News

Waterfowl to Participate in Easton CommUNITY Days

Starting this earlier this year, Waterfowl Chesapeake pulled together a team of eight other Easton-based nonprofits who collectively created a new event for Easton. CommUNITY Day: Easton Arts & Culture Celebration on November 14 and 15 is intended to offer local residents a way to be outside, support local shops and restaurants, and enjoy each other’s company and the fall season.

Each participating organization is offering unique programs during the event to highlight their own work and mission. While some CommUNITY Day activities will be indoors, many will be outside scattered across various locations in Easton to help people remain socially distant and safe. Most happen on Saturday (with some on Sunday) and are free; some do require pre-registration. Every participating organization is following agree-upon COVID-related safety protocols including wearing a mask in indoor spaces, limiting family groups to six people and ensuring groups or individuals are safely six feet apart.

WC programming will offer two days of activities to focused on the winter birds that make our region unique!

All WC activities during the first Community Day: Easton Arts & Culture Celebration will be held at 40 S. Harrison Street, Easton – either in the Waterfowl Building or the lot across the street. All organizations participating in this event have agreed to the following protocols: Masks need to be worn inside, family groups should not be larger than 6 people, and 6′ social distancing will be in place.

SATURDAY

10-11 a.m. Kids’ Decoy Painting (Ages 4-10 suggested)
Family groups will be placed at one table together & limited to no more than 4 children. $15 suggested materials donation. Pre-register and make your contribution here. Note: If this session fills up, we may offer a Sunday session, too!

10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (ongoing) “The Raptor’s Eye” with Liz Smith
Stop by to visit with Liz Smith and her birds of prey anytime!

10:30 a.m-4 p.m. (ongoing) Maryland Duck Stamp Paintings Exhibit – People’s Choice Voting Open!
Check out some of the finest, original, small paintings of waterfowl and choose your favorite! Artists from across the US are competing to have their work represent the State of Maryland — see if you agree with the experts! (This display will be outside, weather permitting; inside in inclement weather).

12-1 p.m. Drive-in Lecture/Demonstration: “Weathering the Winter” – The What, When and How to Feed Winter Birds with Dr. Wayne Bell
Dr. Bell will talk about the different nutritional needs of various feathered friends, show different kinds of feeders and other tips and tricks to attract birds to your home even if you live in town. No charge. Register here. Walk-up participants welcome too!

2-3 p.m. Calling Young Artists! Jr. Duck Stamp Interest Session with Richard Clifton
Each year young artists compete in the Jr. Duck Stamp Competition and hope their artwork wins to represent our state in the national competition. Creating a small painting that can be reproduced for an even smaller stamp is a challenge. Young artists in grades 7 – 12 are invited to join us to learn about the contest, its rules and regulations from the US Fish & Wildlife Service and get some insights into what it takes to create a winning masterpiece! No charge.

SUNDAY

10:30-2:30pm “The Raptor’s Eye” with Liz Smith
Stop by to visit with Liz Smith and her birds of prey anytime!

12-1pm Drive -in Lecture/Demonstration: “Weathering the Winter” – The What, When and How to Feed Winter Birds with Dr. Wayne Bell
Dr. Bell will talk about the different nutritional needs of various feathered friends, show different kinds of feeders and other tips and tricks to attract birds to your home even if you live in town. No charge. Regsiter here. Walk-up participants welcome too!

Waterfowl Chesapeake has worked with our fellow Easton non-profits to offer this weekend of programs and activities to help support local businesses and provide our community with a celebration of place for the people who live here. So venture downtown to explore opportunities to come together, have fun, learn…all without gathering. Explore the activities of other participating non-profits at www.eastoncommunityday.com

Visit Waterfowl Chesapeake page where you can learn more and pre-register for these exciting “All About the Birds” programming!

Waterfowl Festival Announces Virtual Art Gallery

To connect fine art buyers to the artists they love, Waterfowl Festival has gone online for 2020, creating its first ever Waterfowl Festival Virtual Art Gallery!

The web-based showcase launches here November 1 and will bring the Festival “home” to art lovers, giving them the opportunity to explore and purchase exclusive carvings, sculpture, paintings and photography. While the new online gallery can’t replace the in-person thrill of the traditional Festival, it will support artists by encouraging interest in their work in their home studios and helps provide them with a much-needed way to continue to earn their living during this challenging year.  

“Obviously we would prefer to be holding the Festival in person, “ said WF Board President Kevin Greaney. “However, these difficult times have offered us the time to create this new opportunity to use our website to support our artists while providing a small revenue stream for us. We want folks to be excited about what we are planning for 2021 and at the same time remember the impact that the lack of a Festival in 2020 is having on the local economy”. 

The Virtual Art Gallery will include artists who were juried into the 2020 show.  Each artist is submitting 3-5 pieces that can only be found in the Gallery.  Visitors can shop from the comfort of home and when they make a purchase, the artwork will be shipped directly to them from the artist themselves. Online sales will benefit both the artist and Waterfowl Festival’s mission and future. The Gallery will change often, as pieces are sold, so buyers should check in often!  Pieces will be updated as sold and updated throughout the year as we get closer to the 50th Festival in 2021. Buyers will find works of art at all price points and can make online purchases through the Festival’s new secure, safe e-commerce system.

