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

 

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 2024

 

Freeman Arts Pavilion Performance Photo

Freeman Arts Pavilion
2024 Summer Season
Selbyville
General Operating Support

Freeman Arts Pavilion is our outdoor performance venue in Selbyville, DE which is home to many of the live performances for both the Arts Access Initiative and Freeman Arts. The venue holds nearly 4,000 guests per live performance, and an array of traditional concert-going experience amenities. Each summer, we welcome more than 100,000 guests through both programs at the venue.

The Joshua M. Freeman Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was established in 2007 to honor the life and legacy of Josh Freeman, the former Chair of the Carl M. Freeman Companies. The Foundation impacts more than 130,000 individuals annually through two programs, the Arts Access Initiative and Freeman Arts. Many of the live arts performances are held at Freeman Arts Pavilion, located in Selbyville, DE. When not held at the venue, live performances occur at schools and community centers around Delmarva.

Our Arts Access Initiative provides K-12 students, community partners and families throughout Delmarva access to year-round, high-quality, diverse arts experiences at no cost. Programming for the Arts Access Initiative includes live music, dance, comedy and many other forms of the arts through performances at Freeman Arts Pavilion throughout the summer months, as well as year-round arts opportunities with our partner locations throughout Delmarva.

To learn more, visit: www.freemanarts.org.

Arts Market - Wilmington Alliance

Wilmington Alliance
Arts in the West Center City Neighborhood
Wilmington
Project Support Support

Arts in the Neighborhood continues their series of free programming held in three Alliance-created, West Center City spaces in downtown Wilmington. Outdoor programs are held in The Rock Lot (at 305 West 8th Street) and the 7th & West Streets Community Park from May through October. In 2023, we opened the Art O Mat and now offer programming in this indoor space at 7th and Washington Streets, year-round. Our Creative Placemaking and Art Programs are designed for downtown Wilmington residents. Wilmington Alliance serves those who live in West Center City, a low-income neighborhood of 5,000 residents, that has been traditionally marginalized and under-served in many ways, including a lack of creative activities and outlets.

Wilmington Alliance brings people together to drive innovative solutions, leverage resources and promote opportunities to empower the city’s residents and businesses. Wilmington Alliance partners with community, civic, and business leaders to prioritize the City’s highest needs to drive economic opportunity and social vitality. Their work is done through an equity lens and their initiatives involve equitable wealth creation in traditionally underrepresented Wilmington communities. The Alliance works to make Wilmington a more beautiful, safer, and thriving city that provides opportunity for all through our programs in Workforce Development; Entrepreneur and Small Business Support; and Creative Placemaking.

To learn more, visit: www.wilmingtonalliance.org.

CSTC - The Bodyguard

Clear Space Theatre Company 
2024 Summer Season
Rehoboth Beach
General Operating Support

Clear Space Theatre Company’s annual summer repertory season, which runs from June 25 – August 31, is the most dynamic time of year for theater in Rehoboth Beach. Anchored by three blockbuster musicals – Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages, and The Prom, the summer also features two children’s theater productions, a late night cabaret series, and a series of presented artists, bringing in such illustrious performers as Tony Award winner (and star of Bluebloods on CBS) Len Cariou for special events and engagements all summer long. For the core summer productions, one cast of artists auditioned from both coastal Delaware and around the country, performs in different roles each night. As all three blockbuster musicals are performed in rotation each week, a different cabaret is offered each week, and a different children’s production is offered each Saturday morning, it is possible for visitors in the area to see as many as five unique productions at Clear Space during a single weeklong vacation.

Clear Space Theatre Company offers 13 unique productions each year, and serving audience from 61 of 62 zip codes in Delaware and from 36 states across the country. Located in the heart of downtown Rehoboth Beach, CSTC performs in an intimate 170 seat thrust venue that is a converted church sanctuary, just a half a block from the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. In addition, CSTC’s Arts Institute has provided training for thousands of young people across its history. For 20 years, on stage and in classrooms, the company has been committed to artistic endeavors of integrity and risk.

CSTC’s annual summer repertory festival brings audiences who live in and who visit coastal Delaware together each year in a celebration of great professional theater. CSTC hires over 50 summer artists on stage and off to deliver programs of artistic excellence, including a mix of early professional and established professional performers. Many of CSTC’s performers go on to extraordinary careers, including Brody Grant, who first appeared at CSTC 5 years ago and is currently nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in The Outsiders on Broadway.

To learn more visit: www.clearspacetheatre.org

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.