An organization that’s lasted ten years is a big deal. More significant still is that this particular organization has done so much to change the lives of so many on the Eastern Shore. What’s interesting, though, is that some may not be familiar with the work that the Chesapeake Multicultural Resource Center (ChesRMC) does. The celebration they are about to put on is the perfect time to reflect on the critical work they’ve accomplished over the past decade and remind or introduce what this small but mighty group has done.

Started in 2012 by Peter and Marianne Byrnes, ChesRMC was created to meet the needs of the immigrant community on the Eastern Shore. Their first project provided an after-school program for 30 families from Easton Elementary. Now eleven years later, they have touched the lives of over 5,000 non-English-speaking families and individuals in Talbot and surrounding counties. They have also provided what they’ve identified as over 22,000 unique services, including, but not limited to, immigration consultations, referral services, after-school programs, language resources, etc.

ChesRMC is proud of the reputation they’ve built over the years and is confident of resolving most, if not all, issues facing its clients. They are also grateful to have the opportunity to collaborate with many local agencies to ensure their clients are connected to available community services. Matthew Peters, the Executive Director since its start, sees the organization as a ‘middleman’ creating relationships, understanding the obstacles, making resources available, and solving the issues.

To Peters, the satisfaction of seeing families go from not having any documentation to getting legal permanent status and then helping them get citizenship is one of the most gratifying parts of his job. “It benefits everyone in this community when people can take care of their families and contribute back to the community by working, paying taxes, and buying and consuming goods. Once everything is legal, they can freely participate and start going after things they thought were unattainable.” And one impossibility that has been overcome includes home ownership. The first three houses on the Hill rehabilitated by the town of Easton were all purchased by ChesRMC’s clients.

Of course, all of this takes an enormous amount of time and resources, and there are only seven staff members to do it all. In the past two months, from February to March 31, Peters alone handled 779 immigration types of services. Contrast that to the 559 that happened in all of 2022.

But Peters is quick to point out that what they don’t do, is charity. “We don’t give out food, and we don’t give out coats. All of our services are free. But it’s a service that will resolve something, whether assisting with a phone call, clearing up a hospital bill, getting a child enrolled in a special program, helping someone apply for a job, getting a green card, or becoming a citizen.”

In commemorating the 10th anniversary, ChesRMC hopes to celebrate all the hard work they’ve accomplished while also familiarizing the community with their goals. “We’re starting from square one with every new person we encounter,” said Peters. “We’re not like a humane society. We don’t fight cancer or address homelessness, poverty, or hunger. When we’re asked, ‘What do you do?’ and we talk about the Multicultural Center immigrant community, you see the confusion in people’s eyes. And that’s understandable because it’s not something people stop and think about how much of an impact this community does have. The reality is that the vast majority of our clients are very soft-spoken. They just want to work hard, want what anyone else wants, and prefer not to be highlighted.”

The Center’s commemoration is also an opportunity to thank and motivate partners, supporters, and donors.

Planning for the anniversary began months ago and is based on an idea suggested by photographer Steve Lingeman of taking photos of ChesRMC’s families. Richard Marks, a longtime advocate of the organization, recommended staging the exhibit at the Waterfowl Building as Dock Street Foundation did for the Ruth Starr Rose exhibit. “It’s a visual way,” said Peters, “for people to see that not every immigrant is the same. They don’t look the same, they don’t have the same family structure, and they don’t have the same background. Some are here with family, and some with no one at all. The only similarity is they were not born in the United States.”

The pictures and stories of these families and individuals have been mounted on display panels and will be exhibited at the Waterfowl Festival Pavilion. The celebration will consist of three events. Guests will be given a free half-hour guided group or personalized tour on April 20 and 21 (signup required). There will be an opening night preview party on Friday, April 21, 6-8 pm, featuring a keynote speaker with a unique insight into the immigrant community–Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor, Aruna Miller, whose own parents immigrated to the United States.  Food will be provided by La Bodega, and refreshments by Hair O’ the Dog. The main event will be on April 22 and is being described as a mini multicultural festival, with music and dancing presentations throughout the day.

