More than 100 of the Academy Art Museum’s closest supporters and donors gathered on October 22, to celebrate the centennial of visionary artist Robert Rauschenberg. The intimate evening—filled with champagne, storytelling, and reflection—honored one of the most influential figures in modern art and previewed the Museum’s upcoming exhibition, Rauschenberg 100: New Connections, opening December 11. 

Guests enjoyed a Rauschenberg-inspired cake and heartfelt remarks from Don Saff, Rauschenberg’s longtime collaborator and Easton, Maryland resident, who shared personal stories from their creative partnership. Curator Lee Glazer offered an inside look at the exhibition and screened a short preview of 100 Foot Photo, the documentary chronicling the making of Rauschenberg’s monumental 100-foot work Chinese Summerhall. 

A centerpiece of the upcoming exhibition, Chinese Summerhall is among the artist’s most fragile and rarely exhibited works. The Rauschenberg Foundation is highly selective in granting loans of such magnitude due to the artwork’s sensitivity and size. 

“Now I’m really letting you in on some insider information,” shared Charlotte Potter Kasic, Museum Director. “This exhibition almost didn’t happen if it weren’t for our tenacious curator. These works require an extraordinary level of care to display, and being approved for a loan of this caliber is a true testament to our team’s professionalism and our donors’ commitment. We are so fortunate to share such significant works with our community.” 

In concert with the Rauschenberg Foundation’s global centennial celebration, the Academy Art Museum proudly represents the Eastern Shore among museums worldwide honoring

Sun Salutation

On First Friday, November 7th, The Artists‘ Gallery will feature the most recent work of one of their exhibiting artists, Freeman Dodsworth.  Freeman’s work in “Like the First Morning” captures and interprets scenes ranging from intimate moments of home life to the wild vistas of sea, field and sky found only here on the Chesapeake Bay.  In all of these paintings, Dodsworth captures a moment where transitory light and shadow transform ordinary objects in our lives into something new and mysterious.

Still Life, with Dog

Freeman Dodsworth is an oil painter who travels the back roads of his native Chesapeake Bay, painting the skies, clouds, fields and rivers that he finds along the way.  A long time Calvert County resident, Dodsworth also lived on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where he attended Washington College and lived for several years after graduation.  While there, he studied with legendary Eastern Shore painter, Terry Wolf, who became his friend and mentor.  Wolf, with his infectious enthusiasm and impeccable skills as a painter and teacher, helped Dodsworth realize his deep passion for making art, and in particular oil painting.  His art education was interrupted when Dodsworth joined the U.S. Navy and headed for flight training in Pensacola, Florida.  That detour from painting lasted 25 years and included marriage and the rearing of two wonderful kids.  But when his mentor Wolf passed away in 2017, Dodsworth was drawn back to the easel, where he has been ever since.

Dodsworth has studied under contemporary masters including Joe Paquet, Nancy Tankersly, Kami Mendlick and Patick Okransinski.  Over the past two years, Dodsworth has received various awards for his work, including Best Nocturne in Plein Air Litchfield in Litchfield, CT and an Honorable Mention with Local Color in Easton in 2024 and juried shows and competitions in 2025 with River Towns Plein Air, Paint Annapolis, Plein Air Easton, Plein Air Litchfield, MD Federal of Art Members show and MD Federal of Art House of Delegates show.

The public is invited to visit The Artists‘ Gallery for an opening reception on First Friday, November 7th from 5-7:30 p.m. for light refreshments and to meet the artist.  The Artists‘ Gallery is located at 239 High Street in Chestertown and is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays from 12:30-4:30 p.m.  For more information, please call the gallery at 410-778-2425 or visit www.theartistsgalleryctown.com.

—

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum will welcome more than 60 exhibitors from across the country to its waterfront campus on Saturday, Nov. 22, for the Holiday Edition of the Eastern Shore Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival.

Running 10am-4pm, this popular celebration of the region’s unique artistic style returns for festive fun, offering guests the chance to get a jump on holiday shopping. Tickets, including a VIP offering for the ultimate festival experience and CBMM Fall Festival Passes, are on sale now at cbmm.org/SeaGlassFestival, with discounted pricing for CBMM members.

