Mark’s Score 6.6
This is a story of tragic loss. The genesis of the MESC was the closure of the iconic Ward Museum. The heart of the Ward Museum was its collection of decoys created by the Ward brothers of Chrisfield, MD. The Ward brothers were barbers by trade and decoy artists by vocation. Over a span of 60 years, they brought decoy art to its pinnacle, and their work represented the apogee of this indigenous art form. They were the Michelangelos of decoy art.
The brothers bequeathed their collection to Salisbury University (SU). Over the years, various collectors also contributed their decoys to SU. This collection became the central theme of the Ward Museum, which in its day, housed the world’s premier collection of waterfowl art. The Ward was an iconic museum, and through its world exhibition each April, it was the definitive world authority on this art genre. All that came to an end when Ward closed soon after COVID.
Upon its closure, SU promised they would continue to display (at least in part) the Ward collection in a new museum (the MESC), housed in a storefront in downtown Salisbury. SU spent over a year upgrading the space. They also expanded the museum’s writ (and diminished its purpose) to include “the culture of the Eastern Shore.”
The MESC opened a few weeks ago, so with trepidation but hopefulness, I visited the museum just before Christmas. They advertise their hours as 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, but when I arrived at 11:10, it was still closed. I decided to eat an early lunch and then come back. They were open when I returned. My first impression was that it was forebodingly dark and the space felt claustrophobic. Much to my dismay, the once proud Ward Museum collection was reduced to a few desultory display cases displaying a small percentage of the collection. To be fair, the space is so small it would be impossible to adequately present the culturally significant Ward collection, let alone adequately present the entire “Eastern Shore Culture.”
The Ward was a global gale dominating the world of waterfowl art. Tragically, it has been replaced by a zephyr inadequate to the task. If you want to learn about the culture of the Eastern Shore, I recommend the Maritime Museum in St. Michaels; I cannot but think that museum would have been a more worthy repository for the culturally significant Ward collection than the MESC.
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