As of October 5, over 30 artists have signed up to participate in the Virtual Art Gallery, including: Photographers Heather Orkis, Cal Jackson and Tony Masso; Sculptors Ken Newman, Fred Boyer and Ronnie Wells; Carvers Al Jordan and Tom Horn; Painters Linda Besse, Keith Whitelock, Sara Linda Poly and Sandy Alanko to name a few.

Painter Richard Clifton, who recently won the Federal Duck Stamp Contest for 2021-2022 will also be participating and offering up some of his colorful waterfowl paintings for sale. 

Says Greaney, “By engaging our art buyers online and providing an exciting virtual experience for art collectors, we will keep the Festival moving forward toward a terrific 50th Festival next fall!”

Email for more information. 

Maryland State Arts Council Continues to Support Waterfowl Festival

The Maryland State Arts Council has again come through as the largest financial supporter of Waterfowl Festival (WF), providing $60,242 in grant funding for 2020. While there is no Fall event taking place, this funding for the organization’s operations will be used to make some changes and create new online offerings for Festival guests as well as future educational programming.

Waterfowl Festival is grateful to MSAC for more than 15 consecutive years of support in the Folk and Traditional Arts category of their Grants For Organizations program. Their support has been especially critical this year because it enables WF to develop a new website, with additional news features, better social media integration and future secure e-commerce functionality.  It has also allowed the Festival leadership to rethink ways to connect its festival-goers with artists, exhibitors, local businesses and vendors by utilizing some new online features which will be unveiled later this month. As a boost to its operating funds, the grant has allowed staff to continue working during the COVID-19 crisis by creating a critical revenue source that will be missing since the Festival was cancelled for 2020.

The staff, board and volunteers will continue to plan for the 50th Festival in November of 2021 to make it as great, and even better, than ever. 

“We are incredibly grateful to the Maryland State Arts Council for their continued support and recognition of the importance of arts organizations, especially this year,” said Executive Director of Waterfowl Chesapeake, Margaret Enloe. “They understand that arts organizations are struggling in the wake of closings and cancellations and that it takes time and resources to rethink our ways of working. We are incredibly grateful that MSAC supports us and appreciative of their commitment to all kinds of ‘art’ that will be vital to our collective, community recovery.”

The Future of Waterfowl Habitat is in Our Hands

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”
-Helen Keller

2020 has been extraordinary and it has certainly not been the half-century anniversary year we anticipated. Who would have believed something could’ve caused us to cancel our 50th Waterfowl Festival?! It was a decision none of us wanted to make. We believe it was the right one for the community in the long term and the only choice if our organization is to survive into the next half century.

With the postponement of our 50th Waterfowl Festival to November 2021 – more than a year away – your financial support for our critical community and conservation programs is more important than ever before!

This ‘break’ is actually an exciting time of opportunity for us. We are reimagining various aspects of our work and exploring different programs and activities to showcase our community and conservation mission. These educational and community events – some virtual, some in-person – will engage people in our history and conservation efforts. They will be repeatable so that we can offer them next fall, too, leading up the 50th Festival. Your gift to this year’s annual fund will support Waterfowl’s work to share our heritage and love for our water birds.

Our commitment to waterfowl conservation continues, too! This past fall, after years in the works, Ducks Unlimited restored a 25-acre tract at Blackwater Refuge, converting a scrubby marsh to a food-rich wetland for wintering ducks. Waterfowl Chesapeake’s funds, derived from Festival proceeds, served as leverage to gain federal funding essential for this project. Look south from the Harriett Tubman Visitors Center to see our dollars ‘growing’ food for waterfowl!  A gift to the annual fund supports our Community in Conservation grants and projects like this.

The Waterfowl Festival is a critical source of funding to support all of our projects, programs and our ongoing operations.

The Festival may be postponed, but the need for conservation of our iconic outdoor spaces – for us and for the birds we love – is as important as ever.

A gift to the Waterfowl Annual Fund will help us continue to make our work possible and can be made securely online at www.WaterfowlChesapeake.org/SupportConservationNow. We would be grateful if you’d consider an increased gift this year since, without the Festival, our need is greater than usual.  Now more than ever, we all need the outdoors.

As we use this time to re-imagine various aspects of our work and plan for alternate fall programming to engage people in our history and conservation mission, we hope we can count on your continued support.

Click here to access our secure giving portal and make your Annual Fund gift online today!

50th Waterfowl Festival Postponed Until 2021

Due to the continued uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Waterfowl Festival’s 50th celebration will be moved to 2021

For the first time in its history, the iconic Waterfowl Festival that draws 15,000+ people to Easton, Maryland each year will not be held this November – at least in its usual form. Instead, the Festival, along with conservation partner Waterfowl Chesapeake, will devote their energies to developing some new plans for this fall, including virtual programming that brings people together to celebrate Eastern Shore heritage, culture and bird life. The 50th Festival will be held in its traditional style in November 2021.