“I am so excited for our fourth annual holiday festival, highlighting new vendors and many returning favorites,” Eastern Shore Sea Glass and Coastal Arts Festival Founder and Organizer Kim Hannon said. “It’s a fun day for the whole family and a great way to find some gifts and decor for the holidays while supporting our talented artisans from the Eastern Shore and beyond!”

This edition of the Eastern Shore Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival will showcase dozens of talented artisans and craftspeople, with an emphasis on festive arts and crafts to fit the holiday season. Guests are invited to shop an array of unique coastal and sea glass goods, including jewelry, home décor, art, and more. A full listing of vendors and more information can be found at seaglassfestival.com.

Food and beverages from a variety of regional vendors will be available for purchase, including craft beer and specialty cocktails.

Live music on both sides of campus will add to the celebration, including returning favorites Dave Hawkins and Jayme D.

Throughout the day, sea glass expert Mary McCarthy will be available to share her knowledge, including shard identification, across from the Hooper Strait Lighthouse. At 11am, she will offer a lecture, “History of the Baltimore Glass Company.”

While enjoying all the Eastern Shore Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival vendors and offerings, guests are invited to explore the exhibitions and historic structures spread across CBMM’s 18-acre campus.

Eastern Shore Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival tickets can be purchased in advance online or at the door. Guests who purchase their tickets in advance will have a special opportunity to enter the festival 30 minutes early at 9:30am. Ticket sales at the door begin at 10am.

Admission is set at $22 for adults, $19 for seniors (65+) and students (17+), $10 for active and retired military members, and $9 for children ages 6-to-17, with all children 5-and-younger admitted free.

CBMM members receive discounted pricing for this and other annual festivals celebrating the best of the Bay throughout the year. Adult member tickets are $10, and all children of members (17-and-younger) receive free admission. CBMM members at the Family & Friends level and above can also receive the $10 discounted admission for two additional adult guests.

CBMM members become a part of the Chesapeake story, joining CBMM’s mission as stewards of the region’s rich cultural heritage. To discover all the terrific benefits of membership and join today, visit cbmm.org/memberships or contact Membership Services Coordinator Debbie Ruzicka at 410-745-4991 or [email protected].

After debuting at the spring festival, VIP tickets are back to level up the fun. This limited-availability offering includes festival admission with early entrance, a commemorative festival cup and discounts at the bar, a swag bag that includes discounts with select exhibitors, and access to the VIP Hospitality Lounge with a complimentary beer and wine bar. The cost to be a festival VIP is $50 for CBMM members and $80 for non-members.

The CBMM Fall Festival Pass offers entry to three upcoming signature festivals, including OysterFest (Saturday, Oct. 25), the Holiday Edition of the Eastern Shore Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival, and Winter on the Chesapeake (Saturday, Dec. 13). The cost is $20 for CBMM members and $44 for non-members.

During the festival, additional free event parking will be available at St. Michaels Middle/High School, with a complimentary shuttle service running to and from CBMM.

For safety reasons, non-service dogs must be kept home during CBMM festivals, including the Eastern Shore Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival. Carry-on alcohol from dock or land is also prohibited.

Chesapeake Music will present the Catalyst Quartet in concert at The Ebenezer Theater in Easton, Maryland on November 23 at 2:00 pm. The Quartet members – Karla Donehew Perez and Abi Fayette, violins, Paul Laraia, viola, and Karlos Rodriguez, cello – have crafted an extraordinary program – “Cinematic Refuge” – of works by classical music composers who are also well-known for their scores for the stage and screen. As violist Paul Laraia explained: “Each of us in the Quartet felt drawn to these works because they show how composers known for cinema translated that same intensity and color into chamber music. It’s a chance for audiences to experience the intimacy of a string quartet with the sweep and imagination of the silver screen.”

