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June 21, 2021

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

Arts Arts Notes

Mid-Atlantic Symphony Announces Formation of Youth Orchestra

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The Mid-Atlantic Symphony is forming a youth orchestra to give talented young musicians on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and in southern Delaware the opportunity to learn, perform and create memories that will last for a lifetime.

Weekly rehearsals will take place at the centrally located Performing Arts Center in Ocean City, MD on Tuesday evenings from September 21, 2021, through May 31, 2022, culminating in a public performance at the Center.

The Youth Orchestra is open to students in grades 6 through 12. Auditions for strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and harp will be conducted virtually and will commence this month.

“The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Youth Orchestra will provide a stimulating environment that will empower and encourage students to develop a passion for experiencing and performing classical music,” said Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra Music Director Julien Benichou. “Participation in a youth orchestra not only provides challenging and rewarding development opportunities for young performers, but also cultivates the next generation of musicians, teachers, and supporters of fine music.”

“Formation of the Youth Orchestra demonstrates the Mid-Atlantic Symphony’s commitment to engage students in classical music through a variety of outreach programs,” said Board Chair Jeffrey Parker. “We are pleased to be able to provide this exciting new opportunity to young people in southern Delaware and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.”

Consistent with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony’s goal to serve a diverse audience of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, scholarships will be available to students who otherwise would be unable to participate in the Youth Orchestra.

Youth Orchestra audition requirements and applications are available at midatlanticsymphony.org under the Youth Orchestra tab. Tuition for the full season is $650; payments can be arranged upon acceptance into the Orchestra

For additional information about the Youth Orchestra, contact Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra General Manager Dane Krich at 410-917-7587, or by email at dane@midatlanticsymphony.org.

The only professional symphony orchestra serving Maryland’s Eastern Shore and southern Delaware, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council; the Talbot County Arts Council; the Worcester County Arts Council; the Sussex County, DE Council; and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Inc.

Free Singing Program for Youth

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Singers 8 and up are invited to join the Young Singers Academy beginning the week of June 28.

The Young Singers Academy is a four-week program where participants will receive weekly video lessons and materials via email.  These lessons can be used at their convenience and repeated as often as desired.  In addition to the four lessons, participants will join in weekly zoom sessions for a group sing.  Video lessons will explore vocal production, note reading, rhythm skills, and musicianship through songs and activities.  This is a free program offered to all youth in Talbot County, supported by the Talbot Optimist Club.  Leading the program will be Amy Morgan, Artistic Director of Allegro Academy.  To register, please email amy@allegroacademyeaston.com.

Allegro Academy is funded by the Talbot County and Maryland State Arts Councils, and generous contributions from our community.  For more information its programs, please visit www.allegroacademyeaston.com or call 410-603-8361.

SMAL Announces Winners of Annual Members Show

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“End of the Day” by Scott Sullivan

The St. Michaels Art League (SMAL) is pleased to announce the winners of their 2021 Members Show featuring all mediums.

The Show was judged by Meg Walsh, an award winning plein air painter and instructor at the Academy Art Museum in Easton.

First Place was awarded to Scott Sullivan for his oil painting “End of the Day.”  Second Place went to George Sass for his photograph “Last of the DeSotos.”  Third place was awarded to Jane Anderson for her oil portrait “Miranda.”  Honorable mentions went to Walter Urbanek for his oil titled “Belted Galloways,” and to Kathie Rogers for her oil titled “Peaceful.”

The entire exhibit can be viewed through June 30th at the St. Michaels branch of the Talbot County Free Library located at 106 S. Fremont St. in St. Michaels during regular library hours.  Artwork is for sale through the artist.

Academy Art Museum Publishes Catalogues for Miró and Morgan Exhibitions

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Miró in New York, 1947: Miró, Hayter and Atelier 17 Catalogue

The Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD has recently published two exhibition catalogues on its current exhibitions, Miró in New York, 1947: Miró, Hayter and Atelier 17 and Norma Morgan: Enchanted World.