“All of us want the Festival to take place as usual,” said Festival Board President, Kevin Greaney, “but uncertainty about the future means we must rethink how we are going to safely host an event, especially one of this size”. He explains, “Our strength is in the relationships we have and the face-to-face experiences we offer for artists, vendors and visitors. All our people – and especially our volunteer leaders and supporters who make Festival possible – need to feel confident and safe. So instead of a big event, we are planning for other programs that can still create connections and celebrate our community.”

Planning for the town-wide Festival begins annually each February with many commitments already made by June. By this time each year, the fine artists have been selected and the Featured Artist has been announced. The annual featured art piece, whether a painting or sculpture, has been completed and art buyers are beginning to take interest. Most of the three hundred vendors, exhibitors and artists have been invited and have made travel plans and commitments. The Festival’s forty volunteer Committee Chairs have kept all of these processes moving forward for the year, however, much has also been on hold and still remains to be done due to COVID-19.

“We’ve surveyed many of our stakeholders and what we heard overall is how they share our desire to have the Festival,” explained Greaney. “And simultaneously, our people – especially our huge corps of leadership and weekend volunteers who make the Festival work — are still very concerned about the fall and a resurgence of COVID19. Next year, we will host the 50th Festival with the vitality, hospitality and excitement that people have come to expect, along with a few surprises.”

Since 1971, Waterfowl Festival has seen incredible change and overcome challenges – from the internet to the Great Recession – and weathered it all because its strength comes from the dedication, support and love of the Eastern Shore community. It continues to be a cherished annual tradition and the Eastern Shore’s “Homecoming” which now hosts its fourth generation of dedicated families and guests.

“I applaud the Waterfowl organization for its forward thinking and flexible leadership,” says 2019 Featured Artist Nancy Tankersley. “As an artist, it is very disappointing to see yet another event cancelled, but this 50th anniversary is so important that it deserves 100% attention and shouldn’t be overshadowed by the risks of going forward with a physical event. I think the possibilities in virtual offerings are great, and a way for the artist to keep working and creating new work. If a collector is familiar with an artist’s work, they will feel comfortable purchasing online and will continue to support the Waterfowl Festival in this way.”

The Festival has also continued to generate millions of dollars in economic impact to Talbot County annually and has made significant contributions to waterfowl conservation projects. In 2019, the Festival visitors who travelled to Easton for the Waterfowl weekend generated $2.6 million in annual economic impact to Talbot County through shopping, lodging and travel.

“This has been a tough time for everyone, full of difficult choices,” said Margaret Enloe, Executive Director for Waterfowl Chesapeake. “This decision can feel like a step backward, however we see it as an opportunity to try new things, to grow and change. I have every confidence that we will emerge stronger and better. I expect that the 50th Festival in 2021 will be an even more incredible community celebration of the arts and our Eastern Shore heritage, one more vibrant than we could’ve ever imagined.”

Master Gardeners and Easton Utilities Assist in Maintenance of Bay Street Ponds

Steel framed windows getting preservation makeover

Restoration at Historic Waterfowl Building Begins

Steel framed windows getting preservation makeover

After eighteen months of preparation, Waterfowl Chesapeake (WC) is thrilled to announce that restoration of more than 30 or the original steel-framed windows in the historic Waterfowl Building has begun. In 2018, Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) awarded the organization $100,000 from its Historic Preservation Capital Grant Program for this project. WC was one of only seven award recipients from across the state.

“We are so thrilled to get this project underway and grateful to MHT for recognizing the historic relevance of our building and its value to the community,” says Executive Director Margaret Enloe. “Although we’d hoped to get started earlier on this restoration, the timing is perfect. 2020 is Waterfowl’s 50th Anniversary year and this work is a great way to show our commitment to the future.”

Waterfowl Chesapeake hired Architectural Window Restoration (AWR), a contractor specializing in historic windows, to do the project while meeting all MHT guidelines. This week and into next, AWR’s expert crew will be carefully removing each window and preparing them for delivery off site where they will be cleaned, repaired, repainted and re-glazed before being reinstalled. The project is expected to be done by summer and, in the meantime, Waterfowl offices are open for business they plan for this fall’s 50th Festival – a once in a century event.

The Waterfowl Building (a.k.a. the historic Easton Armory) was built in 1927 after several years of lobbying by local residents and elected officials. While its function was to serve as a training facility for Maryland’s state militia, the building’s drill hall, now called Festival Hall, also served as a community gathering place for everything from boxing matches and basketball games to flower shows, poultry exhibitions and art festivals over the decades. Waterfowl took ownership of the building in the 1980s, after a stint of ownership by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Town of Easton.

“We think the Waterfowl Building is a gem on this end of downtown and want to do everything possible to make it shine brightly as a gathering place on the mid-Shore for another fifty years,” says Enloe.