MENU

Sections

  • Home
  • Arts
  • Food
  • Ecosystem
  • Education
  • Habitat
  • Health & Recovery
  • Local Life
  • News
  • P.O.V.
  • Senior Nation
  • Donate
  • About
    • The Chestertown Spy
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising & Underwriting
      • Advertising Terms & Conditions
    • Editors & Writers
    • Dedication & Acknowledgements
    • Code of Ethics
    • Chestertown Spy Terms of Service
    • Technical FAQ
    • Privacy

More

  • Support the Spy
  • About Spy Community Media
  • Advertising with the Spy
May 29, 2022

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

  • Home
  • Arts
  • Food
  • Ecosystem
  • Education
  • Habitat
  • Health & Recovery
  • Local Life
  • News
  • P.O.V.
  • Senior Nation
  • Donate
  • About
    • The Chestertown Spy
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising & Underwriting
      • Advertising Terms & Conditions
    • Editors & Writers
    • Dedication & Acknowledgements
    • Code of Ethics
    • Chestertown Spy Terms of Service
    • Technical FAQ
    • Privacy
Arts Arts Portal Lead Arts Arts Top Story

And the 2022 Award Would have Gone to … The Academy Art Museum Scrapbook Video

May 20, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Share

If, and perhaps when, the Spy offers an award to a Mid-Shore nonprofit organization for innovative use of a video to document its relevance and history; it certainly would have gone to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum last year.

The Long Shore, the privately funded mini-documentary of the CBMM’s remarkable role in maritime history, broke entirely new ground in telling an institution’s powerful story in a way that is both spellbinding visually and dramatic in content. The YO Production is still gaining attention at film festivals and online as a new gold standard for peer museums to study and replicate.

And this year, that fictional award would go to the Academy Art Museum’s ten-minute feature that uses the AAM’s well-maintained scrapbook since it first opened to tell the unique story of the museum’s founding.

Produced and directed by AAM volunteer and professional video editor Matt Kresling, the ten minute video is a minor masterpiece in using the simple pages of an institution’s journal to reunite former leaders and staff in telling the remarkable tale of the Academy Art Museum’s humble beginnings to the its present position as one of the best regional arts centers in the Mid-Atlantic.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length. For more information about Academy Art Museum please go here.

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

40 Years of the Oxford Community Center and its Fine Arts Festival: A Chat with Liza Ledford

May 17, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Share

How times fly. It seems like it was only the other day when the Oxford Community Center opened its doors after a total renovation. That was ten years ago! And now, the Spy has discovered that one of the best community arts and culture centers in Maryland will be celebrating its 40th anniversary of existence this year and 38 of those years hosting its Oxford Fine Arts Festival. Lordy.

We asked the OCC’s executive director to come by the Spy studio the other day to hear more about its year of celebrations, get a sneak preview of some of the art that will be part of the Fine Arts Festival weekend coming up, and how the Community Center has deservingly earned the hearts of so many on the Mid-Shore as they begin their fifth decade of service.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about the Oxford Fine Arts Festival please go here. For the Oxford Community Center please go here.

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

Election 2022 Profiles: Heather Mizeur for Maryland’s 1st Congressional District

May 16, 2022 by The Spy 3 Comments

Share

Today, the Spy continues its informal series on profiling candidates running for office in 2022. Over the next eight months, we will be offering long-form interviews with those running for Maryland’s Governor, Attorney General, MD Congressional District 1, and several local elections in Dorchester, Kent, and Talbot Counties.

As per our educational, nonpartisan mission concerning all public affairs on the Mid-Shore, we believe these in-depth conversations offer a unique alternative to the traditional three-minute sound bite or quick quote. We will be talking to each candidate about their background, qualifications, and policy priorities as well as how they differentiate themselves from others running for the same office.

We continue with Heather Mizeur, candidate for Maryland’s 1st Congressional District. She served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from January 10, 2007 to January 14, 2015, representing the 20th district in Montgomery County.

This video is approximately 17 minutes in length. For more information about Heather Mizeur for Congress please go here.

Filed Under: Election 2022

Mid-Shore Arts: Pam Watroba’s Mosaics

May 14, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Share

Pam Watroba freely admits that art and art creation have always been front and center in her life. Still, the realities of life, including raising a family, deferred that passion until she retired as a healthcare professional a few years ago. With her husband cheering her on, Pat returned to art far later in life than she had hoped, but thankfully, she still has the same passion she had growing up in Baltimore.