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. The exhibition is open to the public through July 8, 2021 and viewable online through August 1, 2021.

Mehves Lelic, Curator at the Academy Art Museum comments, “The catalogue explores a transformative moment in the history of printmaking when Spanish artist Joan Miró visits New York and enters an exciting world of experimentation and collaboration at Atelier 17, Stanley William Hayter’s famed printmaking studio. Together, the artists at the Atelier embrace the importance of process and discover new frontiers in the medium.”

“The rich color gradients, dynamic lines and overlapping textures in the prints in this exhibition may offer encouragement and respite as we recover from this past year’s pandemic. Many of the prints in the exhibition were created soon after the end of World War II, by artists who experienced its tumult and horrors first-hand. The historical and artistic underpinnings of the works in Miró in New York, 1947 are complex, and beckon the viewer to connect with them on multiple levels, from an understanding of the historical context of the convergence of so many great artists at Atelier 17, to what experimental methods such as cutting into a printing plate, using soldering wire, and achieving simultaneous color printing mean for the present moment of printmaking in contemporary art,” she adds.

Norma Morgan: Enchanted World Catalogue

Works are 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: Enchanted World is an exhibition of the late artist’s prints, watercolors, paintings and drawings. 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. The exhibition will be open to the public through August 1, 2021.

Lelic explains, “The planning of Norma Morgan: Enchanted World started out with a simple aim: to do the artist’s profoundly compelling work justice. As a young artist and a student of Stanley William Hayter, whose printmaking legacy is explored in-depth in the concurrent exhibition Miró in New York, 1947, Norma Morgan was responsive to contemporary ideas and open to advancing her technical skills. She was also a pioneer as one of the two known African-American women to work at the studio.”

“This exhibition seeks to highlight the overall significance of Morgan’s prolific career of over 50 years, during which the artist conjured an entire magical realm, from homages to Civil Rights icons to haunting observations of the landscapes of Great Britain and the Catskills. The rich textures and subtle details in her work parallel the imposing yet quiet vistas she was fond of and which she depicted with remarkable technical skill and fluency across multiple mediums.”

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 features essays by art historians Dr. Amalia Amaki and Dr. Christina Weyl.

For further information on these exhibitions or to purchase an exhibition catalogue, visit academyartmuseum.org or call 410-822-2787. The cost of each catalogue is $20.

Tred Avon Players Audition Notice for The Great Gatsby

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The Tred Avon Players are getting back on stage with a glamorous, full-scale production of The Great Gatsby, opening this fall.

Auditions for The Great Gatsby are scheduled for Sunday, July 11 at 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, the 13th, and Wednesday, the 14th, at 7:00 p.m. at the Oxford Community Center, 200 Oxford Road, Oxford, MD.

The performance dates are October 28, 29, 30, and 31 and November 4, 5, 6, and 7 at the Oxford Community Center.

Note: All cast and crew members must be vaccinated.

The Story:  Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, passionately pursues the elusive Daisy Buchanan. Nick Carraway, a young newcomer to Long Island, is drawn into their world of obsession, greed, and danger. The breathtaking glamour and decadent excess of the Jazz Age come to the stage in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel and Simon Levy’s adaptation, approved by the Fitzgerald Estate. The Great Gatsby is directed by John Perkinson and produced by John Norton.

The Cast: Includes five women and seven men. All parts are open, and no parts are pre-cast. Cold readings are from the script. Copies of sides will be available at auditions. Hairstyles appropriate to the period will be required during the show.

Jay Gatsby – male, mid-20s – mid-30s: A young romantic idealist millionaire with shady business connections. His disarming smile opens doors, but there’s only room in his heart for one girl, Daisy.

Nick Carraway – male, mid-20s – mid-30s: A focused and optimistic newcomer to New York and West Egg looking to make his way in the bond market. His gentle manner exudes upbringing but not pretension.

