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April 10, 2021

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

Arts Arts Notes

Academy Art Museum Announces April Exhibition Openings

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Miró, Joan, L’Antitete pair D-J, 1947, Etching and Engraving, Courtesy of Dolan/Maxwell.

The Academy Art Museum is opening two new exhibitions on April 16. Miró in New York, 1947: Miró, Hayter and Atelier 17 will be on display through July 8, 2021 in the galleries and August 1, 2021 online. Norma Morgan: Enchanted World will be on display in the galleries and online through August 1st, 2021.

Miró in New York, 1947: Miró, Hayter and Atelier 17 explores a group of little-known etchings Joan Miró made with influential British printmaker Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17, the New York outpost of his seminal printmaking studio in Paris. Both Miró and Hayter were key participants in the community of artists in Paris who ultimately formed the core of international movements in contemporary art from the 1930s to 1945.

In the 1940s many of these artists, including Hayter, moved to New York to escape the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Paris. There, the confluence of these émigrés and the ingenious and energetic American artists who created Abstract Expressionism fueled the relocation of the center of the art world to New York. Works will be drawn from the Museum’s Permanent Collection and loans from Dolan/Maxwell Gallery, Philadelphia, and private collections. The exhibition catalogue includes the wide breadth of experimental and collaborative work done at Atelier 17, with pieces by Fred Becker, Terry Haass, Gabor Peterdi, Anne Ryan, Yves Tanguy, Helen Phillips, Alice Trumbull-Mason, and others, all of whom worked in Atelier 17 alongside Hayter and Miró.

Norma Morgan image credit: Norma Morgan, David in the Wilderness.

A lecture “Joan Miró, Stanley William Hayter and Atelier 17,” presented by Carla Esposito Hayter, will be held on Saturday, May 8 at 10 a.m. on Zoom. Esposito-Hayter is an art historian and the author of the Monotype: The History of a Pictorial Art, and Hayter et l’Atelier 17 (Hayter and Atelier 17, published in French and Italian), as well as the catalog essay for the exhibition at the Academy Art Museum. She is also the daughter-in-law of Atelier 17’s founder, Stanley William Hayter. In dialogue with Academy Art Museum’s Curator Mehves Lelic, Esposito-Hayter will talk about the rich history of the Atelier’s decades-long influence in printmaking, as well as share anecdotes, insights and family history, told through her close relationship with Hayter and Miró.

In July, the Museum presents a double bill of Miró Makes a Color Print and On and Around Miró by avant-garde filmmaker Tom Bouchard. Miró Makes a Color Print pictures Joan Miró as he works at Atelier 17 in New York on a print – the subject of Academy Art Museum’s Spring 2021 exhibition, Miró in New York, 1947. On and Around Miró is a more expansive record of the artist’s work and studio. The film screenings, which will be held on July 1 at 11 a.m. and July 2 at 7 p.m. are free.

Also opening on April 16 will be the exhibition, Norma Morgan: Enchanted World. This is an exhibition of the late artist’s prints, watercolors, paintings and drawings, and spans over 30 years of her prolific yet under-studied career. The exhibition highlights Morgan’s ability to convey a spiritual experience through her landscape and portraiture work and to effortlessly transition from formal observation to magical wonder. While her prints are a testimony to her mastery as a printmaker, her mid-career paintings, which include experimental materials such as Day-Glo acrylic, shine a light on the artist’s inquisitive mind and inventive inner world.

Morgan’s unique visual language invites the viewer to step back to take in the entirety of her layered compositions and to look closer and notice the figures hiding in them. One of the two African-American women artists to study with Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17, Morgan was a trailblazer as an artist and printmaker. Her works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Library of Congress; the National Gallery of Art, and others. The Academy Art Museum is proud to present this exhibition with loans from the Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, Mr. Donnell and Mrs. Dorothea Walker Collection of African American Art, Mr. Freddie Styles, Mr. Darryl Love, and Dolan/Maxwell. The exhibition catalog will feature essays by art historians Dr. Amalia Amaki and Dr. Christina Weyl.

The Academy Art Museum exhibitions are sponsored by the Talbot County Arts Council, the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Star Democrat. The Museum is open daily, Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday, 12 noon to 4 p.m. For additional information, visit academyartmuseum.org or call the Museum at 410-822-2787.