The result of that personal rebirth can now be seen at the Main Street Gallery in Cambridge and RiverArts in Chestertown, where Pam displays a remarkable range of her creations, including both abstract and figurative uses of glass to create images as diverse as Chesapeake Bay sunsets to human skulls that celebrate el Día de Los Muertos.

The Spy caught up with Pam in Cambridge last week to talk about her work.

This video is approximately minutes in length. For more information about Main Street Gallery please go here. For RiverArts please go here.

Filed Under: Spy Highlights

The Avalon Takes Art Teacher Anna Madachik to the Met with CEO Daniel Weiss as Host

May 13, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Share

While there are countless examples of community members pitching in to help education programs and teachers on the Mid-Shore, it’s hard to beat the recent story of the Avalon Foundation working with Daniel Weiss, the CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to offer a personal tour of that world-famous institution for Easton Elementary School art teacher Anna Madachik.

After three years of working with Easton Elementary School on both afterschool art classes and programming related to the Avalon’s annual Plein Air Easton festival, the Foundation’s Jessica Bellis, and Anna were brainstorming about what else could be done with this collaboration when the idea came up of connecting Anna with another one of the Avalon’s special friends, Daniel Weiss. And Dan just happens to call Oxford, Maryland home during his weekend breaks from running one of the largest museums in the world.

Dan had recently helped the Avalon by becoming the competition judge for Plein Aire in 2021. And He didn’t hesitate to set aside time for Anna and a crew from the Avalon’s community television station to visit the Met after closing hours and discuss and videotape her conservation on seven of Anna’s handpicked art objects that she could later share with her students for many years to come.

The Spy down with Anna last weekend to talk about this remarkable adventure, the generosity of Dan Weiss, and the impact this unique kind of art education has on young children.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Avalon Foundation please go here. For information about the Metropolitan Museum of Art please go here.

 

Filed Under: Arts Portal Lead, Arts Top Story

Mid-Shore Commerce: Author Johnathan Holifield on Inclusive Competitiveness

May 9, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Share

When you look at Johnathan Holifield’s LinkedIn page, it’s hard not to be amazed by the depth and diversity of his professional life. From his early life as a star football player who rose to play in the NFL to directing the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, becoming the chief executive of the Cleveland Urban League, or more recently, his role as a senior vice president at Bitwise Industries, Holifield’s resume is a stunning example of his own entrepreneurial spirit.

But what really caught the Spy’s eye was Johnathan’s role in Donald Trump’s White House as executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). While there could be vigorous debate on the successes or failures of the Trump Administration, there is no doubt about his impressive leadership to help deliver the largest-ever federal HBCU investment of $2.5B to date.

So when Johnathan Holifield talks or writes about inclusive competitiveness, he comes into the conservation with significant street cred but also with a diverse experience in America’s economic sector to offer new ways to get more players in the field of innovation and entrepreneurism.

Johnathan was in Easton on Thursday to be the keynote speaker for the annual Talbot County Business Appreciation Summit on May 6, and he agreed to swing by the Spy studio for a quick chat before heading over to the Tidewater to make his remarks.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about the Talbot County Department of Economic Development & Tourism, the host of the Business Appreciation Summit, please go here.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Spy Highlights

Mid-Shore Real Estate: Filling the Professional Rental Market Niche with Derick Daly

April 25, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Share

The last time the Spy spoke with Derick Daly, our theme was to celebrate his unique role in the world of Eastern Shore entrepreneurs. While Derick was perhaps best known to the Mid-Shore as the co-founder of the highly successful BAAM afterschool program for young African-American boys (and now girls) in Easton, in truth, Derick and his family had five or six different enterprises, from construction to affordable housing projects, all of whom interconnected in their financial support of Polaris Village Ministries, the philanthropic parent of all these businesses.

Perhaps the most surprising was Aspire Daly, Inc. Dedicated to developing high-end residential rental properties, Aspire was formed with a few other private investors to design and build a 150-unit complex on the east side of Route 50 in Easton.

There are a few things that make this project unique. The first and the most obvious is that this development targets young professionals in the area who can’t find high-quality rental properties close to where they work. The second is how Derick and his team have envisioned a project that takes full advantage of its 63 acres for hiking trails, nature paths and open space by only developing 13 of those acres for housing. And finally, it is a project specifically designed to provide much-needed funding to BAAM, the Polaris Academy education center, and a host of other programs aimed at helping the community’s most at-risk young people and their families.