Daisy Buchanan – female, 20s – 30s: An attractive young debutante from Kentucky, she is the quintessential “Flapper.” Her “party girl” attitude tries to hide her shallow and self-absorbed attitude.

Tom Buchanan – male, mid-20s – mid-30s: An imposing athletic figure that demands attention be paid. His money and arrogance swept Daisy off her feet and kept mistresses at his beck and call.

Jordan Baker – female, mid-20s – mid-30s: An amateur golfer of some acclaim with her sharp sarcasm wrapped around an aloof attitude. Her modest fame strikes an attractive chord for Nick at Daisy’s urging.

George Wilson – male, late-20s – late-30s: A completely helpless husband to Myrtle, his desperation to please her leads to his blindness of her affair with Tom.

Myrtle Wilson – female, 20s – 30s: A fierce exuberance to rid herself of this disappointing marriage, she finds her ticket out in the form of Tom Buchanan.

Meyer Wolfsheim – male, 50s or older: A gambler that would bet on two cockroaches racing and juice his long shot when the other guy wasn’t looking.

Mr. McKee – male, late 20s – late 30s: An amateur photographer who satisfies his passion with his young wife.

Mrs. McKee – female, 20s – 30s: An exhibitionist for her doting husband

Policeman – male, late 20s – early 40s: A professional law enforcement officer

Mrs. Michaelis – female, late 20s – early 40s: The nosy neighbor next door.

For more information about this audition, please email GatsbyatTap@gmail.com

Chesapeake Film Festival’s Live Showing of Environmental and Dramatic Films

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Remember the excitement of watching films on a big screen with surround sound in a darkened theater among other film lovers, and then discussing them with the filmmakers?  That intimate experience returns this fall as the Chesapeake Film Festival offers a wall-to-wall weekend of provocative, insightful and innovative films October 1 and 2 at Easton’s Avalon Theatre. Friday evening begins with a VIP reception for sponsors and donors followed by screenings and discussions of environmental films, including the world premiere of a new film by local favorites Tom Horton, Dave Harp and Sandy Cannon-Brown.  Saturday’s films feature two audience-pleasing narrative newcomers. Admission to Friday’s evening of environmental films and discussions is $25.  Admission for Saturday’s films is $15 each.

The remaining complement of the Chesapeake Film Festival’s lineup will be shown virtually October 3-10. The CFF is thrilled to bring these films to audiences free-of-charge, but donations to help offset cost is encouraged.

For the Live and Virtual Festival, nearly 60 films will be shown, including documentaries, animation, shorts, narratives, student films, Made in Maryland films, thrillers and environmental films.

The films to be screened at the Avalon are:

Water’s Way: Thinking Like a Watershed – A film by Sandy Cannon-Brown, Dave Harp and Tom Horton.

Every drop of rain that falls on 64,000 square miles heads one way, Bayward. And the Chesapeake, which appears so long and broad is, in context, just a smallish and shallow pool of water on the receiving end of everything 18 million people in six states and the District of Columbia do with the land, for good or ill. Controlling Bay pollution has achieved modest success in recent decades. But these technological solutions are pushing the limits of engineering and affordability. Alone they cannot achieve a healthy Bay. Further progress must come from the lands of the watershed, from better understanding what was Water’s Way when the Chesapeake basin and the Bay it feeds were clearer, cleaner, healthier. One source of hope: beavers. These furry rodents have a lot to teach us about preserving a healthy, diverse, rich ecosystem.

The Heat is On: Driving Climate Action for People and Nature — World Wildlife Fund.

This short documentary produced by Kelley Ashford and Irene Magafan focuses on WWF’s climate work shortly after the big global climate report was revealed from the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change).  The film encourages individual activism to fight a universal challenge.

The narrative films on Saturday night, October 2 will be:

Minari – Directed by Lee Isaac Chung.

