The Waterfowl Festival photographers showcased here have chosen works that highlight their skill and will arrive to your doorstep ready to hang on a prominent wall in your home. Through their lenses we see the beauty of the Chesapeake Bay as well as the creatures that inhabit it. Thank you for supporting them and the Waterfowl Festival!
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.
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!”
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.”
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.
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.
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!
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.”
Each year, WC receives applications from organizations across Delmarva for waterfowl and habitat related projects and runs a 1-to-1 matching fund called our Community in Conservation funding program. In 2019, Waterfowl Chesapeake awarded $7500 in seed funding to two educational projects on Delmarva through this grant program.
Students learn about carving at the Ward Museum
The Ward Museum – $3,750
The Ward Museum’s project will offer classroom visits and field trips for Talbot County kindergarten students to experience the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art. While this opportunity is already successful in several other Shore counties, it will be a new program for students in Talbot County. The curriculum supports Maryland State Department of Education’s Environmental Literacy Standards and meets the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) requirement for kindergarteners.
University of Delaware – $3,750
UD’s field program “Promoting Waterfowl Hunter Education for New Adult Students” better connects today’s graduate students with tomorrow’s careers in Waterfowl Ecology. Today, many graduate students studying in this field the have never had the actual experience of hunting. These young adults are likely to become the future leaders in environmental resource management, with positions in academia, state agencies or federal service. How can they communicate with the hunters and landowners if they have never had the experienced the sport? Through this program, students are given the opportunity to gain their hunter education certification (via course material and gun safety training) as well as learn and discuss waterfowl identification, waterfowl policy, waterfowl habitat management, values structures associated with hunting, hunting dog training, and cooking wild game.
A gift to the Perry Scholarship fund is an investment in the education of the Festival’s youth volunteers. William A . Perry, one of the Festival’s founders, and his wife Betty were instrumental in the formation of the “Duck Sitter” youth volunteer program. Donations made directly to the scholarship fund provide support for annual awards made to student volunteers attending college and other institutions of higher learning. Funding for the scholarships also comes from the Waterfowl Festival’s Auction at the annual Premiere Night party, now known as the William A. Perry Scholarship Auction.
Annual awards from this fund are made from the scholarship funds to students attending college and other institutions of higher learning, with the exception of post-graduate school. Students are eligible for consideration for scholarship awards by having volunteered significant time and service for the Waterfowl Festival.
In order to be eligible for a scholarship an applicant must satisfy the following criteria:
IMPORTANT: Applications received that do not contain supporting materials as outlined will not be considered.
A Completed Essay
Official final transcript from the school
Any other documentation that you may feel is warranted for approval of this scholarship review.
Renewals: Prior applicants and recipients of scholarships may re-apply annually as long as they are enrolled and in good standing as an undergraduate at an accredited college or institution of higher education and have not received funds for more than five (5) years (see requirement above). Renewal applications will be evaluated based upon the extent of initial and continuing service to the Waterfowl Festival. Those applicants applying after completing their sophomore year of college must have volunteered to work at one or more of the last two (2) Waterfowl Festivals in order to remain eligible.
All completed applications and supporting materials will be evaluated by the Scholarship Committee. Due to limited resources, not all qualified applicants will receive a scholarship. Applications will be evaluated based upon the extent of volunteer service to the Waterfowl Festival.
Scholarship recipients will be notified by mail in July.
Note: Students must have volunteered for Waterfowl Festival for two years to be eligible.
Photography Exhibit
Capturing the beauty and expansiveness of the wildlife of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and beyond is the goal these top-notch photographers. This is the place to find that print, postcard or original photo for everyone on your Christmas list. This is an exhibit you do not want to miss!
Some of the nation’s foremost nature photographers join us to exhibit a wide array of striking images, every one of which has a story to tell. These artists vividly demonstrate the wonderful depth and creativity that makes digital photography a contemporary art form. Many pieces are affordable and often may be purchased framed or unframed. Photographers also sometimes offer specialty items featuring their images.
Charles E Bear, Jr. — Charles Bear Photography, Jacksonville, FL
Erika L. Forsythe — ELF Moments of Zen, Fruitland, MD
Sam Hughes — Cordova, MD
Cal Jackson — Easton, MD
Tony Masso — Strong Castle Studio, Easton, MD
Michael Orhelein — Bethany Fine Arts, Bethany Beach, DE
Heather L. Orkis — Heather Orkis Photography, Townsend, DE
Kenneth Rose — Neanderthal Photography, Easton, MD
Location: Christ Church 111 South Harrison Street
Exhibit Hours: Friday & Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (this gallery opens an hour later on Sunday to accommodate Church service.)
Handicapped access on Harrison side entrance
No pets except service animals.
Masks required.
William S. Belote — The Great Marsh Waterfowl Carvings, Lewes, DE
Mike Bonner — New Orleans, LA
Jack Cox — Elizabeth City, NC
Thomas Horn — Emmaus, PA
Ted Morlock — Parsonsburg, MD
David Robbins — DC Decoys, Vienna, MD
D. Bennett Scott — Wildfowl Carvings, Berlin, MD
Lori Dunn — Herpworks, Norwood, ON Canada
Wilhelm Goebel — Salisbury, MD
David Kiehm — Oneonta, NY
Sean Murtha — Norwalk, CT
Kelly Singleton — Longmont, CO
Mary Veiga — Baltimore, MD
Jeff Birchill — North Augusta, SC
Mark Dziewior — 7 Mile Creek Studio, Fort Atkinson, WI
Jen Wagner — Jen Wagner Mosaics, St. Michaels, MD
Location: 106 South Street
Exhibit Hours: Friday & Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Handicapped access on South Street
Restrooms in the building
No pets except service animals
Tents Across from Armory – Featured Artist Bart Walter
The Pavilion tents across the street from the Armory is where you will find the Featured Artist as well as numerous other painters, sculptors and carvers.
Tom Baldwin — Akron, OH
Randy Conner — Candor Hill Woodcarvings, Candor, NY
Richard Finch — Richard Finch Artist, Valley Mills, TX
Al Jordan — Birds in Wood, Rochester, NY
Jill Basham — Trappe, MD
Matthew Hillier — Tunis Mills, MD
Vladimir Piven — Arnold, MD
Julia Rogers — Easton, MD
Nancy Tankersley — Easton, MD
Fred Boyer — Fred Boyer Studio, Anaconda, MT
Don Rambadt — Tanager Sculpture Works, Milwaukee, WI
Paul Rhymer — Rhymer Studio, Point of Rocks, MD
Larry Ringgold — Turtlepoint Driftwood LLC, Chesapeake Beach, MD
Kim Shaklee — Nature In Bronze, Brighton, CO
David H. Turner & William H. Turner — Turner Sculpture, Onley, VA
Location: Tents Across from 40 S. Harrison Street Adjacent to Tasting Pavilion
Exhibit Hours: Friday & Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
