Museum Director

Museum won't need to repay part of loan The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts will not have to repay $100,000 of a $300,000 loan from Washington County for a museum courtyard enclosure project, the Washington County Commissioners decided Tuesday. The commissioners voted 3-1 to convert that portion of the loan to a grant in response to a request from museum officials. Commissioner Kristin B. Aleshire voted against the decision and Commissioners President John F. Barr abstained, saying his company, Ellsworth Electric, had ties to the project.

Springfield Middle School student Nick Andreaccio showed off his piece of artwork Sunday - a piece of thin metal with his image carved in it. The creation, one of about 1,500 that are being exhibited at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts as part of an annual public schools art display, showed a boy with blue hair, a green face and a purple shirt. Andreaccio said he made the image by pressing a pencil into the soft metal. Then, he made the different colors in the piece by melting different colored crayons and pouring the waxy material in the mold.

An art gallery once known for its floor-to-ceiling paintings and darker colorings was reopened to the public Sunday, showing off its brighter, more sparsely decorated atmosphere. The William H. Singer Jr. Memorial Gallery at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts closed more than two years ago after snow and ice melting on the flat roof began leaking into the gallery, Museum Director Rebecca Massie Lane said. It was the quick action of Facilities Manager Mike Churchey and former museum educator Amy Hunt in discovering the initial leak during their morning rounds, in February 2011, that helped spare any of the artwork in the gallery from damage, Lane said Sunday before the gallery's reopening.

katec@herald-mail.com The celebrated birds flew from Chicago to Dulles International Airport in Virginia and arrived via truck in seven large crates. They are perched in the Kerstein and Bowman galleries ready to greet visitors to an exhibition opening today at Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. "Audubon's Fifty Best," a display of ornithological prints, is one of just 150 sets produced by Oppenheimer Editions of Chicago from the Field Museum of Chicago's copy of artist John James Audubon's "The Birds of America.

The National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., has announced the release of its latest television work in cooperation with NBC, as well as a program about The Pry House at Antietam National Battlefield to air on the National Geographic Channel. "Who Do you think You Are?" airs today at 8 p.m. on NBC, according to a release from the musuem. On the program, museum Executive Director George Wunderlich is a featured historian working with actress Ashley Judd as she searches for her family history.

photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer enlarge By TERI JOHNSON / Staff Writer Works by 19th-century artist David Hunter Strother drew a lot of attention Sunday at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, and about a dozen of his descendants were there to see it. Strother, born in Martinsburg, W.Va., was best known for his writing and accompanying illustrations by his pen name, Porte Crayon. Strother, who died in 1888, was an artist and correspondent for Harper's Monthly and served in the U.S. Topographic Corps during the Civil War. David Hunter Strother IV of Bethesda, Md., the artist's great-grandson, said he was a master at capturing everyday life.

The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts' courtyard will be enclosed as part of a building renovation and expansion project. The work is expected to cost $2.5 million, according to a project description attached to a state bill. The nonprofit museum is in Hagerstown's City Park. The museum's board of trustees is seeking a $300,000 state bond bill to help with the project. Identical versions of the bill are pending before state House and Senate committees. Currently, the courtyard is open to the sky but surrounded by the museum building itself.

HAGERSTOWN-The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts' courtyard will be enclosed as part of a building renovation and expansion project. The work is expected to cost $2.5 million, according to a project description attached to a state bill. The nonprofit museum is in Hagerstown's City Park. The museum's board of trustees is seeking a $300,000 state bond bill to help with the project. Identical versions of the bill are pending before state House and Senate committees. Currently, the courtyard is open to the sky but surrounded by the museum building itself.

HAGERSTOWN-Three trustees of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts have tendered their resignations, but said Friday their decisions weren't related to the departure of museum Director Joseph Ruzicka. The board of trustees declined last month to renew Ruzicka's contract. His last day at the museum was April 18. Trustees Lois Easton, Leslie Hendrickson and M. Kenneth Long have resigned from the board since then. Long, a Circuit Court judge, said he resigned because of scheduling conflicts.