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.

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 2025

 

Inner City Cultural League Logo

 

 

 

 

 

Inner City Cultural League
2025 African American Festival
Dover
General Operating Support

The African American Festival, Positively Dover is a day-long, family friendly event set up in the format of an outdoor African market where vendors sell everything from soul food to wood carvings, local community organizations share information and services, and talented dancers and musicians entertain the crowd. The Festival is free, open to the general public, and is a rain or shine event. The Sankofa African Dancers and Drummers are featured each year. This group is comprised of youth ages 3 through 22, and each member brings an energetic performance to the stage. Other performers include the Trinidad and Tobago Steel Drum Ensemble, Tynisha Sounds LLC, New York Funk Jazz Band, and others! There will be hands-on activities for youth, line-dancing, cultural displays and plenty of activities to keep the family engaged all day.

The mission of the Inner City Cultural League, Inc is to provide relevant cultural programs that will positively impact and improve the lives of less advantaged families, especially community youth, through the performing and visual arts that will awaken the genius within, ignite the human spirit and create an awareness of the value of the arts in social, economic, educational development, and upward mobility.

To learn more, visit ICCLarts.org

Milford Community Band Members in a group photo

 

 

 

 

Milford Community Band
Biannual Concerts
Milford
General Operating Support

Every year, the Milford Community (Concert) Band has two major performances: a spring concert and a Christmas concert. These concerts are performed both at Milford High School and First Baptist Church of Dover. These free, public concerts are the bands way of enriching the community with live music.

The Milford Community Band enables instrumentalists, from high school students to senior citizens, to serve the local community through the performance of live concerts. In addition to the concert band, which is the main MCB group and consists of about 45 – 50 members, there are several independent ensembles, such as, the Smooth Sound Big Band, the Downtown Dixieland Band, the Mid-Del Sax Quartet, and from mid-November until Christmas Eve, the Christmas Carol Band.

To learn more, visit https://milfordcommunityband.org/

Photo of several people singing into microphones

 

 

 

 

 

Elevate Vocal Arts
Lift Every Voice: A Juneteenth Celebration
Wilmington
Start Up Program

Lift Every Voice is a performance held on Juneteenth at the Freeman Arts Pavilion. The performers include vocal artists participating in Summer Institute, a five-week workforce development apprentice program hosted by Elevate Vocal Arts, as well as Summer Institute faculty and staff members. Summer Institute is a stipend-based apprenticeship, focused on ensuring that emerging vocal artists are equipped with not only musical skills but career skills they need for a career in the creative economy. Apprentices receive training in expanded musicianship, including genres not commonly taught in schools such as Jazz, R&B, and Gospel, as well as career skills including financial literacy, interviewing, and marketing/branding.

The cohort of 16 emerging artists participating in Summer Institute (SI) were selected from an intensive audition process. The first four weeks of SI are held on-line, with sessions on marketing and branding, vocal health, financial literacy, and individual voice lessons, and the final week is held in person at Bethany Beach, Delaware. SI Apprentices will spend June 14-June 22, 2025 in Bethany, focused on performing, community, and career-readiness. Equity is at the core of everything we do at Elevate Vocal Arts, and SI is no exception; in the 2025 cohort, 100% of Apprentices identify as coming from a historically marginalized group. Elevate Vocal Arts is honored to provide this opportunity for these talented and dedicated Apprentices.

The Elevate Vocal Arts Movement creates career pathways for individuals to shape and seize their futures and to serve communities. We envision a world where the vocal arts give voice to the voiceless, hope to the hopeless, and opportunity to the overlooked.

To learn more, visit: https://elevatevocalarts.org/events/freeman-lift-every-voice

 

Cab Calloway School Fund Logo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cab Calloway School Fund
SMArtSummer
Wilmington
Project Support

At the heart of its outreach efforts is SMArtSummer, the Fund’s flagship six-week summer enrichment program offered in collaboration with the Charter School of Wilmington. Open to students entering grades 1–12 from all districts, SMArtSummer serves a diverse community of young artists and scholars with a broad spectrum of high-quality arts and STEAM-based camps. Each summer, the program welcomes approximately 700 campers, with 25% receiving scholarships through the Fund’s robust Title I Scholarship Program. Most scholarship recipients—many of whom are students with special needs—attend schools in the Red Clay Consolidated School District or Wilmington-based charter schools serving low-income communities.

SMArtSummer is distinguished by its commitment to excellence and innovation in arts programming. The program draws from a network of professional artists and educators who are passionate about inspiring the next generation. Each camp is designed to cultivate creativity, confidence, and collaboration, providing transformative experiences that encourage students to explore their talents and build new skills. This year, the Fund launched a new initiative in partnership with the Wilmington Learning Collaborative: a ten-month afterschool program with a five-week summer intensive for inner-city, Title I schools that blends science, technology, reading, engineering, arts, and math (STREAM) into hands-on, project-based learning. This program represents an exciting expansion of the Fund’s mission to deliver culturally responsive, arts-integrated education that ignites curiosity and fosters academic success.

The Cab Calloway School Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the Cab Calloway School of the Arts and the greater Wilmington community, continues to elevate arts education throughout Delaware by championing year-round programming, equipment, and enrichment opportunities beyond the school’s budget. Through a commitment to equity and access, the Fund provides resources for initiatives such as the Piano and Strings Program, a dynamic after-school Mentoring Program, and a state-of-the-art Recording Studio.

To learn more, visit: https://cabcallowayschoolfund.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.