Also highlighted will be the countries most represented by ChesRMC and boards featuring ChesRMC’s past ten years helping families succeed.  “It’s all about education and giving insight into the lives of community members,” said Peters. “We’re not provoking advocacy, judgment, or policy change. There is no agenda nor a political slant. It’s just the stories of some families and how they ended up here in Talbot County.”

Marks is pleased with how the exhibit will expose the work done by the group. “Every community would be fortunate and benefit from an organization providing a wide range of services and support to immigrants trying to manage the challenges of integrating and adapting to a new environment. Our community has one in ChesMRC. I am sure the next ten years will be as important and impactful as the last ten, helping families be present and prosper.”

As for the future, Peters is optimistic that they can continue to fulfill the requirements of the community and expand their services outside of Talbot County. “We are uncovering huge pockets of needs,” he said. “I think we can all agree that Easton is a resource mecca for the Eastern Shore. But there are certain areas where we can have a much more profound effect, especially for those in ‘resource deserts.’ This is where we need to create some satellite offices.”

Being the oasis to the immigrant community is something ChesRMC was born to do. If you want further proof, join the celebration, meet the families, and see the positive impact that the group has made in the lives of those who are underserved. Better yet, join them in their mission and be a part of creating a better future for all.

10th Anniversary Event:

April 20 – April 21: 9 am through 4 pm. Free 1/2 hour guided group or personalized tours open to the public: sign up here,

April 21: 6-8 pm. Preview night with music, stories, light hors d’oeuvres, wine, and beer. Tickets are available.

April 22: 9 am-2 pm. Free public viewing event with music and dancing presentations throughout the day at the Waterfowl Festival Pavilion. More info here.

Val Cavalheri is a writer and photographer. She has written for various publications, including The Washington Post.  Previously she served as the editor of several magazines, including Bliss and Virginia Woman. Although her camera is never far from her reach, Val retired her photography studio when she moved from Northern Virginia to the Eastern Shore a few years ago.. She and her husband, Wayne Gaiteri, have two children and one grandchild.

It’s an emotional experience—The Changing Chesapeake exhibit now at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM). It’s unlike anything you’ve ever experienced or anything CBMM has ever done. The Spy was invited to the opening night of the yearlong show at the Steamboat Building gallery. It would also the first time the 70 artists participating in the exhibit would see their work on display. To some, particularly those who don’t usually think of themselves as artists, sharing their work with the world was overwhelming, and more than once, we noticed emotional reactions. 

Such it was with Laura Guertin, who wiped away a tear as she found her quilted art “Looking Out at the Ghosts of the Coast” at the gallery entrance. Guertin, whose work portrays dying trees through a window frame, has a Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics and is a college professor. She started quilting a few years ago as a way to tell ‘science stories.’ “People get drawn to it because no one feels threatened by a blanket, right? And once they see it, I can hook them with the science. This is a serious theme, and we need more action and activity, but we have to bring people to that conversation.”

Lee Hoover was also affected by seeing her photograph, “Pintail,” on the wall. “You prepare yourself, knowing you’ll see your stuff, but then ‘boom,’ there it is.” Her photo is of a name being lettered on a ship stern. “The old ways are disappearing,” she says. “Who paints letters by hand anymore? It’s all done by computer. I’m hoping that people will remember the old ways of doing things. But I also hope they think about how the Chesapeake is in trouble.” 

This is a different type of show for CBMM, explains Jen Dolde, Curator and Folklife Center Manager. “We’re usually featuring the work of one person, or we’re putting together a historical exhibit on a specific topic. But one of the things we’re called to do, now that we’re a Folklife Center under the Maryland State Arts Council, is to look not only for the historical voices but also the contemporary ones. These are the voices of all the people and how they live their lives and form their identities. I see this exhibit as a form of documentation.”

