Museum

On the 10th day of Christmas, someone's true love gave them 10 lords a leaping. At the Carroll County Farm Museum, in Westminster, that gift was a little bit challenging for Beverly Rose and Dorothy Duerr, who were tasked with displaying that scene in the dining room. "Ten lords a leaping? How do you do that?" Rose asked rhetorically - before revealing a small tree decorated with fruit ... and 10 paper cutouts of lords a leaping. "We thought it should be cheerful," added Duerr about the room's decorations, which feature festive garland and a table set for a Christmas Eve feast of turkey, soup, vegetables and more.

The historic Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, which lost its longtime curator and was shuttered in September amid an operational reorganization, has in the last month been defaced by graffiti and robbed of its wooden front steps, according to those involved in the museum's revitalization. City officials said they are aware of the damage and recently repainted the museum door, which had been scrawled with mostly illegible writings in marker. They also said they regularly check on the museum and respond to any complaints about its condition.

Three Orioles were among the recipients of this year's Legacy Awards, which annually recognize the best in baseball by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The awards are given in the name -- and spirit -- of Negro League legends. Orioles closer Jim Johnson, who set a club record with 51 saves, was the recipient of the American League Hilton Smith Award, given to the league's best relief pitcher. Manager Buck Showalter was awarded the AL Charles Isham "C.I. " Taylor Award, which is given to the league's top manager.

A large drawing hangs behind Doreen Bolger's desk, dripping with the words "Forward in all directions. " The phrase, drawn with bleach on dark paper by Baltimore artist Colin Benjamin, has become something of a mantra for Bolger, the director of the Baltimore Museum of Art . "I like it for many reasons," Bolger said. "How do you move forward if 'forward' is in five directions?" Lately, that's just what she's been doing. For nearly two years, she has overseen the renovation of the museum's Contemporary Wing, which reopens this week.

Friends and descendants of Benjamin Banneker gathered Nov. 10 to mark the 281st birthday of the famed African-American astronomer and mathematician who is also known for his work surveying the land that eventually became Washington, D.C. But this time the focus of the annual celebration at the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum in Oella wasn't on the colonial-era African-American scientist and farmer. The honoree at Saturday's celebration was his grandmother, Molly Bannaky.

Paul W. Wirtz, former deputy director of facilities engineering at Aberdeen Proving Ground and longtime comptroller and trustee of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, died Nov. 4 from multiple organ failure at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The former Roland Park resident was 91. "Paul was a very erudite guy and very learned. He was a world traveler until he became ill," said Andrew S. Blumberg, a member for many years of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, where he is director of public relations.

Next weekend, visitors to the Baltimore Art Museum's newly renovated Contemporary Wing may find themselves staring up at a hole in the ceiling, their mouths gaping open like fish. They'll have been hooked by a central feature of the $6.5 million building project - artist Sarah Oppenheimer's playful, gravity-defying illusion with the enigmatic name "W-120301. " And who would blame them for staring? How often can we watch someone appear to walk up a wall? Oppenheimer knocked holes in walls and cut through ceiling to change the architecture of the Baltimore Museum of Art . And, that's not a bad metaphor for museum director Doreen Bolger's goal to knock down the walls between the museum and the community.

Perhaps the only question more puzzling than who walked away with a Renoir landscape from the Baltimore Museum of Art on a fall weekend in 1951 is who rightfully owns the tiny treasure now. The FBI is investigating the theft of the 1879 "Paysage Bordes de Seine," which Renoir painted on linen, but it's unclear whether the bureau will be able to shed much light on a 61-year-old theft that was barely investigated when the crime was fresh....

Gefilte fish, the beloved Jewish preparation of slow simmered ground fish, takes the front burner on Sunday at GefilteFest, a full day of cooking crafts, music and storytelling for the whole family at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Organized in conjunction with the ongoing exhibition "Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identify," GefilteFest will feature a visit from the folks of Gefilteria , a Brooklyn-N.Y.-based "purveyor of boutique gefilte Old Wold Jewish foods" and will culminate, at 2 p.m., in a "Gefilte Fish Throwdown," pitting Gefilteria's Liz Alpern against Wit & Wisdom 's Dave Whaley and Pikesville's own Susan Silbiger, for the chance to be crowned Gefilte Maven.

The Walters Art Museum and Johns Hopkins University have received a $50,000 grant to create museum programs aimed at fostering cognitive development in preschoolers. The program, which will involve museum curators and researchers from the university's Brain Science Institute and the Department of Cognitive Science, will create a program for 3- to 5-year-old children that's tentatively called "Start With Art. " The scientists hope to measure the impact of arts programming on children's attention span, comprehension and memory.