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

 

August 2021

A band performs on an outdoor stage in a park in front of a brick building with rows of concert attendees sitting in lawn and folding chairs in front of the stage Concert goers are in the pictures foreground with their backs to the camera looking at the band
City of Lewes
City of Lewes Summer Concert Series
Stango Park in the City of Lewes
PS

The Lewes Summer Concert Series, coordinated and managed by the Parks and Marina Administrator with assistance from volunteers, provides a relaxing and fun night out for residents and visitors of all ages. Each Tuesday night at 7:00 pm from June through August, musical performances are held in an outdoor, family-friendly setting in Stango Park. They are designed as an accessible, community recreational activity to encourage the arts in Lewes. Musical genres include country, steel drums, classic rock, R&B, bluegrass, soul, and big band. There is something for everyone, and the concerts are free for the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring chairs, blankets, and snacks to enjoy the performances.

The performances draw anywhere from 250 to over 700 attendees and allow residents and visitors to enjoy the outdoors, visit with friends and family, and enjoy music regardless of age, income, education, race, or disability. Residents from a nearby long-term care facility attend weekly, and as an accessible event, individuals with walkers or wheelchairs have access to the park to enjoy the performances.  Many people who attend the concerts have visited the local shops and restaurants either before or after the performances, while others visit the Lewes Public Library adjacent to Stango Park.

The City of Lewes and the Parks and Recreation Commission aim to provide excellent customer service and to ensure the preservation of the parks while providing events and recreational activities.

Art exhibit at the Delaware Contemporary featuring artwork in the style of graffiti painting painted onto the wall of a room with a glass front The paintings are in bright colors and black there is a table in the room and a clothes rack with clothes on it as part of the exhibit people are standing and sitting both inside and outside the room looking at the art and taking pictures

The Delaware Contemporary
Summer Exhibition Season: IDENTIFY
Wilmington
GOS

This summer, The Delaware Contemporary served as a space for cultural conversation through the presentation of exhibitions that construct a community-based dialog. Each of the five exhibitions explores both the inherited aspects of identity and the external barriers that encourage conformity. Each examines the versatility of the human condition while speaking to the cultural framework that either enables or hinders the expression of this condition. Through this lens, the overall works speak to either autobiographical material or personal exploration into the contemporary systems and structures that shape individual identities.

Palette to Palate: Summer Fare is The Delaware Contemporary’s closing event for its Summer Exhibitions. Palette to Palate is a chef-designed, seasonal benefit dinner inspired by the exhibitions in its galleries. The Summer Fare edition presents a casual, family-friendly event with a buffet-style menu, seating throughout the museum and patio, and live music. Palette to Palate: Summer Fare features Chef Daniel Sheridan of the Locale BBQ Post and Stitch House Brewery whose menus strive to provide the highest standard and the use of local farms whenever possible. Locale BBQ Post presents its own spin and flavors on a long tradition of feeding family and friends with slow-cooked greatness. Chef Daniel Sheridan’s Palette to Palate menu will draw inspiration from the summer exhibition FAMILY HISTORY.  This event takes place on August 20, 2021, from 5-8 PM.

The Delaware Contemporary’s Summer Exhibition season delves into community-driven topics and cultural awareness with a variety of connecting programs, such as its West Street Art Festival. This festival had an attendance of over 300 visitors and included community partnerships with Urban Bike Project, The Brandywine School District, Starfish Casters, and local businesses. This event also featured a Community Driven Mural with 7GOD – The Artivist. This participatory, interpretive mural experience is designed to enlighten visitors about mental health and reflect on their own experiences by exploring positive affirmations. The mural installation will be on view at The Delaware Contemporary through the next summer of 2022. The First Friday opening for the summer season had an attendance of 800 visitors and featured a cultural dance performance by Liz Miller.

The Delaware Contemporary is an art space that infuses contemporary art and creativity into its community through compelling exhibitions, dynamic educational experiences, and access to the artistic process. Founded in 1979 by artists, The Delaware Contemporary presents exhibitions of regionally, nationally, and internationally recognized artists that explore topical issues in contemporary art and society. In addition, it provides opportunities for local and emerging artists to showcase their work and advance their artistic growth. Art sales through its galleries and Museum Shop support area and exhibiting artists and its commitment to the importance of contemporary art in its community.

Black and White portrait of a person wearing a knitted top circular glasses with dark lenses and a headband standing in front of a blank wall with two bright lights shining behind the person

Delaware Art Museum
Collecting and Connecting: Recent Acquisitions, 2010-2020
Wilmington
GOS

Over the last ten years, the Delaware Art Museum has collected more than 1,000 new art objects. These works, which span centuries, styles, cultures, and mediums, now call the Delaware Art Museum home. Through this exhibition, Collecting and Connecting: Recent Acquisitions, 2010-2020, the museum invites visitors to sample a decade of additions to the collection and gain a behind-the-scenes look at how and why the museum collects. Visitors can view works that are vastly different in their artistic statements and production, such as John Everett Millais’s The Bridge of Sighs (1857), Helen Farr Sloan’s Gallery Scene (c. 1938), Elizabeth Catlett’s Gossip (2005), and Curlee Raven Holton’s Juke Joint (2009). Magically, when these varied works are displayed together, visitors will see that they are far more alike than they are different. The new acquisitions are particularly rich in works by women artists and artists of color. The Museum seeks to preserve these new works for future generations of visitors to engage with, expanding and enriching the stories it tells with art.

The Delaware Art Museum is working to better reflect the diverse communities of greater Wilmington. Adding to collections allows the Museum to continue to tell engaging, complex stories – many that have been historically marginalized – through works of art such as those displayed in this exhibition. By collecting, the museum writes and preserves history through artwork so that future generations will be able to re-examine and re-contextualize it as well.

The Delaware Art Museum is alive with experiences, discoveries, and inspiration. It connects people of all ages with art — and with each other.

 

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.