To Jill Ferris, Senior Director of Engagement, Learning, and Interpretation, whose focus is on the community, her goal is open up those channels of conversation. “I’m hoping to get some artists to do workshops or talks. There were a lot of submissions about ghost forests, which seemed to be a huge inspiration point, and I’d like to bring them together to talk about that shared image.” 

The idea for The Changing Chesapeake started a couple of years ago, with an invitation in 2022 to anyone interested in expressing how climate and cultural change have shaped the Chesapeake. CBMM received over 140 submissions which went through a blind ranking process with community panelists who were unaware if the work they were judging was by someone with a reputation as an artist. Seventy-eight pieces by 70 artists were chosen and included traditional media such as photography, sculptures, and painting, as well as fiber art, stop-motion animation, found-object art, original songs, embroidery, poetry, etc. There was even a novel translated from Italian.

Unlike other museum exhibits where a little label titling the work and identifying the artist is discreetly affixed on the wall, here, to fully understand what you are observing, you are encouraged to take the time to read the artist’s description. Not doing so may cause you to miss some significant and interesting facts about the person, the area, or the historical implication of the piece. In fact, the narrative is an integral part of the exhibit

There is Joi Lowe’s sea glass, shell, and driftwood mobile named after the ship, “The Generous Jenny.” On its own, it’s a beautiful piece, but the meaning behind it is heartbreaking. The artist created it to honor the memory of the unnamed enslaved people who arrived at the Sotterley Plantation in 1720. Each of the 260 pieces that make up the sculpture is a life either lost or determined to survive. For instance, the brown sea glass represents the 91 enslaved men; 20 unaccounted souls are shown as white sea glass, and shells symbolize the 29 people thrown overboard due to a smallpox infection.

The various displays are spread out over two floors, and you’ll soon discover there are themes. “What our Exhibition Designer, Jim Koerner, did,” said Dolde, “was to group the pieces so that they connect, play off the other, and send different messages.” For the community, the fun part becomes going through the rooms and figuring out the association.

For instance, look for the homage to the Eastern Shore’s most iconic symbol, the osprey. Along with the more traditional painting, you’ll find an intricate textile piece that was woven and hand painted. And then there is “Ospreys Don’t Wear Coats,” which shows a whimsical bird dressed for the cool temperature and holding two coffee cup containers. ‘Nests can’t be made with coffee cups’ is stated on the accompanying description by Nicholas Thrift. Thrift, who considers himself a part-time artist, says he was inspired to paint the osprey to express the ‘duality of man and animal, in the midst of environmental catastrophe, through the lens of the humorously grotesque.’  “I wanted him to have a veil of ambiguity,” he said. “There’s hope and fear in the picture, just mashing together.” 

That message of hope and fear is everywhere and in every piece of art throughout the gallery. It’s in Sharon Malley’s oil painting “Momfords Poynt from Space,” which imagines John Smith’s map of the Chesapeake from space. It’s in Thelma Jarvis Peterson’s Celtic-inspired song, “Ghost Forests,” and in the music video “Can’t Work the River” by Peter Panyon and Big Tribe. It’s also found in Nic Galloro’s “Foamberg Fish,” a sculpture made of recycled wood, CDs, aluminum foil, milk cartons, and glass. It’s there when standing in front of “Sea Rise,” a sculpture by George Lorio that explores the relationship between rising sea levels and an affected home, or in the heartbreaking photo montage by Tom Payne of Tangier Island underwater, “Tangier Abandoned.”

“I think that art is uniquely able to capture that poignancy of the human experience,” said Lode. “You can’t always put it in words or name it, but we feel it, and it’s different for everyone. So what one person will respond to in this exhibition will differ from the next person.”

It is that experience that the museum hopes to convey to the public. Pete Lesher, Chief Curator at CBMM, said. “One of the bigger messages that we hope people carry away about the Chesapeake is that we want them to not only love the place and be good stewards of it but also better understand the culture and be better stewards of the culture.”

