Nominations for the 2014 Governor’s Awards for the Arts are now being accepted. These prestigious awards recognize the contributions of individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions and a lasting and profound impact on the artistic and cultural life of Delaware.

A reception and awards ceremony will be held in October 2014 to honor those selected by the Governor’s Awards Selection Committee. Nominees should be individuals with legal residence in Delaware or an organization or business based in Delaware. Division staff, Arts Council members, members of their families, and previous recipients are not eligible for nomination.

Nominations are now being accepted in the following categories:
Individual – artist, arts educator, arts administrator, arts advocate, arts patron
Organization – arts organization, business, government, media
Collaboration – two or more of the above entities working together in and for the arts

Complete information about the Governor’s Awards for the Arts, nomination form and instructions are available at http://www.artsdel.org/govawards/. The deadline for the submission of the nomination packets is Friday, June 20, 2014.

Questions can be directed to Sheila Ross 302-577-8284.

Students from sixteen Delaware high schools will participate in the Poetry Out Loud state finals at the Smyrna Opera House on Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 7 p.m. The event is free and the public is invited to attend. Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn will greet contestants and give opening remarks.

The winner will receive $200 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, DC, to compete in the national championship April 29-30, 2014 where $50,000 in cash prizes and school stipends are awarded.

Each of the sixteen participants will recite poetry that they have selected, studied, and practiced, representing poets including Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Gwendolyn Brooks. The recitations are inspiring, moving, animated, sometimes humorous, and always engaging. The 2014 participants are:

Sydney Badel, Caravel Academy
Kathleen Becker, Red Lion Christian Academy
Daria Chicosky, Padua Academy
Erin Paige Dugan, Dover High School
Joslyn Gardner, Wilmington Friends School
Genna Hahn, Mount Sophia Academy
Syda Isaacs, Brandywine High School
Janay Brooklyn Laws, First State School
Christopher Malafronti, Sanford School
Kellina Moore, Appoquinimink High School
Maryam Pasdar, Ursuline Academy
James Rath, Wilmington Christian School
Bridget Rocha, St. Mark’s High School
Idalis Stamas, Polytech High School
Kana Turley, Tall Oaks Classical School
Kelly Velasquez-Perez, Seaford Senior High School

To learn more about the individual students and insights into their reasons for participating in the program, read their biographies.

Liane Hansen, prominent American journalist and Emmy Award-winning radio personality of National Public Radio’s (NPR) “Weekend Edition Sunday,” will be the Mistress of Ceremonies. Adjudicators include The Honorable Donald A. Blakey, Linda Blaskey, Tina Betz, Jane Miller, Joseph Consiglio and Ginny Jewell. They bring their personal and professional experience as poets, educators, and performing artists, to judge the participants on physical presence, voice and articulation, appropriateness of dramatization, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, overall performance, and accuracy.

The Delaware Division of the Arts sponsors the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest program in Delaware schools and the state finals. Competition begins at the classroom level in the fall and culminates with the state finals each spring. Twenty-one schools and 1,765 Delaware students participated in the Poetry Out Loud program in the current academic year.

The Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest competition is presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Click here for more details about the partnership and program.

The Delaware Division of the Arts Mezzanine Gallery will present an exhibition titled Knicoma Frederick’s WPIZ from February 7-28, 2014. The Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located in the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington. There will be a reception to meet the artist on Friday, February 7 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. as part of Wilmington’s Art Loop.

This solo exhibition of Frederick’s work will showcase a selection of original works from his ongoing WPIZ series.

The work Frederick produces is a unique and personal form of communication. The imagery is developed and presented in an effort to express ideas, foster communication, and assist others in dealing with barriers and difficulties which are present in their own lives.

In recent years Frederick has produced thousands of drawings in this effort. Many of these works have been collected in a series of books which comprise his WPIZ series. His work is in the collection of the Delaware Art Museum and has been exhibited at the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia.

Frederick is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship in Folk Art from the Delaware Division of the Arts. He was selected as an Emerging Visual Artist. The artist produces his work with the assistance and guidance of the Creative Vision Factory in downtown Wilmington.

To read an article about him, visit the Division’s Individual Arts Fellowship web publication.

The Delaware Division of the Arts has announced the Fiscal Year 2014 winners of its Individual Artist Fellowship (IAF) grants. Seventeen individual Delaware artists are being recognized for the high quality of their artwork in the visual arts, literature, music, choreography, and folk arts. Artists were selected from towns throughout the state including Seaford, Bridgeville, Lewes, Milford, Dover, New Castle, Newark, and Wilmington. Their work ranged from painting and sculpture to poetry and choreography.

The work of 115 applicants was judged by arts professionals from around the country. Through the IAF grants, the artists’ achievements are affirmed, helping provide the recognition and exposure that artists need to successfully promote their work. The artists receive a financial award—$3,000 for the Emerging category, $6,000 for the Established category, and $10,000 for the Masters level—allowing them to pursue advanced training, purchase equipment and materials, or fulfill other needs that allow them to advance their careers. The public will have an opportunity to see the varied artwork by these artists as they are required to have a public exhibit or performance showcasing their work in the upcoming year.

This year, the arts discipline category for the Masters Fellowship was Visual Arts. The discipline category rotates every three years, and only artists that have previously won in the Established category are eligible to apply. In addition to the high artistic quality of their work, artists must demonstrate their involvement and commitment to the arts in Delaware. This year’s winner of the Masters Fellowship is Carson Zullinger of Wilmington in Photography. He is being honored for the outstanding quality of his work, his dedication to the arts and arts organizations in Delaware, and his contributions both locally and nationally in the field of photography.

Listed below are the Delaware Division of the Arts 2014 Individual Artist Fellows. Contact information for the artists may be obtained by calling Kristin Pleasanton, the Division’s Deputy Director, at (302) 577-8284 in Wilmington or (302) 736-7436 in Dover.

The next deadline for Individual Artist Fellowship applications is August 1, 2014.

The Delaware Division of the Arts is an agency of the State of Delaware. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support artists and arts organizations, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. Funding for Division programs is provided by annual appropriations from the Delaware State Legislature, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

The Delaware Division of the Arts Mezzanine Gallery will present an exhibition titled Cycle of Support by Anne Jenkins from December 6-27, 2013. The Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located in the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington. There will be a reception to meet the artist on Friday, December 6 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. as part of Wilmington’s Art Loop.

Anne Jenkins is a self-taught painter and mixed media artist. She focuses her work around the theme of “women helping women.” Anne says her inspiration is drawn from the strength and courage of women. Throughout the world, in spite of ethnic or economic differences, women facing war or tremendous hardship all display a common dignity. In her extensive travels, Anne has found, “It is so often those with the least who do the most for others.”

Anne Jenkins’ paintings are primarily executed using acrylic paint applied with a palette knife. The medium allows the artist to create a rich impasto of bold color in loose, free strokes. Burlap and handmade paper add additional texture and earthiness to her work.

Anne Jenkins is the recipient of the Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in Folk Art for 2013. She has exhibited her work regionally and internationally. Originally from South Africa, Anne has travelled extensively throughout the world. Anne Jenkins presently lives and works in Milford, Delaware.

To read an article about Anne, visit the Division’s Individual Arts Fellowship web publication.