This critically-acclaimed film had its world premiere at Sundance in 2020 where it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award, received a Golden Globe and six Academy Award nominations, including winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The heartwarming story follows a Korean American family as they face the challenges of a new life in the Ozarks.

TESLA –Starring Ethan Hawke.
This freewheeling take on visionary inventor Nikola Tesla imagines his interactions with Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan’s daughter Anne while it follows his uphill battle to bring his revolutionary electrical system to the world. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.

Among the films in CFF’sfree virtual festival include:

Fly Like a Girl – Documentary Feature– A young girl aspires to change the face of aviation. Fly Like a Girl is more than just a film. It’s a movement of young girls and women relentlessly pursuing their passion for aviation, a field dominated by men. From a lego-loving young girl who includes female pilots in her toy airplanes, to a courageous woman who helped lead shuttle missions to space, Fly Like a Girl shows us that women are in charge of their own destiny.

My Generation — Celebrate the ‘60s: The Decade that Changed the World starring Michael Caine – Documentary Feature — My Generation is a film directed by David Batty and presented by Michael Caine.  It follows the cultural revolution that occurred in 1960’s England and interviews various icons and key figures such a David Bailey, Roger Daltrey, Marianne Faithful, Paul McCartney, Mary Quant and Twiggy.

For more information, go to chesapeakefilmfestival.com, or call our Executive Director at 443-955-9144.

Adventures on the High Seas: A Travel Journal by Former Local Joyce Giguere

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A recently published book about adventures on the high seas was written by a former Easton resident, Joyce Giguere.

The book, “Adventures on the High Seas: A Travel Journal with Unexpected Encounters,” describes an amazing journey she shared with her pastor husband, Jack, on Holland America’s world cruise.

The Gigueres, now Pittsburgh area residents, lived in Easton from 1999 to 2019.

Joyce is a retired registered clinical dietitian and was on the transplant team at St. John’s Hospital in Detroit. Rev. Jack is a retired pastor, having served in several Methodist pastoral and church positions in Michigan before moving to Easton. While here he was teaching pastor in residence at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.

Joyce’s writing career began with her on-board journals of their cruise travels, which she emailed back to friends at St. Mark’s and in Easton as well as family members. The journals were so captivating and well written that it was suggested they be published.

The Gigueres’ cruising adventure started in 2008 when she and Jack embarked upon an unusual “call” to the mission field. They had always thoroughly enjoyed cruise travel with opportunities to engage others. So while she recovered from a
recent surgery, they took a cruise through the Panama Canal. When Sunday approached and unable to attend the on-board service, she suggested that Jack go alone. Upon returning, he said, “I would like to become a cruise chaplain.”

Always ready for an adventure, and Jack now a chaplain on board, they found themselves on an amazing journey with Holland America’s Grand World Cruise.

So for the next five years, each January they embarked on a four-month circumnavigation of the globe aboard a spacious ocean liner, stopping at
intriguing ports of call where they met fascinating people and experienced incredible sights.

Cambridge’s First Little Free Gallery is at Main Street Gallery

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Small, delicate paintings and drawings, and diminutive sculptures on tiny pedestals are now on view at the Little Free Gallery located on the wall outside Main Street Gallery in Cambridge. If you are wondering what a Little Free Gallery is, think Little Free Library. It’s the same concept of “take one, leave one” only instead of books the focus is art.

The curator of the bright green and purple Little Free Gallery is Cambridge resident and gallery volunteer, Susan Klise. Susan has artfully arranged the small works of original art, created by the artists of the Main Street Gallery, on the three floors of the tiny gallery. While not necessary, it is Susan’s hope that admirers who take a work that speaks to them, will be inspired to leave a work they have made or acquired. Anyone is invited to open the door and enjoy the exhibit and take a piece of art they are drawn to. The Little Free Gallery is located at 518-1/4 Poplar Street and is always open.