‘Festival Forum’ Live-Stream to Spotlight 2021 National Music Festival

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NMF Artistic Director Richard Rosenberg

The National Music Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary in Chestertown Aug. 1 – 14. To mark the occasion, NMF is launching Festival Forum, a monthly series of live Zoom discussions — previewing this year’s events and reflecting on its first decade.

Festival Forum will present six live-streamed sessions. In the first, April 14 at 7 – 8 p.m., veteran NPR host Liane Hansen will interview NMF Artistic Director Richard Rosenberg and Executive Director Caitlin Patton.

“Richard and I are excited about this year’s season,” Patton said. “It was heartbreaking to have to cancel the festival last year because of the pandemic. This year, with the widespread deployment of vaccines, we’ve planned a slightly smaller festival but one that’s no less musically rewarding for our musicians and audiences.”

You can register for Festival Forum events from the National Music Festival’s homepage, www.nationalmusic.us.

Founded in 2010, the National Music Festival is a two-week classical music festival in Chestertown, Md., an historic river town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Convenient to several East Coast population centers, Chestertown is roughly 90 minutes by car from Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and an hour or less from Wilmington and Dover, Del.

NMF Executive Director Caitlin Patton

For two weeks each summer, aspiring young professional musicians – who attend tuition-free – live and work together presenting over 35 concerts — ranging from solo recitals to large symphony orchestra performances with chorus — and 200 free open rehearsals for music lovers from all over the world.

The Festival Forums will continue, with Patton as host, on the fourth Thursday of the month, 7 – 8 p.m., April through August. Each will feature one of the professional musicians who has mentored apprentices at the festival since its start in 2010 in Floyd County, Va. NMF moved to Chestertown the following year.

Viewers will get the inside scoop on how the festival has grown and evolved, learn more about the mentors and their instruments and get their take on musical highlights from NMF’s first decade. The series will continue with Jeff Keesecker, bassoon, April 22; Dana Goode, violin, May 27; Jared Hauser, oboe, June 24; Jennifer Parker-Harley, flute, July 22; and Tom Parchman, clarinet, Aug. 26.

The 2021 festival is being held later than usual to prioritize the health and safety of the audience and musicians. The 2022 festival will return to its usual schedule of the first two weeks of June.

About the musicians

Keesecker is currently professor of Bassoon at Florida State University and is principal bassoonist of the Tallahassee and Pensacola Symphonies. He received his master’s degree from The Juilliard School and bachelor of music from the Florida State University, College of Music. He has performed as soloist and chamber musician across North America, and in Europe, South America and Asia.

Goode, violin, began touring and performing at age 16 as a member of a chamber ensemble under the direction of acclaimed Latvian cellist Lev Aronson. She completed a bachelor of music degree while studying at the Peabody Conservatory with Berl Senofsky, and a master’s degree in Violin Performance in 1986 with Mitchell Stern of the American String Quartet.

Hauser, oboe, has been praised for his “subtle refined style” by Gramophone Magazine. He was appointed to the faculty of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in 2008 and maintains an international stature as performer and teacher. He has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous works by many of today’s brightest composers.

Parker-Harley, flute, is associate professor of flute at the University of South Carolina and an experienced orchestral soloist. She was a member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Ohio for eight years before moving to South Carolina. She has a special interest in contemporary music and spent the spring semester of 2016 on sabbatical to study jazz improvisation.

Parchman is principal clarinetist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine, where he is also a professor at the University of Southern Maine. He holds a doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Southern California and a master of music from Northwestern University. His students are active performers and educators in their communities, ranging from teaching in Maine schools to performing as a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Salisbury Poetry Week 2021 is On!

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Eastern Shore Voices is proud to announce the fourth annual Salisbury Poetry Week!  This project would not have been possible without major support provided by The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and MD Humanities. Other significant funding for the Youth Poet Laureate of Wicomico County was provided by the Salisbury Wicomico Arts Council, awarded by the Maryland State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Salisbury Poetry Week is a celebration of both the written and spoken word through a series of events open to all free of charge. Poetry is an integral part of our lives from song lyrics to commercials, from scripts to Shakespeare, from love letters to our children’s bedtime stories—poetry is truly at the center of our communicative lives. Not only a communication tool, but a craft that allows for empathy, poetry reaches into our center, highlighting that which is universal in all of us – humanity.