Dolde agrees. “The Chesapeake is part of our identity. So whether you’re from here, whether you’ve come here and fell in love with it, whether you’ve chosen to move here, or choose to vacation here–there’s something about this body of water. And there’s something about how you experience it. Whether it’s time with family, enjoying the beauty of nature, or admiring the resilience of the traditional waterman in the traditional culture, it’s all just inspiring.”

No matter your connection to the water, you will find something at Changing Chesapeake that will amuse, inspire, or touch you. It will also make you think. And coming once will not be enough.

The Changing Chesapeake is funded through CBMM’s Regional Folklife Center under the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council. Viewing this exhibition is included with general CBMM admission and free for CBMM members. Visit cbmm.org to learn more.

Rachel Franklin is not your typical concert pianist. Rachel Franklin is not your typical lecturer. But when she combines them, the result is both brilliant and effortless. Franklin will be appearing at the Academy Art Museum (AAM) in February and March, leading a discussion on Ballet Music: The Soul of Movement. If this is the first time you’re attending her series of classes, you’re in for a real treat. If you’ve heard others, you know just how fun, entertaining, and full of information this is bound to be.

Born in Britain, Franklin began lessons at a specialist musical academy at the age of three after showing a remarkable talent for the piano. Her mother also played piano but never professionally due to debilitating stage fright. Her father, Franklin describes as an ‘all-around cultured being.’ As a family, they used to put on plays, attend chamber music events, etc., all of which contributed, she said to her calling. “In the course of building a performing career, both back in the UK and once I came to the US to do my doctorate, I’ve always wanted to talk to audiences because I felt they deserve to know why they bought the ticket in the first place. I am naturally curious about the music I play and the people who wrote it. As I began to play more and more, I started sharing my interest, did more extended talking, and then I started to lecture.”

Now the music and the words are intertwined, and she would prefer not to be labeled as one without the other. Franklin agrees that, at least for now, she might be somewhat unique in this perspective. “I honestly think those days when somebody is taught to be just a musical performer are gone. Why wouldn’t we want to embrace our audiences? Why wouldn’t we want to feel that they understood not only what we were doing but how they belong in and around the artwork they’ve paid for, which in my case, is the music and the spoken descriptions? I want them in with me.”

There are many opportunities of being ‘in with her’ There have been countless speaking engagements, whether at the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, or National Public Radio. For AAM (where she is a regular presenter), she will be reprising a course she did for the Smithsonian about ballet music. It’s one she’s given a lot of thought to. “When you think of ballet, sometimes the music is beautiful. Sometimes the music is nice, but the steps are more interesting. A lot of the time, the music is fantastic, and the classical steps are not as engaging. And I just wanted to try and understand ballet music because ballet itself didn’t start as an international movement until the late 1800s.”

Franklin is looking forward to telling you about how Tchaikovsky changed everything (she’s a real Tchaikovsky fan) and promises to show a lot of movie clips. “I’m the queen of clips,” she boasts, “I always find beautiful clips.” Her lectures are a multimedia experience with a live piano. She covers her course in four sessions but admits it’s so thought-provoking she could easily do 20 without running out of material

No doubt anyone attending will leave with a broader and deeper knowledge of the subject, but she balks at calling this a masterclass. “I consider myself a lifelong learner. I’m just a few steps ahead in certain areas. I truly love communicating this unique and marvelous material and making it come alive for people.” As to who would benefit from her lectures, Franklin has the answer, “If you’ve ever been to a ballet, I can tell you something about it. If you’ve ever put the radio on and danced around listening to Tchaikovsky, I can tell you why. If you ever get excited when you see tickets go on sale for ballets, this is for you. If you want to understand why we care, why we like it, and why ballet makes some people cry (because it does), then this is right for you.”

