have a summer spin-off that capitalizes on the way the Chesapeake has been a source of inspiration for artists, photographers, and writers for generations,” Livie says.

With the hope of attracting students and non-students interested in the arts, the four-week program will explore the Bay from the Susquehanna to the coastal bays where the Chesapeake meets the ocean and experience and interpret it from the vantage point of working artists using their skillset, may it be sketching, photography, videography, or creative environmental writing.

“Headwater to Bay” is a partnership between the Center for Environment and Society and the College’s newest major, “Communications and Media Studies Department.”

To find out more about “Headwater to Bay,” contact Ben Ford at bford2@washcoll.edu and to register, go here 

The Spy, for one, would be signing up tomorrow for this creative and learning adventure.

This video is approximately eight minutes in length.

As mass vaccination centers propel the nation’s rising immunization rate, businesses large and small are calculating a year’s worth of damage and trying to define the contours of a “new normal.”

There is encouraging news. The government stimulus spurring last month’s 8% rise in retail sales along with a new report that jobless claims have fallen to a pandemic low are spurring optimism in a reemerging business climate with many companies predicting a return to pre-Covid profitability by the end of 2021.

This is tempered, however, by the thousands, if not millions, of small businesses that have closed forever in the immense shadow of half a million deaths.

The Spy reached out to Benchworks CEO Thad Bench to talk about managing his business during Covid and what the “new normal” might look like going forward.

Benchworks is a comprehensive marketing services agency founded in 1991 and headquartered in Chestertown with offices in Philadelphia and Boston. Throughout the decades the marketing and branding company has been recognized with countless awards for its leadership qualities and innovative production accomplishments.

Still, the CEO has not lost sight of his beloved Kent County and the need for business strategies beyond the setbacks of the pandemic.

“I think that quality retail establishments and restaurants are clearly important to the vibrancy of Chestertown. The more we have, the better in that we can become more of a culinary/shopping destination,” Bench said.

He adds that he sees a real opportunity to scale commercial activity and employment in Kent county is to attract knowledge workers and organizations that employ them. Data centers, software companies, etc., are no longer geofenced.

“The question is what can we can do to attract tech companies and provide them with quality employees. Recruiting talent from Philadelphia, Annapolis, and beyond is feasible given the lessons we have learned from the pandemic.”

Bench, a two-year member of Washington College’s Board of Visitors and Governors, says Washington College is considering sponsoring a technology incubator with a focus on environmentally focused businesses. This makes a lot of sense and plays to Chestertown’s unique geography and rural character.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length. 

Tom Martin closed the doors to the Bookplate in March 2020 and wondered, like so many business owners, when, or even if, the shop would open again.

As the pandemic spread unabated and Maryland showed signs of rising Covid-19 positivity, businesses struggled to figure out ways to survive. Clearly, online commerce would become a lifeline for many.

Martin went through the mandatory hard closure mandated by Maryland Governor Hogan. Still, while his doors were closed for business, he attended to online book sales for 8-10 hours a day and getting orders out to a growing public of readers.

“Thankfully, I’ve been selling books online for years, so that was an easy transition,” he says.

Martin says that one of the largest saving graces to appear during the closure was Mainstreet’s “Buy Now, Enjoy Later” gift card program, where customers pre-paid to shop later.

“It was a humbling show of support. I was amazed by this program and how substantial the checks were. It really helped us out during the worst part of the closure.”

As late summer approached, Martin decided to wait a bit longer than the State’s allowance for business openings. With newly installed air filtration systems and wall-mounted hand sanitizer stations in place, the Bookplate gradually allowed shoppers on the premises.

Nevertheless, some aspects of the shop are changed forever. For almost two decades, the Bookplate has offered the back room of the shop as a venue for many special events like the Pat Harold Nielson Poetry Night, Kent County Poetry Festival, and author’s readings with the likes of Paul Muldoon and Michael Dirda. However, the surge in online book buying has required the back room for additional inventory.

“I will miss the great fun we had hosting events. Who can forget the town lights going out during Michael Dirda’s reading and continuing by flashlight? Hopefully, we will continue to find ways to sponsor events, maybe at Kent Cultural Alliance or other spaces here in the community.”

Still, the Bookplate continues to promote local writers and artists. Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson (Idiot Books) have been showcased at the Bookplate for years. Other artists are represented by Bookplate greeting cards and posters for sale.

With vaccine and growing immunity on the horizon, Martin looks to the future with hope tempered by a streak of uncertainty as we all look to reclaim our community spaces, our shops, and some sense of normalcy.

Here, Tom Martin describes the last year of trying to survive selling books through the pandemic.

This video is approximately nine minutes long. More information about the Bookplate is available on their Facebook page.