The Spy sat down with Derick a few weeks ago to discuss the Daly Estates project.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Aspire Daly please go here.

 

Filed Under: Commerce Homepage, Habitat Portal Lead

Troika and ShoreRivers Teams Up: A Chat with Laura Era and Rebekah Hock

April 20, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Share

When one of Troika Gallery’s artists suggested in passing that a great spring theme would be a celebration of ShoreRivers conservation work, gallery owner Laura Era jumped at the chance.

For Laura, the idea of highlighting the role of water with so many of her artists was a perfect one, but it was also a personal one. For almost thirty years, Laura and her husband worked on the water before she devoted all her time and energy to her art work and keeping the gallery thriving. As a Eastern Shore native, she knew first hand how important environmental quality was for the Chesapeake Bay and its “guts” to use her term.

So on April 22, AKA, Earth Day, Troika will play host for “ShoreRivers@Troika Gallery which will feature their artists depicting the waterways of the Eastern Shore with a portion of sales supporting the clean water advocacy, restoration, and education work of ShoreRivers.

the April 22 reception will include Choptank Riverkeeper, Matt Pluta, who speak about the risks to water quality in the area and the many ways each of us can play a part in ensuring healthy, fishable, swimmable waterways.

The Spy, a fan of both ShoreRivers and Troika, stopped by the other day for a quick chat with Laura and ShoreRivers Rebekah Hock to hear more and view some of the great art that will be on display for purchase.

This video is approximately two minutes in length.

Troika Gallery located at 9 South Harrison Street, is open Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11am until 6:00 pm, and Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday by appointment. 410-770-9190. For more information about Troika Gallery please go here.

 For more information about ShoreRivers please go here.

Filed Under: Arts Notes, Eco Homepage, Eco Portal Lead

Dorchester Citizens for Better Government want Transparency and Governance: A Chat with Allen Nelson

April 19, 2022 by The Spy 1 Comment

Share

The Dorchester Citizens for Better Government group has two proposals that they think will significantly improve both transparency and good governance at the county level. And on the surface, they look like rather simple ones.

The first one, a change to Charter Section 606, it would require Dorchester County Council meetings to be on live CATV or live streamed on the internet. It would also require the Council to provide documents to the public that support the agenda items prior to Council meetings.

The second one is a charter amendment (405-406) is to prevent Council members from hiring and firing county employees other the its chief executive (County Manager). It simply strengthens the role of the County Manager in hiring and termination decisions of department heads and  by instituting a formal process and safeguards for the hiring and dismissal of the County Manager.

On the face of it, both of these sound reasonable enough, but in order for these to be on the ballot in November, this croup will need to have close to 5,000 Dorchester residents sign petitions over the next several months to make that happen.

WHCP’s Kevin Diaz and the Spy’s Dave Wheelan sat down with Allen Nelson, president of Dorchester Citizens for Better Government yesterday at the studio on Race Street to talk in more detail about both of these important initiatives.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length. For more information about Dorchester Citizens for Better Government please contact at Allen Nelson at Dorchartchq22@yahoo.com.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Maryland News

Election 2022 Profiles: Katie Curran O’Malley for Attorney General

April 18, 2022 by The Spy Leave a Comment

Share

Today, the Spy continues its informal series on profiling candidates running for office in 2022. Over the next eight months, we will be offering long-form interviews with those running for Maryland’s Governor, Attorney General,  MD Congressional District 1, and several local elections in Dorchester, Kent, and Talbot Counties.

As per our educational, nonpartisan mission concerning all public affairs on the Mid-Shore, we believe these in-depth conversations offer a unique alternative to the traditional three-minute sound bite or quick quote. We will be talking to each candidate about their background, qualifications, and policy priorities as well as how they differentiate themselves from others running for the same office.

We continue with Katie Curran O’Malley, Candidate for Attorney General is the former Associate Judge for the First District Court of Maryland.

This video is approximately 14 minutes in length. For more information about Katie Curran O’Malley please go here.

 

Filed Under: Election 2022

Next Page »

Copyright © 2022

Affiliated News

  • The Cambridge Spy
  • The Talbot Spy

Sections

  • Arts
  • Culture
  • Ecosystem
  • Education
  • Health
  • Local Life
  • Spy Senior Nation

Spy Community Media

  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising & Underwriting

Copyright © 2022 · Spy Community Media Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in