All Salisbury Poetry Week Events will take place on Zoom.  For more information and to register for these events, please visit: https://easternshorewriters.org/

Christopher Salerno

Christopher Salerno, award-winning author, editor, poet, and professor at William Patterson University is our 2021 Poet-in-Residence.  The author of five books of poetry, His forthcoming book, The Man Grave, won the Lexi Rudnitsky Award from Persea Books and will be published in 2021.    

Thursday, April 8 7:30-9 PM:  Join us for the Eastern Shore Voices annual poetry reading in collaboration with Thursdays with ESWA programming!   This year, we will introduce you to the three finalists for Salisbury Youth Poet Laureate, enjoy readings from Eastern Shore poets Wendy Mitman Clarke, Tina Raye Dayton, Christopher T. George, Sharon K. Sheppard, & S. Scott Whitaker, as well as Salisbury Poet Laureate, Nancy Mitchell, and 2021 Salisbury Poet-in-Residence, Christopher Salerno!

Friday, April 9th 7:30 – 9:00 PM:  Drop in on this Salisbury Poetry Week Open Mic Night which has become a slammin’ yearly event!  Kick back and listen or share a poem from the Salisbury Poetry Week Zoom stage!  Signups available in Zoom!  Hosted by special guests, poets Amber Green & Sista Big!

Saturday, April 10

10:00-11:30 AM:  The Eye, the World and the Self: Ecopoetry with JoAnn Balingit

To write poetry is to believe in renewal, invigoration and regeneration. Can poetry heal the world? If the answer is ‘yes,’ then hope lies in each poet’s insistence on cataloging the world, and sharing their details. In this generative poetry workshop, we’ll read & listen to poems by Arthur Sze, Natalie Diaz, Juliana Spahr and Danez Smith to help us consider the possibilities and necessity of ecopoetry. Then, in two writing periods, we’ll respond to prompts in the belief that “Sometimes in gazing afar,/ we locate ourselves.” Optional: bring a photograph of a childhood landscape, plant or being.

1:00-2:30 PM:  Image, Metaphor, and Memory Poetry Workshop with Christopher Salerno

Join Salisbury Poet-in-Residence, author, editor, and William Patterson University Professor, Christopher Salerno for a Salisbury Poetry Week generative poetry workshop which will consider how imagery and metaphor help bring art to memory in developing moving and dynamic poems.

Sunday, April 1th  1:00-2:30 PM

Join the Eastern Shore Writers Association for a powerful discussion group!  We study a well-known poet each month, exploring their work independently, then meet on Zoom for coffee, share our favorite poems by that poet, and discuss their work.  Our April discussion focuses on the work of Salisbury Poet-in-Residence, Christopher Salerno, and will be facilitated by ESWA President, Tara A. Elliott.  A excerpt from Chris’s latest book, The Man Grave, will be sent to all who register.

Spring Art Exhibit Opening at Studio B Art Gallery

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Bernard Dellario “Red Boat”

Studio B Art Gallery is happy to announce the opening of their Spring Art Exhibit on Friday, April 9, 2021. New artwork by all of the gallery’s talented artists will be unveiled during the spring showing. The opening reception will include a meet and greet with gallery artist Bernard Dellario and gallery owner/artist Betty Huang.

“Gallery  artists have been working hard during the winter months to create amazing new pieces,” Studio B Art Gallery owner Betty Huang said. “So much of it pops with color and emotions and fits in perfectly with the changing of the seasons. We cannot wait for you to come see the fabulous art.”

Bernard Dellario will join Betty on April 9th to talk about his new works. Bernard has studied drawing and painting at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia and has taken several workshops with nationally recognized artists. He has been a member of the prestigious Washington Society of Landscape Painters since 2003 and currently serves as President. He exhibits and has won awards through several venues, teaches painting workshops, and has juried local art competitions.

Studio B Art Gallery recently announced that Master Jove Wang will be returning to Maryland’s Eastern Shore for a new spring workshop. The Plein Air Workshop with Master Jove Wang will be held Friday, May 14 – Tuesday, May 18 in Easton, Maryland.

“Master Jove Wang fell in love with Tilghman Island when we brought him there for the Plein Air Workshop last year,” Betty said. “We are honored and privileged to have the master join us again to teach us his techniques and tell us about his journeys.”

Betty will be answering questions about the spring workshop and offering advance registration during the gallery’s Spring Art Exhibit opening reception.

