Long Island Boating World
May 2012

The “perilous fight” lasted 25 hours.  Through the darkened night British ships bombarded Fort McHenry lobbing more than 133 tons of shells, raining bombs and rockets on the bastion at the rate of one projectile per minute. The thunder they created shook Baltimore to its foundations and was reportedly heard as far away as Philadelphia.

The only light given off that evening was from those exploding shells which lit up a super-sized American flag that was still flying over Fort McHenry when dawn emerged. On the morning of September 14 the British withdrew in defeat, turning the tide of the War of 1812. Aboard a truce ship on the Patapsco River that night, a young lawyer named Francis Scott Key wrote a poem originally titled ”Defence of Fort M’Henry.” Today, we know it as the Star Spangled Banner.  

This summer from June 13-19, Maryland tourism officials hope to draw more than one million people to the birthplace of our national anthem. An international parade of ships will sail into Baltimore on June 13 for “Star-Spangled Sailabration.” It’s the kick-off of a three year bicentennial commemoration of the War of 1812 featuring a blockbuster international maritime festival.

Baltimore's iconic Inner Harbor and its historic waterfront neighborhoods are the ideal setting for the Star-Spangled Sailabration.  A dozen attractions in Baltimore have a direct tie to the War of 1812, allowing visitors to explore some of our nation's most historical artifacts and cultural sites both during the June festivities and throughout the three-year commemoration.

Delaware County Times
April 13, 2012

Mary Page Evans is her own force of nature.

One of Delaware’s most beloved artists, Evans’ expressive use of color and line evokes the spontaneity of movement and light found in the natural world. Whether it’s painting in Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France or the bucolic Brandywine Valley, her native Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley or the beaches of Del Ray, Fla., Evans returns to them again and again, painting a chronicle of the seasons.

The Delaware Art Museum is presenting “Painted Poetry: The Art of Mary Page Evans,” a luminous retrospective exhibition featuring approximately 50 paintings and drawings created by the Greenville, Del. artist on  view March 31 through July 15. Displaying work made over more than 40 years, “Painted Poetry” is organized thematically to highlight Evans’ longstanding interests: landscapes, gardens, figures, trees, seas, and skies.

Delicate and feminine, yet rugged and down-to-earth, Evans brings to her work the strength of well observed landscapes and the grace and fluidity of nature. Mixing colors with oil and pastel, charcoal and gouache, Evans consistently evokes the living cycles of her subjects.   

“Art is all about feeling-- sensation,” Evans insisted.” It’s what color goes next to what color that makes it sing. And it’s the same with poetry. It’s what word goes next to what word that reaches the soul.

“I couldn’t paint from a photograph. I need to contact with nature, whether it’s the landscape, figure, or sky. I need the way the light changes and the way the figure moves. I want that immediacy.”

The Hunt Magazine    
Spring 2012
 
A few years ago in a meeting with the research team at Longwood Gardens, Paul Redman discovered that scientists from a New Jersey fragrance laboratory had been frequenting the gardens to perform headspace analysis.  It is a process that allows a flower’s scent to be captured and synthesized to create perfume.

Those conversations sparked the idea for Longwood’s blockbuster exhibit, “‘Making Scents: the Art and Passion of Making Fragrance” that premiered back in the spring of 2010.

In the past Longwood might have displayed a dazzling crop of scented plants accompanied by a series of panels explaining the exhibit. Instead, they sought out and partnered with perfume scholar Richard Stanelman and an outsider exhibition team that put together a more expansive, interactive show. It cost $1 million and drew rave reviews.

“So many folks come here to look at the pretty flowers, but for the first time since I’ve been here I actually saw people with their noses buried in the flowers,” Redman says with a smile. “They felt comfortable smelling and engaging with our plants. We want people to connect.”

It was the Redman appointment to the director’s post in July 2006 that signaled a mandate for a new evolution.  He arrived from Franklin Park Conservatory, where he was credited with revitalizing the once struggling botanical landmark on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio.     

“It was a total crisis in Columbus, at Longwood it was the exact opposite,” Redman relates. Boasting a healthy endowment in excess of $600 million, Longwood has a devoted public and is regarded as the largest and most visited conservatory in the United States.