The astute workers at the Easton GoodWill store thought that a recent donation was worth investigating. After some research and consultation with experts in the field, their hunch paid off in the amount of $40,600. According to the Baltimore Sun, that is how much an impressionist painting by an artist named Cortes sold for at Sotheby’s auction house. The painting was dropped off as a donation in March, and was recently sold at auction after Sotheby’s confirmed the authenticity of the painting.

The 8th Annual Art’s Alive Fine Arts show will take place on June 21-22 at Northside Park, 127th St, in Ocean City, MD. Art’s Alive features over 100 artists in a juried competition with entries in 12 categories including Ceramics, Drawing, Fiber, Furniture, Glass, Printmaking, Jewelry, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture and Fine Wood. Exhibits will be set up around Northside Park’s deep water lagoon on Ocean City’s bay side. Children’s workshops will be available thanks to the support of the Worcester County Arts Council. Artwork will be available for sale, and visitors can enjoy lunch and live music at the Artists’ Cafe.

Art will also be alive and outdoors during The Plein Air Paint Out in Rehoboth Beach, DE. From June 20-22, about 30 artists will be setting up their easels all around the downtown area including the boardwalk and Silver Lake. On Saturday, the galleries of Rehoboth Beach will be participating in ARTwalk from 6-9 PM, and on Sunday, a special event will be held at the Bellmoor Inn to recognize the winners of the weekend competition.

The Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival still has a few events left in its two week schedule including a free show at the Academy Art Museum on June 11th. Venues around the Easton area will host small ensembles playing exceptional selections of chamber music from well known composers such as Mozart and Beethoven, as well as contemporary composers including Andre Previn and Peter Child.

The Carla Massoni Gallery in Chestertown, MD, announces their current exhibition titled The Water Margin showing over 45 new watercolors by Marc Castelli. The exhibition will run from May 16th to June 21st in the Massoni Gallery located at 203 High Street in Chestertown. The works on display include an amazing series of paintings depicting Chesapeake Bay log canoes along with other captured moments of life on and around the water. Castelli’s watercolors offer action, contrast and light that is uncommon in this medium. If you are not able to visit Chestertown to see the exhibition, it is definitely worth your time to visit the online catalog of Castelli’s work. The bio of Castelli for the exhibition includes the following quote by Malcolm C. Salaman that provided some inspiration to the artist.

The sea marks a man as nothing else does, and despite weaknesses and faults, he will combine a childlike simplicity with a stolid bravery, which may rise at times to epic heights without seeming to him to be anything out of the ordinary.

The Lower Shore Land Trust is holding their 1st Annual Native Plant Sale at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury on Saturday, May 10th from 9:00-12:00. According to the LSLT:

Gardening with native plants provides food for wildlife, benefits the environment and looks great!

The native plants included in the sale offer garden options for areas of dry shade and butterfly gardens as well as plants that grow well in the full sun of a Delmarva summer. Native plants create a habitat for wildlife, are adapted to the local climate, and require less water than non-native species.

In conjunction with the plant sale, the Ward Museum will be offering a Paint-a-Pot activity for children from 10:00 AM to noon. Pots can be decorated for a fee of $2 to $5 which includes soil and seeds. The Ward Museum is also offering free admission to the museum with the purchase of a native plant from the LSLT sale.

The Art Institute & Gallery in Salisbury has a special event scheduled for May 3-10 called Book as Art. The AIG flyer gives this description of the exhibition:

Artists’ books, unlike mass produced books, are objects d’art in the form of books. These books are more than containers for design and information. The creative book is a personal expression of the artist’s desire to involve the viewer in the concept of the book with words, pictures and physical form. These creatively designed books assume many forms, every artistic medium and method of bookmaking. They are truly an interdisciplinary art form.

Several local schools will be making a special trip to the AIG on field trips to see the exhibit this week. The AIG will offer extended hours on Thursday, May 8th, from 11 AM to 8 PM to allow the public an extra opportunity to see the one of a kind books that are on display. Several speakers will offer their perspective on the artform, and hungry patrons can take part in a Let Them Eat Books buffet on Wednesday. The week’s events will conclude with a class called Kids Create Books on Saturday. Check out the AIG site for all of the details.

SALISBURY, MD—The history and flair of one of the nation’s most celebrated choreographers returns to Salisbury University’s Holloway Hall Auditorium Thursday-Friday, February 21-22, as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre presents the Ailey II Dance Company.

Thursday’s events begin with SU’s inaugural Distinguished Lecture in Dance, presented by Dr. Charmaine Patricia Warren, performer and historian, at 7 p.m., followed by the Ailey performance at 8 p.m. Friday’s Ailey performance begins at 7 p.m.

Tickets are required for both evenings, and ticket holders must be seated by 6:45 p.m. Tickets are available at the Information Desk of the Guerrieri University Center starting Monday, February 4, with a limit of two per person. Read more…

The Salisbury Wicomico Arts Council has unveiled its new web site at www.543arts.com. Local residents might recognize the similarity between this address and the easily remembered phone number of SWAC at 410-543-ARTS. SWAC had been lacking an internet presence for an extended period of time before the new site was unveiled. According to an article in the Spring 2008 edition of Accent on the Arts, the new site was funded in part by a grant from the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.

The home page of the SWAC site highlights the focus areas of the organization which include an artists’ registry, membership and event calendar. The site also provides information on scholarships and grants that are awarded each year to qualifying students and organizations. This new web presence will be a great tool in helping the organization fulfill its mission of promoting the art and artists of the lower shore region and connecting our local arts community to the surrounding audience of the entire Delmarva Peninsula. SWAC is an integral part of the local arts community and provides support for other organizations including the Art Institute and Gallery in downtown Salisbury and the Salisbury Film Society which presents a Fall and Spring film series on the campus of Wor Wic Community College. Check out SWAC on the web to find out what’s happening in the local arts community.

