Arts Spotlight written on a dark blue background with unfocused orbs of light

 

Each month we feature a handful of arts and community-based organizations and their programs and projects funded by the Delaware Division of the Arts in our Arts Spotlight which will be included on our monthly e-newsletter, Arts E-News and online. If you haven’t signed up yet for Arts E-News, please do so here.

Funding for Division of the Arts grants is provided by the Delaware General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts. To view past grants awarded (1999 to present), please visit our Grants Awarded page.

Grant Types: GOS – General Operating Support; PS – Project Support

 

April 2021

Art Wowzers

Boys & Girls Clubs of Delaware
Art Wowzers! 
Milford and expanding statewide
PS

Art Wowzers! is a Boys & Girls Clubs of Delaware teen workforce project where Teen Members are hired and trained to run programs for younger Club members. After two trainings and eight sessions of working with the younger members, the Wowzers! are given a $200 stipend. This program allows busy teens to gain valuable work experience within their busy schedules and allows for younger Club members to participate in enriching activities. Art Wowzers! specifically targets those teens interested in and studying art. Art Wowzers! utilizes Eyeball It! (trademarked) a curriculum designed by local artist Ellen Priest. At the Greater Milford Club, the Art Wowzers! are teaching Eyeball It! Letters and Numbers, art activities specifically designed for 4-6 year old’s to help them not only engage with the visual arts but work on their reading skills as well. More than 20 Art Wowzers have participated at the Clubs over the last year and a half and upwards of 100 Club members have participated in the program to this point.

Haiku Garden

Freeman Arts Pavilion
National Poetry Month Celebration
Selbyville
GOS

April is National Poetry Month and the Freeman Arts Pavilion (formerly The Freeman Stage) is celebrating! All month long you can take a stroll through a Haiku Rock Garden or join them for a series of free, informative, and fun workshops! You can paint your own Haiku rock, learn how to write an ekphrastic poem or work with local musicians to write a song all for free! In one workshop, Haiku Rocks!, participants will get a crash course on the fundamentals of the centuries-old form of micro-poetry known as Haiku, and create a Haiku rock to place in the Haiku Garden or take home. All the free poetry workshops are open to anyone interested in further expanding the Freeman Arts Pavilion’s mission to make the arts accessible for everyone.

Lee Wayne Mills

Rehoboth Art League
Lee Wayne Mills Memorial Exhibition
Rehoboth Beach
GOS

In honor of the life and artistic achievement of Lee Wayne Mills, the Rehoboth Art League presents a collection of the artist’s abstract pieces from April 2 to May 2, 2021. Mills, a longtime RAL member artist who served both the RAL’s Exhibition and Collection Committees and twice held the leadership role of Interim Executive Director for the nonprofit organization, passed away in 2020. This memorial exhibition aims to highlight the lifelong contributions that this artist has made to the creative community in the region. An overview of Mills’ abstract expressionist work, curated by fellow artists, conveys his professional development and array of skill—from painting to drawing, and from collage to mixed media. As an established artist who was closely involved with operations of the Rehoboth Art League, Mills has his work memorialized with a spot in RAL’s Permanent Collection.

 

Storyteller ProjectThe Ministry of Caring
Storyteller Project
Wilmington (Virtual)
PS

The Storyteller Project engages low-income and homeless children in quality art performances by Clem Bowen, a talented musician and storyteller. He performs original songs, incorporating dancing and homemade instruments, which contribute to the children’s social, emotional, and intellectual growth. The Ministry of Caring is committed to providing programs that make a meaningful impact, in large and small ways, on the life of each child. The Storyteller Project provides a unique arts experience through development of music, rhythm, vocabulary, sounds of language, and creates a sense of group cooperation and belonging for our children.

The Ministry of Caring creates opportunities for underprivileged individuals to improve their quality of life and future prospects—providing holistic support to low-income and homeless individuals. For families with small children, early education programs offered by the Ministry are an integral component of the organization’s wrap-around supportive services. The children at the Child Care Center and Guardian Angel Child Care benefit from careful supervision and a structured schedules, nutritious breakfast and lunch, regular age-appropriate activities promoting social, physical, and intellectual development, and special programming such as the Storyteller Project. In 2021, the performances may be virtual but the impact on the children is undeniable.

Wilmington BluegrassWilmington Wintergrass
Wilmington Bluegrass Free Live Stream Concert
Townsend (Virtual)
GOS

Wilmington Wintergrass presented its annual concert in virtual format at the end of March. You can now watch the recording on YouTube. The program included performances by Dan Paisley & Southern Grass, Blades of Grass, Acoustic Turnpike, Homestead, and Free Range. While this annual event is normally in person, this year it was free and as entertaining as always.

Bluegrass music is an unwritten American folk genre that is passed from one generation to the next. Since the mid-1930s, these heartfelt, soulful songs stem from real life in the hills of Appalachia. Festivals and other bluegrass gatherings are crucial to continuing this tradition, and it is an integral organizational goal of Wilmington Wintergrass to bring awareness about the cultural and rich opportunities that bluegrass music has to offer. When their annual concert is live and in person, Wilmington Wintergrass offers affordable weekend entertainment; brings people together to play and learn about the music; engages educational workshops; attracts people who would not otherwise be exposed to such cultural events; provides excellence in new artist programming; and partners with other bluegrass communities. What sets Wilmington Wintergrass apart from other bluegrass festivals is their creation of an affordable public event that presents quality entertainment by featuring talented nationally known and lesser-known acts.

Division logoThe projects above are supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes these and other Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.

The Division offers a variety of grant programs for individual artists; nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations chartered and based in Delaware; and schools and government entities that support arts activities. View a full list of Division grants on the Grants Overview page.