EASTON, MD.- As Easton welcomes thousands of visitors for its annual Waterfowl Festival, something unexpected is migrating to the heart of downtown: a monumental, brilliant-red sculpture by acclaimed contemporary artist Fitzhugh Karol.
Karol's Recess: Reads now stands on the front lawn of the Academy Art Museum (AAM), and today, Friday, November 13, marks its first full day on view, just as Waterfowl Festival gets underway. The sculpture creates a striking new landmark where art, architecture, and community life meet, and kicks off a weekend of programming at the Museum, November 13–15, from historic American landscapes to classic sporting art.
The installation marks an exciting collaboration between the Academy Art Museum (AAM) and Zach Gallery, two of Easton’s cultural destinations working together to bring ambitious contemporary art into the public realm. The sculpture will remain at the Museum for approximately two years, while a complementary solo exhibition of Karol’s work will be presented at Zach Gallery from April 30 through June 26, 2027.
Inspired by the form of an open book, Recess: Reads transforms an everyday object into a monumental sculptural experience. Its sweeping red forms invite curiosity, discovery, and imagination, encouraging visitors to reconsider the familiar through the unexpected.
"Every fall, Easton celebrates the extraordinary migration of waterfowl to our region. This year, we’re welcoming a rather different arrival!" said Charlotte Potter Kasic, Executive Director of the Academy Art Museum. "We’re absolutely thrilled to bring Fitzhugh’s work to our front lawn. It’s bold, playful, beautiful, and impossible to miss. We want people walking or driving through Easton to immediately recognize that something exciting is happening here, and that the Academy Art Museum is a place where art belongs to everyone."
A New Landmark for Downtown Easton
Set on the Museum's front lawn in the heart of downtown, the sculpture greets everyone walking or driving through Easton.
The installation is part of a broader transformation of the Academy Art Museum’s historic campus, including the restoration and repainting of its building exterior, major infrastructure improvements, and new public art installations. Together, these initiatives are helping to make the Museum more visible, welcoming, and accessible, reinforcing its identity as a vibrant cultural destination in downtown Easton.
"Public art has an incredible ability to transform how we experience a familiar place," added Kasic. "Our historic building has been part of Easton’s landscape for generations, but we want there to be absolutely no mistaking that this is an art museum. This sculpture is a beautiful declaration of that identity. It says something imaginative is happening here, and everyone is invited to be part of it."
Two Arts Organizations, One Shared Vision
The collaboration with Zach Gallery connects the public installation with a larger exploration of Karol’s artistic practice. His spring 2027 exhibition will introduce audiences to additional dimensions of his work, which spans sculpture, ceramics, and a distinctive visual language informed by landscape, architecture, and the built environment.
"Fitzhugh Karol’s work sparks curiosity and connection, which both Zach Gallery and AAM recognize as essential to community and strive to champion," said Aynsley Schopfer, Manager of the Prager Family Center for the Arts at Bluepoint Hospitality Group.
Karol’s work has appeared in prominent public spaces and cultural institutions, including New York City’s Union Square, Socrates Sculpture Park, LongHouse Reserve, and the Tang Teaching Museum. His sculptures often bridge the worlds of abstraction and recognizable forms, inviting audiences to discover new relationships between objects, people, and places.
The partnership also opens the door to future educational programming, artist conversations, and community activities inspired by the sculpture’s literary themes and Karol’s creative process.
"This is what happens when arts organizations work together," said Kasic. "We're creating something that neither organization would accomplish in quite the same way alone. A remarkable artist gets to engage with a new community, our residents and visitors encounter extraordinary art in an unexpected place, and Easton becomes an even more compelling destination. That's something worth celebrating."
A Full Waterfowl Weekend at the Academy Art Museum
While Recess: Reads is an independent public art initiative, its arrival during Waterfowl Festival is a fitting reminder of Easton's growing identity as a destination for creative discovery. The sculpture is just one of many reasons to visit the Museum November 13–15, as AAM embraces the festival's celebration of art, nature, and the Eastern Shore's remarkable landscape.
From Sea to Shining Sea: American Landscape Painting, 1850–1950
Freshly opened for the fall season, From Sea to Shining Sea takes visitors on a sweeping visual road trip across America through more than 40 paintings from a private Eastern Shore collection. From the rocky coastlines of Maine to the mountains of the American West, and from Puerto Rico to the Pacific Coast, the exhibition explores how generations of artists have interpreted the country's natural beauty.
Presented in celebration of America's 250th anniversary, the exhibition examines the evolving relationship between Americans and the land, touching on ecology, conservation, national identity, and the power of landscape to shape our collective imagination. It is an especially fitting match for Waterfowl Festival, where appreciation for the natural world, and the importance of protecting it, are at the heart of the celebration.
