Wilmington, Del. (June 13, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated exhibition, Award Winners XXIII, showcasing the exceptional talents of 17 artists who have been named the 2023 Individual Artist Fellows. This extraordinary exhibition is curated and hosted by the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware. This is the twenty-third year that the Biggs Museum has held an exhibition featuring the artwork of the Division’s Fellows. Award Winners XXIII will provide a unique opportunity for the public to engage with and appreciate the remarkable work of these accomplished artists.

The Division’s Individual Artist Fellowship program recognizes outstanding artists in various artistic disciplines, including choreography, folk art, jazz, literature, media arts, music, and visual arts. A rigorous selection process was undertaken, where the artists’ work samples were reviewed by out-of-state arts professionals who considered both the demonstrated creativity and skill in their respective art forms.

In 2023, the Division received an impressive number of work samples from 118 Delaware choreographers, composers, musicians, writers, and folk, media, and visual artists. Following an anonymous review process, 17 exceptional artists were awarded fellowships, representing the categories of two Masters, seven Established, and eight Emerging artists. These talented fellows reside throughout Delaware, from the communities of Bridgeville, Claymont, Felton, Harrington, Lewes, New Castle, Newark, Smyrna,  Wilmington and Wyoming.

Award Winners XXIII will be presented across three remarkable venues, each offering a distinctive atmosphere for visitors to immerse themselves in the captivating artwork:

Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, DE

Exhibition Dates: July 13 – September 24, 2023

Reception & Award Ceremony: July 14, 6-9 p.m.

CAMP Rehoboth Community Center in Rehoboth Beach, DE

Exhibition Dates: August 10 – September 8, 2023

Reception: August 10, 6-8 p.m.

Cab Calloway School for the Arts in Wilmington, DE

Exhibition Dates: October 2 – November 3, 2023

Reception: October 6, 6-8 p.m.

Artist profiles for the 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship cohort can be found here.

“Supporting individual artists is vital for a thriving arts ecosystem,” says Jessica Ball, Director of the Delaware Division of the Arts. “These artists are the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and cultural expression. By investing in their work, we not only contribute to the growth and vitality of the arts community but also nurture the unique perspectives and voices that enrich our society.”

“Individual artists play a crucial role in inspiring new ideas,” says Deputy Director Kristin Pleasanton. “Through their work, they invite us to explore different perspectives, engage in meaningful dialogue, and reflect on the world around us. By attending these three exhibitions, the public can show their support for these remarkable artists and acknowledge the importance of their contributions to the artistic landscape of Delaware.”

“Some of these artists are well-known.  For others, this is their first museum show,” says Laura Fravel, Sewell C. Biggs Curator of American Art.  “It is exciting to see the range of voices and perspectives in the Award Winners XXIII exhibition.  The Biggs is dedicated to celebrating and advancing the arts in Delaware and, in honor of our 30th anniversary year, we are offering free admission during the run of this show to encourage greater public engagement with contemporary artists working in our state.” 

For additional information about the Individual Artist Fellowship program, please visit the Delaware Division of the Arts website at arts.delaware.gov/iafrecipients. For more information about the Award Winners XXIII exhibition, please visit the Biggs Museum of American Art website at https://www.biggsmuseum.org.

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.

DNREC Division of Climate, Coastal and Energy Director Dayna Cobb, right, and DNREC Energy Efficiency Planner Keri Knorr, left, present the overall winner’s trophy for the 2023 Junior Solar Sprint competition to Veraj Mehta and Chetan Kasukurthi from the Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington. The Junior Solar Sprint competition was live for the first time since 2019 and held for the first time at Delaware State University. /DNREC photo

Middle School Students Design, Build and Race Solar Vehicles
During DNREC-Sponsored Event at Delaware State University

A team from Cab Calloway School of the Arts was crowned overall champion of the 2023 Junior Solar Sprint competition held on the campus of Delaware State University today.

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control teams up with the Delaware Technology Student Association for the event each year. Students in grades 5 through 8 work with classmates and teacher advisors over the course of several months to build model cars powered by solar photovoltaic cells, better known as solar panels.