Studio B Art Gallery is located at 7 B Goldsborough Street in historic downtown Easton, Maryland. The gallery represents nationally and internationally known painters Hiu Lai Chong, Bernard Dellario, Ken DeWaard, Betty Huang, Qiang Huang, Master Jove Wang, and sculptor Rick Casali. Visit the gallery any time during open hours, browse online at www.studiobartgallery.com, or call 443-988-1818 to arrange a private viewing.

Avalon Live Concerts are Back Safely on the Shore

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The Avalon Foundation announces the 2021 official opening of its brand new outdoor music venue, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion. Conceived and constructed in 2020 as a means to keep music going amidst pandemic restrictions, the organization is very excited to program the space over the course of an entire spring, summer and fall. “We are going to program predominantly for the outdoors until the world gets back closer to normal,” said Suzy Moore, Artistic Director at The Avalon.

On March 25th, the Stoltz Pavilion had a soft opening with a couple of concerts for staffers to reacquaint themselves with a space where they have spent very little time up to this point. From getting patrons seated, to focusing lights, to sending out a professional video stream, all hands were back on deck to remount last year’s initiative. “From October to December last year, we were working in temperatures averaging 37 degrees,” said Scott Milligan who directs the technical aspects over all of the Avalon venues, “temperatures are going to be great this spring.” A substantial outdoor landscaping plan is on tap for the Pavilion and will take place over the next couple of weeks. “We wanted to make it prettier and more appealing. It’s great to be one of the first venues in the country to say that concerts are back safely, but it feels even more hopeful to say we are brightening the corners at the Pavilion in 2021,” said Moore.

The Stoltz Pavilion was built from the ground up to ensure that audiences, staff, volunteers, and performers can enjoy live music, while substantially mitigating health risks. But it was also a way to offer musicians a chance to play and make a living again. Putting the hard-hit professional musicians back to work gives audiences a reminder that normal life is on the horizon. While Covid safety measures will stay in place in the immediate future, the Avalon will roll with the changes as the situation continues to evolve. “Yes we must still be safe. And we will abide by that rule first,” said Jess Bellis CFO and COO at The Avalon. “Safety has been at the forefront of our minds ever since our industry vanished into thin air and we were left to reinvent ourselves in 2020. Safety was the reason we came up with putting up an outdoor venue when everything else was shutting down. Keith Stoltz and The Stoltz family made it happen.”

So the plan is to use the outdoor pavilion safely, and to the max this year. “We encourage those groups that think that they may want to use the space, to contact us at the theatre and we will go over with them what is possible outside at the pavilion,” said Bellis. In the meantime, Moore has booked a lineup of stellar bands from across the spectrum to satisfy those who want to hear live music again. The schedule will continue to grow as long as there are no Covid setbacks to slow the process down.

“We are starting with an entirely clean slate and that is exciting to me,” said Tim Weigand, Marketing Director at The Avalon. “It’s the perfect time to get in on the ground floor with what the Avalon is doing in our community and listen to what superb musical acts and players come through our backyard. Our track record has proven it. I don’t care what music you gravitate towards, if you are a music fan, sign up for our email list, or use social media for some good and follow us there to stay in touch with what we are doing. We are one of the first spaces hosting a full calendar in the USA. Because of the vision of Avalon management and Keith Stoltz, we are back safely much earlier than other venues across the nation.”

Statistics show that more people are going to head out to a concert this year than ever before. Gene Simmons of KISS offers this advice when doing so. “Rock is dead. Not because the talent isn’t there, but because the business model just doesn’t work. And so that leaves live performances. And I really hope once this vaccine takes hold that people go out to the local clubs and see all the new bands and support new bands. Like a baby that’s on the floor, go up there, pick that baby up and coddle it, give it love, because those new bands need your love. It’s not going to affect me. I make a living, but the new bands need the love and attention. Don’t just go see Metallica and Taylor Swift or KISS. On the weekends, go to a place that’s got live music. You need to support the new generation of talented people who are musicians and writers and so on. Don’t let the robots take away everything.’”

If you do The Avalon promises to provide the exact same excellent customer service, positive vibes and a fantastic list of new music that thousands have come to know, depend on and love as patrons of the Avalon.

For those who are more comfortable listening and enjoying music at home, all of the Avalon concerts are streamed in High Def and Hi Fidelity on You Tube and facebook on The Avalon Theatre pages. Showtimes are 8pm.

For more information and/or tickets to Avalon shows please visit the organization online at avalonfoundation.org or call Tim Weigand at 410-253-9629.

