Maryland Day Celebration at the CAC: March 22-March 23, 2025
Gallery Hours : Saturday: 10 am - 2 pm & Sunday 10am-2pm
The Chesapeake Arts Center has partnered with Chesapeake Crossroads Heritage Area for the 18th annual Maryland Day Celebration! This year’s celebration takes place March 21, 2025 - March 23, 2025 around Anne Arundel County.
Enjoy exciting events for all ages at the Chesapeake Arts Center this Maryland Day weekend! In addition to exploring our galleries and viewing artwork by local artists, guests can participate in Stories & Art in the Gallery. The theme for the story will be “ABCs of Maryland” An Alphabet Book of Love, family, and Togetherness” with an art project to follow: Crab Suncatcher OR bring the whole family to create a Maryland Collage. These events are FREE, but you must register in advance. Space will be limited.
To view all Maryland Day events in Anne Arundel County, visit MarylandDay.org.
What is Maryland Day?
Maryland Day, March 25th, commemorates the formal founding of the colony of Maryland, when the newly-arrived colonists erected a cross on St. Clement’s Island, offered prayers (perhaps by saying Mass), and took “possession of this Countrey for our Saviour and for our soveraigne Lord the King of England.” According to one of the three versions of Father Andrew White’s account of the voyage of the Ark and the Dove, this event took place on 25 March 1633/34 at the colonists’ first landfall in Maryland. In the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, this day is the Feast of the Annunciation, or “our blessed Ladies day” as Father White termed it, referring to the Virgin Mary. After consulting with the “Emperor of the Piscataway” and the “King of Yaocomoco,” Leonard Calvert, governor of the colony, negotiated the purchase of land on a nearby tributary of the Potomac River. This became the site of St. Mary’s City, the colony’s first settlement. Marylanders began observing Maryland Day in 1903, when the State Board of Education designated it as a day to be devoted to the study of Maryland history. In 1916, the General Assembly authorized the celebration of Maryland Day as a legal state holiday.
The versions of Father White’s narrative can be read in the “Archives of Maryland Online,” here:
Volume 551 – A Relation of the Successful Beginning of the Lord Baltimore’s Plantation in Mary-land
Volume 552 – A Brief Relation of the Voyage Unto Maryland
Volume 657 – A Relation of Maryland, 1635
Further reading:
Want to know more about “Maryland Day” and what it stands for? Read an article by Dr. Jean Russo on this topic. Understanding Maryland Day – updated
Stories & Art in the Galleries: “ABCs of Maryland” An Alphabet Book of Love, family, and Togetherness”
with an art project to follow: Crab Suncatcher
Saturday, March 22, 2025
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM
Ages 1-6 with an Adult
Free!
Join us for our family program: Stories & Art in the Galleries! Children will enjoy a story and complimentary age-appropriate art activity while viewing CAC's latest gallery exhibit. In conjunction with the Maryland Day celebration, we're reading “ABCs of Maryland” An Alphabet Book of Love, family, and Togetherness” an Alphabet Book of Love, family, and Togetherness. After the story, children will be invited to make Crab Suncatchers.
This program is free, but space is limited and registration is required. Please register for each child individually. Stories & Art is geared towards children ages 1-6. Caregivers must be present.
Stories & Art in the Galleries is made possible through the generosity of the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County.
Maryland Collage
Saturday, March 22, 2025
12:30pm-2:30pm
All Ages with an Adult
Free!
Our popular Free Family Workshops are back with even more opportunities to get creative as a family! Come celebrate all things Maryland by making a Maryland collage with us!
These workshops are free, but space is limited and registration is required! Please register for each child individually so we can have an accurate headcount of participants.
In The Galleries
Crafting Their Future- Celebrating Women’s History Month
In Hal Gomer Gallery
Celebrate Women’s History Month with the fourth annual exhibition, Moving Forward Together: Women Educating and Inspiring Generations. This showcase honors women’s contributions to crafts as tools for cultural expression, advocacy, and gender equality.
This exhibition is on view in our Hal Gomer Gallery from March 12, 2025 - April 15, 2025.
Threshold
A solo exhibition by Elizabeth Kendall
In the Patricia Barland Gallery
Standing on the threshold we are both coming and going, leaving behind and anticipating what’s ahead. In that moment between we can create something new and let go of what isn’t serving us anymore. And we also know we will return to cross back over the threshold and bring experiences with us to enrich and expand. Think of it as both the breathe and the space between the breathe. I make work that celebrates the past, future and, the space between.
This exhibition is on view in our Patricia Barland Gallery from March 15, 2025 - April 14, 2025.