“While the virtual events of the past couple years showcased each team’s abilities to adapt to changing circumstances – much like we are learning to adapt to a changing climate – nothing compares to the excitement of the head-to-head racing competition,” said DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin. “These students, like many others across the First State, are laying the groundwork to ensure a clean, healthy Delaware for future generations.”

Today’s competition marked the first time since 2019 that the event was held live. The Junior Solar Sprint was canceled due to the COVID pandemic in 2020, and was held virtually the past two years. This is also the first time the event was held on the DSU campus.

Dayna Cobb, Director of DNREC’s Division of Climate, Coastal and Energy, said the competition showcases the talents of all the students participating. “Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders,” she said. “The teamwork, problem-solving and creative scientific thinking they employ for this competition demonstrates their commitment to taking on the environmental challenges we face today, and will continue to face in the future.”

Students received points for project portfolios, overall design and fastest speed in a timed competition. The team accumulating the most points wins – today that honor went to Team 2 made up of Veraj Mehta and Chetan Kasukurthi from Cab Calloway School of the Arts. Technology Student Association-affiliated teams also can earn the opportunity to represent Delaware against other students from around the country in the national TSA conference, which is to be held in Louisville, Ky. in June.

Schools participating in this year’s event included Las Americas ASPIRA Academy, Cab Calloway Middle School, Las Americas ASPIRA Academy, Newark; Gauger-Cobbs Middle School, Newark; Holy Cross School, Dover; and May B. Leasure Elementary School, Newark.

Competition results from the Delaware State campus today were:

The all-around winners for combined speed, design and portfolio presentations

• 1^st place: Team #2 – Veraj Mehta and Chetan Kasukurthi from Cab Calloway School of the Arts
• 2^nd place: Team #5 – Jha’san Clark and Daniel Coleman from Gauger-Cobbs Middle School
• 3^rd place: Team #6 – Veronica Morales-Garcia and Len Ojeda from Las Americas ASPIRA Academy

Top results from the double-elimination races

• 1^st place: Team #2 – Veraj Mehta and Chetan Kasukurthi from Cab Calloway School of the Arts
• 2^nd place: Team #9 – Vishal Karthikeyan and Vedic Mukherjee from Cab Calloway School of the Arts:
• 3^rd place: Team #7 – Andrew Russom, Favor Chucks, Lillian Poliquin, and Seyram Tackey from Holy Cross School

Top results from the design competition

• 1^st place: Team #5 – Jha’san Clark and Daniel Coleman from Gauger-Cobbs Middle School
• 2^nd place: Team #2 – Veraj Mehta and Chetan Kasukurthi from Cab Calloway School of the Arts
• 3^rd place: Team #6 – Veronica Morales-Garcia and Len Ojeda from Las Americas ASPIRA Academy

Top results from the portfolio competition were

• 1^st place: Team #5 – Jha’san Clark and Daniel Coleman from Gauger-Cobbs Middle School
• 2^nd place: Team #2 – Veraj Mehta and Chetan Kasukurthi from Cab Calloway School of the Arts
• 3^rd. place: Team #4 – Johnathan Cruz and Sean Andrews from Las Americas ASPIRA Academy

DNREC would also like to thank the 2023 Junior Solar Sprint sponsors: Chesapeake Utilities, Energize Delaware, the Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation, KW Solar Solutions, Clean Energy USA and CMI Solar and Electric.

For more information, visit de.gov/solarsprint.

About DNREC
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control protects and manages the state’s natural resources, protects public health, provides outdoor recreational opportunities and educates Delawareans about the environment. The DNREC Division of Climate, Coastal and Energy uses science, education, policy development and incentives to address Delaware’s climate, energy and coastal challenges. For more information, visit the website and connect with @DelawareDNREC on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media Contacts: Michael Globetti, michael.globetti@delaware.gov; Jim Lee, JamesW.Lee@delaware.gov.