Concert Line Up

Seamus Kennedy, Friday, March 26 at 8 pm The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion, 8pm $25
Wylder Saturday, March 27, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Pressing Strings , Friday, April 2, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Dead Letter Office, Saturday April 3, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Cris Jacobs Friday, April 9, The Avalon Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $30
The 19th Street Band Saturday, April 10, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Jack West Friday, April 16 The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
The High and Wides Friday, April 23, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Deanna Bogart Saturday, April 24, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $30
Los Day Trippers Friday, May 7, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Tom Rush Two Shows! Saturday, May 8, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion X p.m. and X p.m., $XX
Phillip Dutton and the Alligators Friday, May 14, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8 pm $25
Kentavius Jones Friday, May 21, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8 pm $25
Dan Navarro Saturday, May 22, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $30
Kat Parsons Friday, May 28, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8 pm $25
Anthony Turk Cannon Jazz Saxophonist Saturday, May 29 The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Ryan Martin Friday, June 4, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Vance Gilbert, Saturday, June 5 The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Martin Sexton, Friday, June 18, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $55
Jamie McLean, Saturday, June 19, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Peter Bradley, Sunday, June 20, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25
Dirty Cello, Friday, June 25, The Avalon’s Stoltz Pavilion 8pm $25

Delmarva Review: Rules for Beachcombing by Wendy Mitman Clarke

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Author’s note: “This poem began as a simple list playing with the idea that beachcombing can be a metaphor for living one’s life. But I love the pantoum, especially when describing the sea’s endless rhythm, which the repetitive form mimics and enhances. When I rewrote the poem as a pantoum it became much more powerful, a way of understanding how we are all inevitably broken by the relentless tides of life but there is beauty in that brokenness.”

Rules for Beachcombing

First, you must forgive yourself
for all that you will miss.
Agree to go empty-handed.
Nothing is here for you, per se.

For all that you will miss,
the horizon is treasure enough.
Nothing is here for you
but what the restless water brings.

The horizon is treasure enough.
Still you call the names,
what the restless water brings
from the deep—olive, moon, murex—

you call their names—
triton, tellin, limpet.
From the deep—olive, moon, murex—
comes tidewrack’s wreckage—

triton, tellin, limpet—
the unusual color, the odd shape.
In tidewrack’s wreckage
the beauty of ruin tumbles,

the unusual color, the odd shape.
The fluted column of shattered whelk
tumbles in its beautiful ruin.
Allow for the broken,

the fluted column of shattered whelk.
Fall to your knees, your skin sand-gritted,
amid so many broken.
A million lives begin and end here.

Fall to your knees, your skin sand-gritted,
and agree to go empty-handed.
A million lives begin and end here.
First, you must forgive yourself.

◆

Wendy Mitman Clarke’s writing has been featured in numerous publications, especially in the Chesapeake Bay region. She won the Pat Nielsen Poetry Prize in 2015 and 2017, and her poem “The Kiss” (in Delmarva Review) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her nonfiction has been published in River Teeth and Smithsonian. Her novel Still Water Bending was released in October 2017. Website: WendyMitmanClarke.com.

Delmarva Review is a literary journal publishing the most compelling new prose and poetry from thousands of submissions annually. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, partial financial support comes from individual contributions and a grant from the Talbot County Arts Council with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council. The review is available worldwide from the major online booksellers and specialty regional bookstores. For more information, please see the website: www.DelmarvaReview.org

The Avalon and Its Great (Safe) Reopening with Al Bond

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Slowly, and needless to say, very carefully, the Avalon Foundation is back in action. To the delight of devoted music fans on the Mid-Shore, the beloved venue for music has scheduled a full calendar of bands and performers to take the stage of the Stolt Outdoor Pavillion this April in yet another sign that a post-COVID world might be just around the corner.

The Spy spoke with Al Bond, Avalon’s CEO, yesterday to talk about these recent developments and the equally good news that the Foundation has entered into a partnership with the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival to host the popular early fall event.

Al also speaks of how the Avalon Foundation has completed its volunteer role in helping run the COVID-19 hotline and his conviction that the Mid-Shore will be returning to its indoor performance stages on Dover Street sooner than people think.