The Catalyst Quartet’s program will open with two short and immediately appealing works: John Adams’ 2007 Fellow Traveler and Max Richter’s 2004 On the Nature of Daylight. Fellow Traveler was written to celebrate the director and librettist Peter Sellar’s fiftieth birthday. The title of this highly frenetic composition alludes to Sellar’s and Adams’ collaboration on their 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic. The subject of that opera, J. Robert Oppenheimer – known as the “father of the atomic bomb” – was suspected by the FBI of being a “fellow traveler” – code words for a communist sympathizer. Bits of music from another Adams-Sellars opera collaboration, Nixon in China, pop up in Fellow Traveler as well.

Max Richter’s highly emotional and poignant On the Nature of Daylight comes from his 2004 album The Blue Notebooks, a political protest piece against the humanitarian crisis of the Iraq War. Employing minimalism and counterpoint, the music builds from the lower to the higher pitches, which Richter explained as creating “a sense of luminosity and brightness but made from the darkest possible materials.” The work gradually decreases in dynamics and energy before closing on a minor chord that leaves an unresolved and somber feeling.

The heart of the Catalyst Quartet’s program begins with Philip Glass’ 1985 String Quartet No. 3 (also known as the Mishima String Quartet). This piece reuses music Glass composed for the film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, a movie that explored the life and death by suicide of a Japanese novelist. For his String Quartet No. 3, Glass repurposed the music scored for Yukio Mishima’s childhood “chapter.” The piece is loosely organized into six movements that in the film accompany non-sequential flashbacks of events in Mishima’s early life. The work is also typical of Glass’ use of a minimalist composition technique. Harmonized rhythmic motifs are repeated over long stretches – varied only by loud/soft or harsh/soothing dynamic differences – that often create a hypnotic, meditative effect. Interestingly, the work has not a hint of Japanese musical style, but there is something wistful and mournful, even childlike at times in the six movements, as is appropriate to the childhood flashbacks that they originally accompanied in the film.

Following the Glass is Bernard Hermann’s haunting and melodically appealing 1965 Echoes for String Quartet. Hermann is perhaps best remembered for his scores for several of Alfred Hitchcock’s films (Psycho most notably comes to mind). However, Hermann and Hitchcock had a serious falling out when Hitchcock rejected Hermann’s score for the film Tom Curtain. This almost certainly led Hermann to return to concert hall compositions, and Echoes followed shortly. However, this melancholic work, which seems to brood and conjure dark images, might easily itself have served as a film score. Indeed, Hermann described the work as “a series of nostalgic emotional remembrances,” and the music critic Neil Sinyard has attempted to catalog these “remembrances” in the Echoes score: “A sad waltz echoes the ‘Memory Waltz’ from Snows of Kilimanjaro; a habanera rhythm fleetingly recalls the music for James Stewart’s obsessed spying on Kim Novak in the art gallery scene in Vertigo; a macabre scherzo is like those ‘rides in hell’ at which Herrmann excelled in numerous films, just as the Allegro momentarily has something of the violence of Psycho.”

The Catalyst Quartet’s program concludes with Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s 1933 String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 26.  Korngold had trained in Austria as a classical composer, but the troubles leading up to World War II brought him to Hollywood where between 1934 and 1947 he would compose to great acclaim the scores to some 16 films. Korngold created his second string quartet the year before he emigrated to America, and yet in this energetic and lyrical work, Korngold fashioned a succession of diverse moods as if he were orchestrating scenes in a movie. The opening Allegro is vividly romantic with dense harmonies and is followed by a charming and light-hearted Intermezzo with amusing twists and turns. The third movement Larghetto is decidedly more melancholic and sorrowful, albeit still beautifully lyrical with sumptuous melodies. The Waltz Finale is a full-blown Viennese waltz reminiscent of Johann Strauss Jr.’s Emperor Waltz. This string quartet clearly reveals not only Korngold’s melodic and harmonic inventiveness, but also his propensity for cinematic flair, a talent that would bring him great fame in his Hollywood years.

Chesapeake Music offers a limited number of free tickets for students, educators, and Talbot County First Responders, as well as a “buy-one-get-one” option for first-time patrons of Chesapeake Music. General admission tickets are $50. Visit ChesapeakeMusic.org for tickets and more information.