Wilmington, Del. (March 29, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2022 DDOA Individual Artist Fellow Tad Sare’s exhibition, “Projected Perspectives”, running April 7-28, 2023. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, April 14 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Tad Sare is an experimental animator and artist currently living and working in Wilmington, Delaware. Sare uses the storytelling medium of animation to explore perception and interpretation of juxtaposed and sequential images. He employs hand drawn techniques while collaging/overlapping photographs, live action video, and sound elements digitally. His work borrows ideas, filmic devices and tropes from espionage and thriller literature and cinema to examine the relationship between the perceived and the unknown of visual information.

‘Projected Perspectives’ gives a snapshot of two recent site-specific artworks Sare created using his own eclectic subject matter and animation techniques. ‘Triptych’, originally exhibited at the top of a ladder within an old rice store in Japan, incorporates visual representations of ‘floating’ or ‘soaring’. Viewers are encouraged to watch the video from a vantage point that simulates the experience of climbing to the top of that ladder. ‘Pipes of Perception’ depicts a strange journey in and around water pipes. The exhibition also includes the hand drawn elements that were used to make the animated short films.

Since 2009, Sare has taught art at Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD), where he currently serves as the Program Chair of Animation. He is also a teaching artist for a mentor program through Cab Calloway School of the Arts. At PAFA, his alma mater, he continues to teach in the Summer Arts Academy. In 2022, Sare was awarded a Delaware Division of the Arts Established Fellowship in Media Arts:Video/Film.

The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.

View the artists’s website here: www.tadsare.com

View the artists Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/tad_sare

Image: “Kitchen Windowsill (Triptych Background Element),” 2022, graphite on paper, 14” x 18″

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.

On view from November 4-25, 2022

Wilmington, Del. (November 3, 2022) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2022 DDOA Individual Artist Fellow Maia Palmer’s exhibition, “Making the Invisible, Visible”, running November 4-25, 2022. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, November 4, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. (There will be student performance at 5pm from the strings majors at Cab Calloway School of the Arts, with special thanks to educator Julie Murphy).

Maia Palmer was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1980. She works primarily in acrylics and charcoal, and has also created community murals, digital works, and figurative sculptures. Palmer earned a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. She has exhibited nationally as well as internationally in Spain, Germany, and China. Palmer has lived all around the globe and is interested in capturing the unique spirit of each location that she experiences. To read more about Maia and her history, click here for a link to her fellowship page.

Committed to “being a positive force for social change,” Palmer is the high school visual arts teacher at Cab Calloway School of the Arts. She feels strongly about teaching there, saying “I am a product of public school and I want to be part of rebuilding its strength.” One of the most exciting aspects of receiving the Fellowship is “the recognition of my work” and the ability to further its scope and her goal to “help amplify the voices of those who are not always heard.”

Making the Invisible, Visible features a series of migraine self-portraits documenting Palmer’s experiences as a migraineur over the past 15 years. To be clear, migraine is a neurological disease, one that is debilitating and painfully real. Yet it is frequently referred to as an “invisible illness,” as there are often no visible symptoms. Women in particular are subject to dismissive treatment because of this, as Palmer has experienced first-hand.

With these works, Palmer examines her relationship with migraine. She merges autobiographical experiences with imagery and text laden with both historical and personal value. Each of these images captures a real, private moment that she has in fact experienced – from hiding under blankets to wearing hand-made ‘migraine boxes’. She says, “Creating these drawings is a visceral process of acknowledging the larger than life physical and emotional pain that migraine has caused in my life – as well as the emotional and physical growth it has helped me accomplish. I am ultimately a stronger person as I emerge on the other side of chronic migraine, cherishing every moment and delighting in our capacity as humans to overcome and endure.”

Navigating her own experiences, Palmer has embodied the physical and mental trauma of this illness by manipulating surfaces and materials to simulate the experience of a migraine – the tearing of paper, or the piercing of a surface with needle and thread. By making visible the invisible trauma of migraine, she aims to bring awareness to this consistently under-funded, chronically misunderstood disease.

The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.

Image: “Splitting Headache,” 2021, charcoal on paper, 50″ x 38″

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.

