DUCKS IN A TOW

Beloved Eastern Shore decoy museum is set to move, sparking bitter dispute

OChristine Condon |

ne by one, Brittany Andrew unfurled hundreds of award ribbons for the Ward World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition, sorting and proofing them, before laying them on the floor of an otherwise empty office.

Normally, this sort of preparation for decoy carving’s biggest stage would take place atop tables inside the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, home to the world’s largest public collection of antique and decorative decoys. But this year, just a month before the contest in Ocean City, Andrew and the rest of the museum staff were locked out, the result of an acrimonious dispute between the museum’s owner, Salisbury University, and the nonprofit Ward Foundation that had operated it since its construction.

Now the university is severing ties with the foundation and moving the collection from its scenic perch alongside a pond to a new location: a far smaller gallery space in downtown Salisbury.

The planned relocation was prompted in part by a serious failure of the museum’s heating and air conditioning system in July, which caused mold to grow on the surface of several of the delicate wood carvings. But at the core of the university’s decision were a host of financial problems at the museum, brought on by

Jerry Jackson

questionable investments and the coronavirus pandemic. Those problems led the university to cut off the foundation and hire its staff to run the new museum, said Karen Olmstead, the university’s provost.

“It is beyond their capacity to raise money, whether it’s through memberships or through grants, to operate the museum at that level,” Olmstead said. “And it’s way beyond our capacity to support it.”