Based in Easton, Maryland, and celebrating its 40th Anniversary Year, Chesapeake Music is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that brings renowned musicians to delight, engage, and surprise today’s audiences, and educate, inspire, and develop tomorrow’s. Learn more at ChesapeakeMusic.org.

The Bookplate will be hosting three authors during Sultana’s Downrigging Festival on Saturday, November 1st. The events will all take place at The Lawrence Wetlands Preserve, the urban nature center owned and operated by the Sultana Education Foundation. 

Starting off the festivities at 11:00 am, kids of all ages are again invited to meet author Letitia B. Burton  as she discusses her book, Soar: The Incredible Journey of Hendrix and Ryder. Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Independent Publishers, this middle grade book follows two brother birds on a migration journey. 

“It’s early fall in North America, and Hendrix’s parents are taking off to migrate to South America – without him! Now to survive the winter and see his parents again, he and his twin brother Ryder will have to make the long, treacherous journey on their own.  But the young birds are at odds right from the start, with fearless Ryder pushing cautious Hendrix at every turn. Can the brothers find their way to South America – and to respect for one another?”

“Read it in a single day of exhilaration at the narrow escapes and of smiles at the tender moments…The danger sequences drive the story, but Burton has interwoven moral issues of courage and prejudice, the relative values of boldness vs. caution, the shunning for being different, the disbelief from others when it is critical to be believed, and the classic dilemma of group vs. individual.”

-George Forman, Emeritus Professor of Child Development

Later in the day at 1pm, all are invited to meet writer David Gendell as he discusses his book The Last Days of the Schooner America: A Lost Icon at The Annapolis Warship Factory. The book traces the history of the famous vessel, from her design, build, and early racing career, through her lesser-known Civil War service and the never-before-told story of her final days and moments on the ground at Annapolis. The schooner’s story is set against a vivid picture of the entrepreneurial forces behind the fast, focused rise of the Annapolis Yacht Yard as the United States prepares for and enters World War II.

To bring this unique story to life, Annapolis sailor David Gendell delved into archival sources and oral histories and interviewed some of the last living people who saw America at the Annapolis Yacht Yard.

Sailor and author David Gendell is an Annapolis native with an extensive sailboat racing background. The oldest of three boys, he grew up as a “River Rat,” swimming, sailing, crabbing, and cruising with his family in and on the Chesapeake Bay. He first earned his Coast Guard Captain’s License at age 19. He first raced from Newport to Bermuda at age 22, one week after graduating from college. In 1995, he cofounded SpinSheet, a Chesapeake Bay sailing magazine, and served as editor for twelve years. In 2004, he cofounded PropTalk, a Chesapeake Bay powerboating magazine. Both magazines remain in production.

David lives in Annapolis, Maryland, and is a frequent public speaker in the Chesapeake Bay region on the subjects of sailing and history.

“A text of flawless prose with an eye to the sheer physical beauty and excitement of the great vessel.”
– Ocean Navigator

“In The Last Days of the Schooner America: A Lost Icon at the Annapolis Warship Factory, Mr. Gendell writes with authority on the subsequent history of the America.”
– The Wall Street Journal

Finally at 3pm, author Thomas Guay will be discussing his historic novel, Chesapeake Bound: Sailing to Revolution, a story of desperate immigrants looking for adventure, advancement, love, and, most of all, a sense of belonging in the colonies

“London, 1763: Gifted musician and medical apprentice Michael Shea is living rough after being blackballed from working as a surgeon’s assistant. Not only does Michael lose his gig playing fiddle in a tavern, he also is framed for the murder of a tavern patron visiting from colonial Virginia. Worse, Michael realizes his ladylove wasn’t interested in true love. He was just a divertissement.