On view from October 7-November 4, 2022

Wilmington, Del. (September 28, 2022) – The works by the Delaware Division of the Arts Award Winners are appearing at Cab Calloway School of the Arts from October 7 to November 4, 2022, with a reception on Friday, October 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. Special readings from literary fellows will begin at 7pm, and performances from students will be held before and after.

These Delaware artists have been recognized for their outstanding quality of work. The exhibition includes multiple mediums.  Visual arts on display include paintings, polymer, photography, charcoal, sculptures, and media arts. Samples of literary winners’ works can be perused in a reading nook, and performance pieces are available for one’s listening pleasure.   

Delaware’s Individual Artist Fellowships recognize artists for their outstanding quality of work and provide monetary awards. Individual Artist Fellows are publicly acknowledged and benefit from the additional exposure to their work. Fellows are required to showcase their work in a public exhibition or performance, so we’ve set up a special section on DelawareScene.com for you to experience their work.

In 2022, the Division received work samples from 132 Delaware choreographers; composers; musicians; writers; and folk, media, and visual artists. The work samples were reviewed by out-of-state arts professionals who considered the demonstrated creativity and skill in each artist’s respective art form. Twenty-five artists were awarded fellowships in the following categories – one, Masters; 13, Established; and 11, Emerging. The 25 selected fellows reside throughout Delaware including Dover, Georgetown, Hockessin, Lewes, Magnolia, Middletown, Newark, Smyrna, Townsend, and Wilmington.

Masters Fellow Linda Blaskey was a writer from the start: “I was always getting into trouble in school because I was writing stories rather than paying attention in class.” Fortunately, she had encouraging teachers, and once she set out on her path, there was no turning back. 

Emerging artist Stephanie Boateng has owned a business since she was 18 years of age selling prints, originals, and stickers of her art. Now the recent University of Delaware graduate is beginning her career as a professional artist, hoping to share the joy she feels when making her work. “My portraits are very emotional beings,” created to be “an experience of happiness, love, and beauty” both for herself and her viewers.

Established artist Joseph Barbaccia is “continuously excited about how a specific medium which is traditionally used in one genre can be expanded to a successful level in another.” In 2018 he moved to Georgetown, Delaware where his workspace was smaller. He landed on polymer clay as “the perfect choice.” The material – with its transparency and a full color spectrum – allows him to create in both two and three dimensions. 

Emerging artist Maia Palmer, in addition to her career as an artist, is also a faculty member at Cab Calloway School of the Arts! She is the high school Visual Arts teacher, and loves sharing her talent and passion for the arts with her students.  She particularly enjoys “the immediacy of drawing . . . the grittiness of charcoal. I love that I can work directly with my hands on the paper.” Her large scale charcoal self-portraits address her personal journey as a migraine sufferer.

Do not miss the Award Winners Reception on October 7, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Meet the artists to congratulate them on their recognition, socialize in the lobby, tour the art in the gallery, and enjoy performances and readings by the award-winning artists.   

About Cab Calloway School of the Arts: Cab Calloway School of the Arts (CCSA) is the premiere public school with an arts-based curriculum in the state of Delaware. Founded in 1992 by a group of parents seeking quality education in a motivating environment, the school is part of the Red Clay Consolidated School District (RCCSD). Named after the American jazz icon, Cab Calloway, CCSA provides both academic and arts education for students in grades 6-12.

About the Fellowship: The Division offers fellowships in the artistic disciplines of choreography, folk art, jazz, literature, media arts, music, and visual arts. Artists’ work samples are reviewed by nationally recognized out-of-state arts professionals, considering both demonstrated creativity and skill in the art form. The awards—$3,000 for Emerging Artists, $6,000 for Established Professionals, and $10,000 for Masters—allow artists to pursue advanced training, purchase equipment and materials, or fulfill other needs that will help advance their careers. The highest honor—the Masters Fellow—is reserved for those who meet rigorous criteria. Only one Masters Fellow can be awarded each year. Disciplines rotate every three years. During the fellowship year, recipients are required to showcase their work in a public exhibit or performance in Delaware. For more details about the Individual Artist Fellowship program, please visit the Grants for Artist page.

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.