By Liz Holland

It’s been months since the doors to the galleries at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art closed to the public after an air conditioning failure last summer caused surface mold to grow on some artifacts, but neither museum staff nor the Salisbury University-affiliated board that runs it have responded to questions about the current condition of the building or the valuable collection it once housed.

“I’m enraged this has gone on for so long,” said Dr. John Juriga, a retired pediatrician who has been a museum member and volunteer for the past 30 years. “There are those of us who love the Ward Museum and feel a void with its closure.”

Located in a building next to Schumaker Pond in Salisbury, the museum was home to some of the world’s masterpieces of wildlife carvings, including the work of famed decoy carvers Lem and Steve Ward of Crisfield for whom the museum is named.

In 2000, the Ward Foundation donated the Ward Museum facility and its collections to SU and the Ward Foundation became an affiliated foundation of Salisbury University.

Juriga, as well as other members of the community and the local news media, have all been given vague assurances that SU and the Ward Foundation are working to address the problems, but there have been no specifics announced.

In a recent letter to SU President Carolyn Ringer Lepre, Juriga said he and others fear the museum’s collection could be moved to a new and smaller location.

“The future of the Ward Museum should not be a secretive strictly financial decision,” he said in the letter. “Please allow the members of the organization and residents of the area to voice their opinions regarding this matter.”

Juriga said he received a reply from a vice president at SU, but found it unsatisfactory.

“He didn’t reply to any of the issues in my letter,” he said.

Some community members hoped Lepre would include an update on the museum during her first State of the University address on Feb. 7, but there was no mention of it. 

When the museum was forced to close its galleries last summer, a spokesman said an air conditioning failure over a day or two caused mold to grow on some wood pieces of the collection, as well as some items that were on loan. All items were to undergo professional cleaning by art restorers, officials said at the time.

When the Salisbury Independent requested the current status of the building and the items in the collection a university spokesman emailed the following statement:

“The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art has been a mainstay of the Delmarva community since its establishment as a partnership between the Ward Foundation and Salisbury University in 1975. Last summer, the museum’s building on Schumaker Pond experienced a catastrophic HVAC failure in its gallery spaces, leading to environmental conditions not suitable for the display of the museum’s collections. Because the galleries have been closed since July, the Ward Foundation and SU are working to find solutions to ensure continued access to the museum’s exhibits and activities going forward.”

Brittany Andrew, the museum’s interim Executive Director, did not respond to an email requesting information.

According to the museum’s website, the galleries and gift shop are currently closed to the public until further notice, but scheduled venue rentals, programming and other classes are still taking place. 

The Ward Foundation announced it will hold the 50th Ward World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition and Art Festival in Ocean City on April 21-23. The international event brings together carvers, collectors and visitors for three days of exhibits, classes and seminars. It features about 1,200 different wildfowl carvings representing more than 150 species from around the world.

The museum’s beginning goes back to 1968 with the founding of the Ward Foundation, a group dedicated to promoting wildfowl art and preserving the legacy of the Ward brothers.

The Foundation started the Wildfowl Carving and Art Exhibit, held at the Wicomico Civic Center, and the Ward World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition, originally held in Salisbury but moved in 1979 to the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, where it is still held today.

In 1975, the Ward Foundation established the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in the Great Hall of Holloway Hall on the campus of Salisbury University, but the museum eventually outgrew its housing on campus.

By the late 1980s, there was talk of a new facility, and the museum opened in 1992 at Schumaker Pond where it remains today.