Heartbroken and out of options, Michael and his friend, Danny, escape the turmoil by shipping out on the misnamed brig The Delight as lowly indentured servants. On board are forty-eight other desperate souls—everyday people risking their lives to immigrate to the wilds of America, hoping for a better life in the colonies where they can break free of a rigid class system, prejudice, and poverty. Michael’s medical skills prove critical as the passengers endure the ravages of the long trans-Atlantic journey from London to Annapolis: killer storms, accidents, sickness, and Barbary raiders. While attending to the sick, Michael realizes that he has not yet escaped the murder for which he was framed—and that the real killer will do anything to keep his identity a secret.”

For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. These events are free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. The Lawrence Wetlands Preserve is located at 301 S. Mill Street, in Chestertown, Maryland. Parking at the Preserve itself is prohibited, but parking is available on Cannon Street and in nearby public parking lots.

Universal Joy, acrylic on cradle panel, is part of Vital Structures, an exhibition by artist Lynn Goldstein, opening Friday Nov. 7 at The Zebra Gallery.

The Zebra Gallery will host an opening reception for Vital Structures, a solo exhibition by Lynn Goldstein, from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, November 7. The show runs through December 5.

The Virginia-based artist is known for her abstract atmospheric landscapes. Goldstein is particularly inspired by the hills, trees, and reflective waters of her childhood home in southern West Virginia. In Vital Structures, she explores how nature sustains and connects people.

“Just as connective tissue supports and gives structure within the human body, I see nature in a similar light,” Goldstein said. “Trees offer the air we breathe and teach us resilience. “Mountains stand as symbols of strength and timelessness. Water can calm or energize. Nature holds us together.”

In her paintings, Goldstein uses unconventional tools, such as chisels, scrapers, and sandpaper, to introduce textures inspired by nature and the passage of time, drawing from her admiration for weathered frescos and crumbling walls.

“Lynn’s work evokes questions about nature’s design and the human’s place in it,” said gallery owner Susan Schauer John. “Each piece is its own meditation.”

Goldstein’s work has been displayed at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Additionally, her work is in the collection of the Schar Cancer Institute, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Department of State, among other public and government organizations.

The opening reception is free and open to the public.

The Zebra Gallery is located at 5 N. Harrison Street, Easton, MD, across from the Historic Tidewater Inn. For more information, visit www.thezebragallery.com. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, or by appointment.

Eastman String Band

On Friday, October 24, the Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland, in partnership with the Hedgelawn Foundation, welcomes one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s most popular bluegrass groups – the Eastman String Band.

Silky vocals, soaring harmonies, hot picking, and heartfelt originals punctuate each performance of the Eastman String Band. Tim and Savannah Finch form the basis of the group. They began playing music together at the Friday Night jams once held at Tim’s music store, “Good Deale Bluegrass” in Deale, Maryland. Tim sings lead and harmony vocals and plays guitar, mandolin, banjo, and pedal steel. Savannah sings lead and harmony vocals and plays guitar. Tom is also a representative of Eastman Strings, renowned internationally for their stringed instruments, (hence the name of the band). The group also prominently features John Glik on fiddle. Glik had been a member of bluegrass giant Del McCoury’s Dixie Pals and has worked with David Grisman and Frank Wakefield. He has been a fixture on the Baltimore/Washington bluegrass scene since the 1970s. The band also includes Danny Stewart on bass, and special guest Jack Dunlap on lead guitar.

“Bluegrass is experiencing a growth spurt,” says Tim Finch. “What was not that long ago a very rigid musical form is now moving beyond its borders.” The Eastman String Band play a convincing and unique melding of the roots of Bluegrass with Americana exemplifying an “Alt-grass” sound.

Showtime for the live concert event is 8 pm. Tickets are $20 in advance of the show and can be purchased online at mainstayrockhall.org. Phone reservations are accepted by calling (410) 639-0331 (tickets reserved by phone are $25 when paid at the door). The Mainstay is located at 5753 N Main Street in Rock Hall, Maryland. Its regular calendar of local, regional, and nationally touring artists features a live performance every week of the year (February through December) in a variety of music genres.

The programs of the Mainstay are also supported with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Kent Cultural Alliance.

For more about The Mainstay  go here.