Franklin’s doctorate in Musical Arts confirms her credibility in academia. But besides her lectures, Franklin loves teaching one-on-one, and she has a unique perspective only she could explain: “A lot of the time, students are completely disengaged from the person they’re playing. But how could you ever be disengaged from someone like Beethoven or Chopin, or Scott Joplin? Musicians of skill, who’ve put the time in, can take an extraordinary artwork from 250 years ago and make it come alive. And they do so by channeling the fingers of the person who wrote it. And if that sounds kooky, it’s not really. I am physically inhabiting the piece that they wrote. It’s not every day you get to communicate directly with somebody who created one of the world’s great pieces of music. If you understand that, then how can you not care? So yeah, I engage my students with that concept and then get exceptional performances from them.”

Besides classical works, Franklin is also a jazz musician. She recently appeared at Temple B’nai Israel in Easton, performing musical highlights from various Broadway composers and lyricists and discussing how they contributed to modern American musical development. After her appearance at AAM, there will be a four-lecture course on Scandinavian composers for the Smithsonian. In April, she’s playing a Mozart piano concerto with the Washington Sinfonietta, somewhat of a departure for her, as the conductor will give the lecture piece. She describes the event as follows: “I will walk on stage, play a Mozart piano concerto, then everybody claps, and I leave.”

But that’s the future. For now, Franklin will be both playing and talking in Easton.

“I don’t want people to feel that somehow they’re going to worship at some kind of superior intellectual shrine. That’s not how I feel about it. I want to switch on the light and show people why we’re so lucky. We have this music that makes people feel better about their lives. And in our current climate, boy, do we need that.”

Boy, do we need that…

———–

February 16: From the Ballet de la Nuit to Coppélia: Desperately Seeking Composers
March 2: Tchaikovsky Changes Everything
March 16: Diaghilev, the Dream Weaver
March 30: Ballet’s Diaspora
$24 Members, $29 Non-members per lecture
$90 Members, $100 Non-members for the series
Thursdays, 11 am–12:30 pm
Register at AAM. (https://academyartmuseum.org/ballet-music-the-soul-of-movement/)

Val Cavalheri is a writer and photographer. She has written for various publications, including The Washington Post.  Previously she served as the editor of several magazines, including Bliss and Virginia Woman. Although her camera is never far from her reach, Val retired her photography studio when she moved from Northern Virginia to the Eastern Shore a few years ago.. She and her husband, Wayne Gaiteri, have two children and one grandchild.

 

Ever heard the term “Makerspace?” If you are an educator, you probably already know all about it. For the rest of us, it’s a word we should keep in mind. We will be hearing about it in the future.

According to Campbell University, the word, simply defined, is “a place where students –sometimes alongside staff, parents, and mentors — can create, problem solve, and develop skills, talents, thinking, and mental rigor.”

But what does that mean, and why are so many schools so enthusiastic about establishing this non-traditional classroom space? That’s because at its core are elements of experiential learning, collaboration, and teamwork with an emphasis on offering a variety of tools, technology, and workspace not available in the traditional classroom.

One local school that has embraced this model is Easton’s The Country School, an independent private, coeducational school for pre-K through 8. The program, designed to enhance and provide additional enrichment to the current curriculum, was started this past fall and has been met with enthusiasm from students, teachers, and parents. Makerspace is STEAM-based, an acronym that means it’s reinforcing concepts of science, technology, engineering, art, and math.  

The Country School has divided Makerspace into six zones: The Tech Den (featuring 3D printers, iPads, a green screen, computer programming station), Robotics Lab (Mbot, Lego Mindstorms, Dot-Dash Robots), Electronics/Circuits Workshop (Snap Circuits, Arduino), The Wood Shop (hammers, nails, screws, screwdrivers, saws, etc.), Manipulatives and Simple Machines Center (Legos, Marble Run, K’Nex, etc.), and Arts and Design Lab (craft supplies, recyclables, and building materials).

The Makerspace approach is promoted by presenting students with authentic challenges with undefined solutions. Teachers are present as facilitators of the process and provide students with the tools and flexibility to devise their own design plans, allowing them to learn the value of persistence and realize that real-world problems rarely have known solutions.

