Petition started to turn old Ward Museum into Wicomico County’s first State Park
SALISBURY, Md. – A petition has been started to turn the old location of the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art into a state park.
The petition calls on Maryland state officials to create Wicomico County’s first state park at the museum’s former location on Schumaker Pond in Salisbury.
The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art closed back in 2022 after the building suffered an HVAC failure.
47 ABC News spoke to the petition’s organizer, former Ward Museum Executive Director Lora Bottinelli, who explained why the location would be the perfect spot for the county’s first ever state park.
“If you think about the property, it’s actually adjacent to the Salisbury City Park, and two stone-throws away from the Wicomico County Park,” Bottinelli explained. “We don’t have a state park in Wicomico County and the property itself is integrated into what is the Salisbury Urban Greenway.”
Taking that into consideration, along with the fact that millions of dollars were invested in the property over the course of three decades, Bottinelli stressed the importance that something special be done with the location moving forward.
“Museums matter, charitable contributions matter, federal dollars matter, state dollars matter,” Bottinelli emphasized. “All we’ve done for 30 years is invest in that property to this community use, and it was thriving in that use, and so the sudden change of purpose makes no sense to me.”
Tens of millions of local, state, and private dollars were allocated to the property at 909 South Schumaker Drive, most notably more than $2 million in capital improvements that were unveiled in 2018, according to the petition which has already garnered over 500 signatures in support of the measure.
The effort is petitioning Maryland Governor Wes Moore to transfer the state’s assets at the Ward Museum property and the related collection of art to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Park Service, creating the county’s first ever state park.
“This is a State of Maryland issue, these are state assets, beyond Wicomico or the City of Salisbury, although Wicomico and the City of Salisbury have a ton to lose by this property not maintaining in public use in this type of way,” Bottinelli stressed. “It’s a major economic driver for the region, major tourism destination. It had just been outfitted to be one of the most premiere event venues on the shore.”
Now, moving forward, the contents and collection of art that was showcased at the museum for years is set to be featured on a rotating basis at the new location, reimagined as Salisbury University’s Museum of Eastern Shore Culture located in the Powell Building in Downtown Salisbury.
“People need to speak up and they need to take ownership of what happens to their cultural assets,” Bottinelli said in closing.
As of right now, there has still been no official word on what the plans are for the old location on Schumaker Pond.
If you’d like to throw your support behind the effort to make it a state park, you can view and sign the petition by clicking here.