The Academy Art Museum (AAM) will honor the 100th birthday of iconic American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) with Rauschenberg 100: New Connections, opening December 11, 2025. Presented in partnership with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the exhibition joins an international roster of institutions commemorating the artist’s centenary. 

“Rauschenberg’s belief that art could nurture empathy and cross-cultural connection is as vital today as it was in his lifetime,” said Charlotte Potter Kasic, Director of the Academy Art Museum. “We are honored to celebrate his centennial in partnership with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and to share this story from the Eastern Shore to the world.” 

At its center is Chinese Summerhall (1982)—a one-hundred-foot-long color photograph created in collaboration with Graphicstudio at the University of South Florida. Rarely exhibited due to its monumental scale and fragility, the work will be on loan from the Foundation and shown alongside more than twenty Rauschenberg works from the Museum’s permanent collection. 

“Something happened to painting around 1950,” wrote critic Leo Steinberg. That “something” was Rauschenberg: an artist whose openness to popular culture, everyday materials, and cross-disciplinary collaboration redefined what art could be. Rauschenberg 100: New Connections captures that spirit of experimentation and exchange, focusing on the artist’s groundbreaking 1982 trip to China and his creative partnership with Donald Saff, who has lived and worked on Maryland’s Eastern Shore since 1991. 

The exhibition will also feature the premiere of 100 Foot Photo, a new film directed by Matt Kresling and presented at the Chesapeake Film Festival. The documentary chronicles the making of Chinese Summerhall, with commentary from Saff and other collaborators. 

Local Connections, Global Impact 

In 1982, Rauschenberg and Saff traveled across China, photographing everyday moments—from back alleys to rural landscapes. Using 52 of those negatives, Rauschenberg composed Chinese Summerhall with assistance from George Holzer, a researcher at Graphicstudio, who oversaw the intricate printing process.

Rauschenberg’s connection to Maryland continues through Saff, who with his wife, Ruth, donated 28 Studies for Chinese Summerhall to the Museum in 2001. Their contributions and first-hand insight have deepened AAM’s role in preserving and contextualizing Rauschenberg’s legacy. 

Rauschenberg 100: New Connections invites audiences to explore the artist’s global vision while celebrating how his pioneering projects were grounded in collaboration—including those with artists and makers connected to Maryland’s vibrant creative community. 

From China to the World 

Rauschenberg’s 1982 journey laid the foundation for the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI)—a seven-year, Saff-led project that brought the artist to politically isolated nations including Cuba, the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Tibet. ROCI sought to foster global dialogue through art, culminating in a landmark exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in 1991. 

Exhibition Details 

Raschenberg 100: New Connections 

On view December 11, 2025 – May 2026 

Opening Reception: December 12, 2025 

Curated by Lee Glazer, Academy Art Museum 

Supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 

About the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation builds on the legacy of artist Robert Rauschenberg, emphasizing his belief that artists can drive social change. Rauschenberg sought to act in the “gap” between art and life, valuing chance and collaboration across disciplines. As such, the Foundation celebrates new and even untested ways of thinking. 

About Rauschenberg 100 

Robert Rauschenberg’s (1925-2008) strong conviction that engagement with art can nurture people’s sensibilities as individuals, community members, and citizens was key to his ethos. The Centennial celebrations seek to allow audiences familiar with him and those encountering the artist for the first time to form fresh perspectives about his artwork. 

A year of global activities and exhibitions in honor of Rauschenberg’s Centennial reexamines the artist through a contemporary lens, highlighting his enduring influence on generations of artists and advocates for social progress. The Centennial’s activation of the artist’s legacy promotes cross-disciplinary explorations and creates opportunities for critical dialogue.

About the Academy Art Museum 

Founded in 1958, the Academy Art Museum is the Eastern Shore’s leading cultural institution, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It combines the dynamism of an ambitious contemporary art museum with the intimacy of a community space. With five working studios, a 24,000 sq. ft. facility, and innovative programs including a robust artist-in-residence initiative and major commissions for its soaring atrium, the Museum is a destination for artists, scholars, collectors, and families alike.