Each month we feature 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

 

June 2022

CAMP Rehoboth
Using Art to Shine a Light
Rehoboth Beach
GOS

With a mix of imagination, originality, and a dash of determination, CAMP (Creating A More Positive) Rehoboth uses its multi-faceted arts program to shine a light on the arts and artists.

Themed Gallery exhibitions, such as “Art & Activism,” allowed artists to express their passions and provided patrons with the opportunity to see how artists have used art to spark Black imagination and awaken consciousness. Retrospective photography exhibit, “30 Years in 30 Photos,” – curated by CAMP co-founder/artist Murray Archibald and three community members – revisited the 30-year history of CAMP Rehoboth by highlighting the people and events that define the organization’s importance to our community.

Singer, songwriter and producer, Sug Daniels of Smyrna, appeared at CAMP Rehoboth’s Women’s FEST in April. She echoed CAMP’s mission with her personal music interlaced with messages of truth and positive change.

With its goal of bringing the community together through the power of song, the 100-voice strong CAMP Rehoboth Chorus, returned to live performances in May, presenting three sold out concerts of “The Great American Songbook” – unforgettable music by America’s greatest 20th-century songwriters.

As summer approaches, CAMP continues its support of artistic endeavors alfresco in its unique, outdoor Courtyard, where local artisans display and sell their work at monthly “Handmade Art Markets.” On June 23 – 25, the Courtyard will serve as the venue for the CAMP Rehoboth Theatre Company’s presentation of two one-act comedies by Pittsburgh playwright F.J. Hartland, entitled “Ponce de Leon is Dead” and “Auto Erotic Misadventure” – sure to be the most innovative productions yet.

Christina Cultural Arts Center
A Conversation with Lara Downes
Wilmington
GOS

The Delaware Symphony (DSO), Christina Cultural Arts Center, Inc. (CCAC), and The Grand Opera House have collaborated to welcome award-winning pianist Lara Downes to CCAC for “A Conversation with Lara Downes” Thursday, June 2, at 4:00pm in the Clifford Brown Performance Space of CCAC.

The event is an honest, open discussion about Downes’ experiences as an artist of color in the historically white-based genre of classical music. WHYY host Cherri Gregg will moderate the discussion.

Pianist Lara Downes has been called “an explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice to the underrepresented and forgotten” (The Log Journal). An iconoclast and trailblazer, her dynamic work as a sought-after performer, a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, a producer, curator, activist, and arts advocate positions her as a cultural visionary on the national arts scene. Ms. Downes’ musical roadmap seeks inspiration from the legacies of history, family, and collective memory, excavating the broad landscape of American music to create a series of acclaimed performance and recording projects that serve as gathering spaces for her listeners to find common ground and shared experience.

The 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.