Annie Hasselgren, Director of Admissions, reports that the students get weekly exposure and hands-on experience that supplement their standard classroom curriculum. Hasselgren explains how it covers all components of the STEAM acronym, “The technology part in this is self-explanatory, as students interact with each of the zones,” she said, “In terms of engineering, they’re learning creative ways to build something, for instance, a bridge, making sure to plan a design that will actually work and will stay upright. Obviously, there’s a lot of math in engineering and science and just ensuring that things will work the way you plan them. This also requires artistic creativity because if you’re doing anything, from building a bridge to designing a basic video game, you want it to be visually attractive to users.”

All of these new study concepts have generated more engagement and interest from the students. “Even though it’s structured,” Hasselgren said, “instead of sitting at desks, they’re able to do more group work with their peers. They’re having conversations about their projects and have a slightly different level of freedom and purpose.” The process allows students to make and learn from mistakes and, once they succeed, to retain the knowledge for future endeavors. The program also addresses the diverse learning needs of students by promoting various styles of acquiring information, whether visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.

Makerspace is available to all students at The Country School, but eighth graders were the first to use the designated area for an experiment. They were challenged to design a package to “Ship a Chip” (a Pringle potato chip) across the country using only a flat sheet of cardboard and a few basic supplies, such as a cotton ball, string, tape, and a plastic bag. It was sent to various locations around the U.S., where recipients were asked to unwrap and reveal the effectiveness of the packaging. But regardless of the outcome, students learned the value of research. 

Currently, seventh graders are programming robots, and kindergarteners will be working with 8th graders on a stEMPATHY project: creating a model city that embraces diversity and meets the needs of people of all abilities. All of these projects have been designed to encourage 21st-century skills that go beyond critical thinking and problem-solving. Flexibility, teamwork, adaptation, technology literacy, productivity, social skills, leadership, and other soft skills can be learned through tinkering and creation.

If there have been any challenges while implementing the program, The Country School sees it as a teachable moment rather than an obstacle. “Sometimes it gets a little noisy when students are doing group work,” Hasselgren said, “and sometimes they don’t agree on how to move forward with a certain stage of the process. But that’s how you learn life skills of cooperation and understanding the perspectives of others. And if you’re in a group, you’ll have to figure out a way to work together, even if that seems difficult at the time.”

The actual space for Makerspace was part of a resourceful effort on the part of the school when it turned a former teacher’s lounge into a place that would be used for the program. The funding came next. “We had a major donor who wanted to ensure that Makerspace was created and gave us the funds to make it happen. But it’s not just a one-and-done expense. Since it’s now a part of school life here, it will need to be accounted for in future budgets.” 

Volunteers have also stepped up in other ways. Hasselgren said, “we have a parent who is a professor of robotics at Salisbury University, who will be holding after-school camps for kids. Other parents with expertise in some of these STEAM-related areas have volunteered their time to offer after-school opportunities for the kids.”

Of course, the support of teachers is a primary reason this has been such a success.  According to Hasselgren, the two science teachers who were enthusiastic about it ‘took the baton and ran with it.’

“Guiding students through the engineering and design process, then witnessing their projects come to fruition is an incredibly rewarding experience,” said Melissa Grant, Lower School science teacher.  “From 3D printing to robotics to woodworking, our students are gaining invaluable skills that prepare them for careers in our modern world and help them learn how to work through challenges with resilience.”

Upper School Science teacher, Kylie Schappeler, sums it up best. “It’s exciting to teach at a school that is so supportive of advancing its science and STEAM programs. We’re also extremely fortunate to have received donations of supplies such as science kits and robots, as well as time and talents from various families in our community as we build our Makerspace together. The absolute best part of the space, though, is the joy happening there when kids create, build, experiment, and ultimately grow through their experiences. It’s a happy place.” 

Val Cavalheri is a writer and photographer. She has written for various publications, including The Washington Post.  Previously she served as the editor of several magazines, including Bliss and Virginia Woman. Although her camera is never far from her reach, Val retired her photography studio when she moved from Northern Virginia to the Eastern Shore a few years ago.. She and her husband, Wayne Gaiteri, have two children and one grandchild.