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

Sculptor, Bart Walter, Returns as Waterfowl Festival’s 50th Anniversary Featured Artist

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Bart Walter

The Waterfowl Festival is thrilled to welcome internationally renowned sculptor, Bart Walter of Westminster, Maryland, back to Easton as the Featured Artist for its 50th Anniversary this fall.

“We are proud to have Bart Walter join us for our 50th Anniversary,” said Kevin Greaney, Waterfowl Festival Board President. “Bart has been part of the Festival Family for many years and shares our belief that art plays an important role in conserving the landscapes, habitats and heritage of the Eastern Shore.”

Walter’s artistic career has deep roots in Easton and with the Waterfowl Festival. He grew up in Baltimore and spent weekends and summers on the Eastern Shore hiking, hunting, fishing and canoeing where he developed his love of the natural world.

Walter first exhibited at the Festival in 1974 at the age of sixteen as a wood carver and became a loyal exhibitor for many years.

“Bird carving was odd to my friends in Baltimore City,” said Walter. “The Waterfowl Festival opened my eyes to other people my age who had similar interests in art and nature. I fell in love with the Festival, and my fellow exhibitors and Festival volunteers became my extended family. I am honored to be part of this ‘homecoming,’ to celebrate this significant anniversary with such a wonderful community of artists and volunteers.”

After beginning his career as a wood carver, Walter transitioned to working in bronze in the late 1980s after his work caught the attention of famed primatologist, Jane Goodall, at a chance meeting at a lecture. She commissioned Walter to make two chimpanzee sculptures that now reside at the Jane Goodall Institute in Arlington, Va.

“Battle of Wills” by Bart Walter

A trained biologist, Walter prefers to sketch and sculpt in the wild and gets as close to his subjects as possible. Walter has sketched and sculpted chimpanzees and elephants in Africa, polar bears in the Arctic, penguins in the Antarctic and wild mustangs on the plains of Wyoming.

Walter’s work can be found around the world in private and public collections including the Ugandan Wildlife Authority Headquarters in Kampala, the private collection of King  Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, the National Zoo in Washington, DC, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin and the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming.

When asked about the pieces and exhibitions of which he is most proud, Walter shares projects with both professional and sentimental significance. The first is the recent installation of “Battle of Wills” a 15.5 foot bronze bucking bronco at the entrance of the Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming. The second is his 1996 solo exhibition at the Musee de Vernon in the village of Vernon, France located across the River Seine from Giverny, where Claude Monet lived and painted his famous waterlilies and other impressionistic masterpieces.

His sentimental choices are “Wild Imaginings,” a bronze sculpture of a full-size lion and boy, at his hometown public library in Westminster, Maryland and “Family Affair” the bronze sculpture of a pair of geese and their hatchlings that resides at the front of the Waterfowl Building on South Harrison Street in Easton where his artistic career began.

“Family Affair” by Bart Walter

“Family Affair” was created in honor of the Festival’s 25th Anniversary in 1995 and is a beloved part of the historic downtown’s streetscape. Taking photos with “Family Affair” has become a rite of passage and part of visitors’ annual Waterfowl Festival traditions.

This is what Walter loves most about public art. “It’s the gift that keeps giving. It’s always out there and always speaking to the public, years and even decades later.”

As the 50th Anniversary Featured Artist, Walter will create a sculpture exclusively for the 2021 Waterfowl Festival. The work will be unveiled this summer.

“Given Bart’s international acclaim and popularity, we are very grateful for his gift of time and incredible talent in support of our 50th year,” says Waterfowl Chesapeake Executive Director Margaret Enloe. “Our partnership has been years in the works. We offer this announcement with excitement and some hope for a fall Festival where everyone has renewed excitement for friendships, community and the beauty of our natural world”.

For more information about Bart Walter and his work, please visit www.bartwalter.com. For more information about the Festival’s Featured Artist program, please contact Waterfowl Festival offices at 410.822.4567 or marketing@waterfowlfestival.org.

About the Waterfowl Festival

Waterfowl Festival Inc. is dedicated to wildlife conservation, the promotion of wildlife art, and the celebration of the life and culture of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The 50th Festival will be held November 12-14, 2021 in historic Easton, Md. VIP and corporate sponsorship packages are also available. For more information, to volunteer, or donate, visit www.waterfowlfestival.org or call 410-822-4567.

The Artists’ Gallery Features Karen Merkin in “Cars and Ribbons and Bears, Oh My!”

