THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 3, 1995 TAG: 9503020187
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Fish, fowl or four-legged animal, it's all fair game this weekend at Pavilion.
That's where more than 100 carvers, artists and photographers will gather to display their wares as the 20th edition of the Mid-Atlantic Wildfowl and Wildlife Festival gets under way.
Admission this year is $5 per person; $4 for seniors and free for children under 12.
The festival begins Friday, from 3 to 9 p.m., continues Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and winds down Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Exhibitors will be artists, carvers and photographers from across the country who specialize in creating likenesses of ducks, geese, birds, fish and varmints native to the marshlands of southeastern Virginia.
Also on hand to man 130 display booths will be collectors of hunting artifacts, with their guns, power horns and decoys.
Of special interest this year, says show chairman Judy Chambers, will be an exhibit of the works of veteran carvers from the Eastern Shore and an exhibit of antique decoys and hunting artifacts.
Kicking off the Saturday program at 10 a.m. will be a decoy painting contest for 150 youngsters. The first 150 to sign up will participate, Chambers said of the event, which has become increasing popular over the years.
At 5 p.m. Saturday festival organizers will auction off decoys, painting, carvings and other items offered by show exhibitors.
Proceeds from the event are donated annually to the DeWitt Cottage, the white, brick structure that has stood at 12th Street and Oceanfront for 100 years.
The building is being renovated to house Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Center and the offices of the Back Bay Wildfowl Guild, which sponsors the yearly wildfowl festival.
The cottage will become a combination gallery-museum and studio for wildfowl artists and carvers and will be managed by the guild.
It has been vacant for over a decade and is undergoing top to bottom rebuilding at an estimated $300,000. Guild officials hope to open the museum doors to the public by early June.
The cottage is one of 13 properties in Virginia Beach listed in the National Register of Historic Places. MEMO: [For a related story, see page 8 of the Beacon for this date.]
by CNB