The Art Institute and Gallery in Salisbury, MD, has put out a call for artists age 18 or younger. Entries for the Blooming Artists Youth Show are due on January 25th or 26th. A prospectus and entry form are available in Word Document format from the AIG web site. All 2D and 3D mediums are eligible for entry, and the AIG has waived the normal entry fees for this show. All area students are encouraged to apply.

See a short film created by J.B. Greenbaugh of Milton, DE. It was shown at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival last fall.

Lavinia in Tango

See more creations by this multitalented citizen of Delmarva who contributes to a blog HERE.

The Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD, is currently hosting an exhibition of paintings from American Impressionists. The paintings are part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Residents and visitors to the upper shore should take the opportunity to see these paintings from the late 19th and early 20th century. A treat that would normally require a trip across the bay. The Academy Art Museum is located at 106 South Street in Easton, and the museum is open from 10-4 Monday through Saturday with extended hours until 8 PM on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

On Friday, the Milton Theatre will open their new production One Act Plays II which showcases a series of five one act plays written by local Delaware authors. Audience members will cast their votes on the best play, director and actor. These ballots along with the opinions of three official judges will determine which one act play will be submitted to the Delaware Theatre Association’s competition. Performances are scheduled on August 17, 18, 24, & 25 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 19 at 2:00 p.m.

The Milton Theatre is the result of a community effort to save an historic piece of Milton’s past.

The old Milton Theatre has a rich and meaningful history in Sussex County, Delaware. Erected in circa 1910, the two-story building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Milton’s historic district, and it has served, at one time or another, as the Town’s basketball hall, fire station, social center & community stage.

For the past six years, the non-profit 501(c)(3), Milton Development Corporation has been dedicated to rehabilitating this historic building, and the effort to restore and renovate the old Theatre into a multi-use Performing Arts & Cultural Center, Classic & Second Release Movie Cinema House and Venue for Community Programming & Special Events has been the MDC’s primary mission. As a result of an extensive capital campaign, the once crumbling building is now re-emerging as a touchstone and anchor in Milton’s historic Town Centre; it is operating as a viable facility for the promotion and presentation of the cultural and entertainment arts; it is serving as a showcase for the community’s educational programs and special festivals; and it is providing a destination attraction for a fast-growing arts community.

Visit the Milton Theatre web site to learn more about the performing arts center.

The 34th Annual Outdoor Fine Art and Fine Craft Exhibit organized by the Rehoboth Art League will continue on August 18th and 19th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. The Art League event offers:

More than 100 artists and craft persons exhibiting work for sale on the Rehoboth Art League grounds. Free and open to the public. Refreshments available for purchase. Musical and children’s entertainment.

Parking in the Rehoboth area can be a challenge, so the organizers have an alternative available.

Free Shuttle Parking
Rt 1 Northbound between Tomato Sunshine and the Outlet Malls
Holland Glade Road east to the Little League Field on Left.

The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art is one of the jewels of Wicomico County tourism. The museum started out on the campus of Salisbury University. At the peak of decoy popularity in the late 1980’s, the nonprofit organization was able to mount a fund raising campaign that enabled the group to finance the beautiful facility that we enjoy on Schumaker Pond. Unfortunately, the nonprofit group underestimated the overhead costs of running such a large facility while they overestimated the income from donations and annual memberships. The organization was able to keep its head above water for several years, but in the year 2000 reality kicked in. According to a Daily Times story of March 6, 2000:

Salisbury State University announced Friday it will take over the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art - a deal hailed by school officials as a better way to showcase authentic Eastern Shore culture and save the financially strapped wildfowl museum from bankruptcy.

No money was exchanged in the deal that calls for the university to take control of the museum’s $8.5 million in assets and assume its $1.6 million in debt - incurred during 1992 to pay for the Beaglin Park Drive building.

This story is just one more example of the difficulty that arts organizations face in our county. The momentum and enthusiasm for these groups have a limited shelf life. There is usually a small core group that spearheads the initial efforts, and once they pass the torch on for others to carry, the flame slowly dies out. The call for an increase in the art and culture available in our community is an admirable one, but the reality is that Salisbury and Wicomico County do not fit the demographics that make the efforts successful. Rather than trying to create something new, the local supporters of art should look at the entire region from Easton to Rehoboth to Berlin and everywhere in between as our arts community and find a way to incorporate Salisbury into that mix.

One asset that offers bountiful art and cultural activities to our community is Salisbury University. When classes are in session, there are events available to the public on a weekly, and sometimes daily basis, ranging from theatre and music to art and culture. The calendar for these events is available on the university’s web site, and a printed list is often included in the Money Mailer that many people receive in the mail and discard without opening.

The efforts of local citizens to add to the culture of our area are admirable, but the best place for those efforts are in the events and organizations that already exist.

The Community Players of Salisbury are heading into the final weekend of their 2006-2007 season with the production of The Fantasticks. The Players continue a 69 year tradition of theatre in Salisbury. Director Robert L. Forester is placing his mark on this presentation of his favorite show of all time. The Fantasticks can be seen June 29th and 30th at 8:00 p.m. and July 1st at 2:00 p.m. on the stage of Guerrieri Hall at Wor-Wic Community College. The plans for the 2007-2008 season include a production of High School Musical.