 

Local Band Ampersand Starts New Gig Season

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Easton-based folk and traditional string band, Ampersand, starts their gig season at the Blue Crab Coffeehouse in St. Michaels, Maryland, Saturday, June 12 from 12-2pm. The next day, Ampersand will present a program as part of Preston’s Concert in the Park series, at the James T. Wright Memorial Park, 105 Backlanding Road, Preston, Sunday, June 13 from 4 to 6pm.

Ampersand brings guitars, banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, and four-part harmony to a wide range of songs and tunes from colonial America to the blues of the 1920s and 30s, on up to modern folk music. This group shares a love of history through their music, and are happy when audience members singalong or come up afterwards to try out one of the instruments. Both concerts are a great opportunity to hear some live music outdoors, sample great food (Blue Crab kitchen and food trucks at Preston), and kick off summertime! For more information, please go to Ampersand’s website.

Academy Art Museum Announces July Events

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Stanley William Hayter, Falling Figure

EXHIBITIONS

The following Academy Art Museum exhibitions are sponsored by the Talbot County Arts Council, the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Star Democrat. Open daily, Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday, 12 noon to 4 p.m.

Miró in New York, 1947:
Miró, Hayter and Atelier 17
Through July 8, 2021 (online through August 1, 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. 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.

Stanley William Hayter, Falling Figure

Norma Morgan: Enchanted World
Through August 1, 2021
Norma Morgan: Enchanted World 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. 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.

SPECIAL EVENT

Double Feature Films
July 1, 11 a.m. & July 2, 7 p.m.
FREE
“Miró Makes a Color Print and On and Around Miró” by avant-garde filmmaker Thomas Bouchard.
The film 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: Miró, Hayter and Atelier 17.
“Around and About Joan Miró”
The film is a more expansive record of Joan Miró’s work and studio.

Miró films featured at Academy Art Museum.

First Friday Opening
July 2, Open until 8 p.m.
Docent Tour – 6 p.m.

ADULT CLASSES

Adult Class Scholarships – Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Pastels, Watercolor, and much more.
All Materials are Included. Contact Katie Cassidy for details at 410-820-5222 or email
wkmcgarry@verizon.net for further information. Visit academyartmuseum.org for a full listing of classes. Scholarships are made possible through a generous grant from the Mid-Shore Community Foundation.

Oil Painting: Creating Color Harmonies
Instructor: Bradford Ross, brad@bradfordross.com
Three-Day Workshop: July 6, 7 & 8
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

Beyond Pencil and Brush – Enriching Your Toolbox
Instructor: Sheryl Southwick, sherylartist@gmail.com
July 19-22 or August 2–5
Monday–Thursday, 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Brad Ross

Workshop: Travelling with Gouache
Instructor: Bernard Dellario, bernie.dellario@gmail.com
3 Days: Friday, July 23, 24 & 25
Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS

Summer Camps 2021
The Museum is dedicated to offering engaging ways to keep children of all ages creative and enthused throughout the summer. Please view our website https://academyartmuseum.org/events/category/youth-and-families/summer-camps/ for up-to-the-minute information or email the Director of Children’s Education and Community Programs, Constance Del Nero, at cdelnero@academyartmuseum.org.

PERFORMING ARTS CLASSES

Piano & Guitar Lessons
Instructor: Raymond Remesch
Contact Instructor for further information at (410) 829-0335 or rayremesch@gmail.com

Voice Lessons
Instructor: Georgiann Gibson
Contact instructor for Information at (410) 829-2525 or georgiann@atlanticbb.net.

MUSEUM COVID-19 GUIDELINES
Per City, State, and CDC guidelines, new safety measures have been implemented to ensure limited attendance and adequate space for social distancing. Masks must be worn at all times by participants and instructors. Responses to frequently asked questions can be found on the Visit Page.

For additional information, visit academyartmuseum.org or call the Museum at 410-822-2787.