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“Bucket of Ribbons,” 16×20, oil by Karen Merkin

During the month of April, 2021, The Artists’ Gallery will feature the work of exhibiting artist, Karen Merkin. Growing up along the New Jersey shore, Karen has always been fascinated with color and the subtlety of light and shadow on those colors. During the past year, Karen has spent more time at home and has looked for objects around the house to paint. So evolved her stuffed bear series and her ribbons and wrapping paper series. These photorealistic oil paintings are both whimsical and colorful and may help bring a smile to the viewer. Karen is also known for her classic “car portraits.” Each classic car has its own unique beauty, design and character, enhanced by the unique reflections found on chrome and glass surfaces.

Karen’s award winning paintings have shown in many exhibitions, including Concours d’Elegance and the Classic Motor Museum shows in St. Michaels. As a resident of Rockville, the Eastern Shore has become a favorite getaway for Karen and her husband. Karen is a juried member of the Working Artists Forum and the International Guild of Realism. She is an exhibitor with The Artists’ Gallery, and participates in workshops and local shows in Chestertown, Easton, St. Michaels, Tilghman Island and Oxford.

The public is invited to visit The Artists’ Gallery and meet the artist during extended hours on the evening of First Friday, April 2nd. Work by Karen Merkin will be featured in the gallery throughout the month of April. The Artists’ Gallery is located at 239 High Street in Chestertown and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10-5 and Sunday 12:30-4:30. Please note that all visitors to the gallery must be masked upon entry. For more information, please visit www.theartistsgalleryctown.com or call the gallery at 410-778-2425.

The Avalon to Present The Monty Alexander Jazz Festival

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The Avalon Foundation is proud to announce that in 2021 the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival (MAJF) will once again be performed over the Labor Day Weekend.

A special kick-off event headlined by Dominick Farinacci and Aaron Diehl to celebrate the collaboration with Monty Alexander will be held in the new Avalon Stoltz Pavilion on May 15. The celebration, a fundraiser, will feature world-class jazz trumpeter Dominick Farinacci in rhythmic and soulful collaborations with pianist Aaron Diehl.

The Monty Alexander Jazz Festival, one of the most distinctive small town jazz festivals in the nation, has been enhanced by its active collaboration with the Avalon Theatre since its inception.

Al Bond, CEO of the Avalon Foundation said, “We are certainly looking forward to working actively with those who have been instrumental in producing the Festival since its beginning eleven years ago.

The group of jazz enthusiasts led by Joe Fischer, Al Sikes, John Malin and Marty Sikes will represent a steering committee within the Avalon Foundation and assist in producing the MAJF.

In addition, noteworthy jazz concerts will be presented throughout the year. “Ultimately, we want to continue hosting a festival and are delighted to partner with the Avalon Foundation because of their multiple venues and excellence as presenters of artistic events,” said Joe Fischer.

The steering committee has a wealth of experience in producing events in the jazz genre for Talbot County. “It was eleven years ago that I began working with the production talent of the Avalon Foundation. Together, with Chesapeake Music, we brought a signature Festival to Easton,” said Al Sikes, the founder of the MAJF.

The official kick-off for the group is a special donor event to establish the Festival’s own wing under the Avalon umbrella. Dominick Farinacci will headline the evening and plans are being made to include Covid-safe perks and other promotions. “We know from the size of the festival’s crowds that there are a lot of music fans who love jazz and everything about the festival and we want to continue to see it be a success,” said Jess Bellis, COO/CFO of the Avalon Foundation. “This is a great way to celebrate spring, great music and help insure the longevity of this great event in Easton.” By supporting the May 15 fundraiser, attendees will have the first access to tickets to the Festival in September ensuring great seats and will become members of the Avalon Jazz Founders Club.

Dominick Farinacci is a jazz trumpeter, composer, and in recent years, a producer. He along with Monty Alexander could be said to regard Easton as a musical second home. Dominick’s recent production, Modern Warrior Live, was premiered in the Avalon Theatre and several weeks later in New York City. It will soon be released as a film.

In 2010, Dominick Farinacci and Aaron Diehl opened the MAJF. Those in attendance were mesmerized by the duo’s soulful rendition of Willow Weep For Me. Aaron, like Dominick, is now at the pinnacle of 21st Century jazz expressions.

For more information about the benefit show, please visit The Avalon Foundation’s web page at avalonfoundation.org or email Kimberly Stevens at kimberly@avalonfoundation.org .