Delaware Division of the Arts

Award Winners XXIII

July 13 – Sept 24, 2023

The Delaware Division of the Arts 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.

In 2023, the Division received work samples from 118 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. Seventeen artists were awarded fellowships in the following categories – two, Masters; seven, Established; and eight, Emerging. The seventeen selected fellows reside throughout Delaware including Bridgeville, Claymont, Felton, Harrington, Lewes, Newark, Smyrna, and Wilmington. The Biggs is honored to partner with the Division to showcase this phenomenal group of local artists.

Front Row Center:

Icons of  Rock, Blues, and Soul

Larry Hulst
Jimi Hendrix at the Golden Bear Raceway, Cal Expo
April 26, 1970

March 17 –  June 19, 2023

The iconic photographs of Larry Hulst capture the freewheeling energy of live music and the enduring visual spectacle of rock’s greatest performers. From Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to David Bowie and Lauryn Hill, Front Row Center: Icons of Rock, Blues and Soul brings together over 70 images of legendary musicians and singers across three genres and generations. The exhibition charts Hulst’s extraordinary path through the pulsing heart of the most exciting live music of the last century, showcasing a unique visual anthology of rock, blues, and soul music from 1970–1999. These images, which have been featured on album art and Rolling Stone spreads, convey Hulst’s lifelong passion for the magnetism, immediacy, and unpredictability of live music. With photos that also document the unforgettable voices of funk, punk, and beyond, Front Row Center grants viewers an all-access pass to some of the most memorable performances in popular music history.

Verreries Schneider (French, founded 1913 – closed 1981) Charles Schneider (French, 1881-1953) Vase Nénuphar (Water Lily Vase) from Le Verre Français line, circa 1926-1929

Art Deco Glass from the David Huchthausen Collection

November 5, 2022 –  February 20, 2023

Clean lines, geometric shapes and bright colors characterize this exhibition of more than 100 early 20^th century works by iconic Art Deco Studios such as René Lalique, Daum Frères, Steuben Glass Works, and many others.  Assembled through the keen and practiced eye of renowned contemporary glass artist David Huchthausen, each piece in this exhibition takes viewers back to an extraordinary time in glass history.

Organized by the Museum of Glass, Tacoma Washington.

Tom Wilson, “Inez in Dover”

Tom Wilson: Super-Realist/Surrealist

July 1 –  October 16, 2022

From international male supermodel to renowned artist: once-famous for his looks, Tom’s career morphed brilliantly into a body of work that indelibly graces the collections of many of Delaware’s prominent arts patrons in the Rehoboth/Lewes area. Today, 50 pieces on loan from these collectors were curated into a comprehensive exhibition capturing Southern Delaware and highlighting beach neighborhoods, while showcasing Wilson’s artistic range and preserving his lasting legacy on the people of Delaware and the Delaware arts scene.

 

Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum

March 4 –  June 18, 2022

Featuring 72 works from the permanent collection of Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York, this exhibition notably includes artwork by Jackson Pollock, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Chuck Close. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and mixed media works will trace the progression of art movements in the U.S. from Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism to Contemporary Arts of the 1980s and 1990s.

Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum was organized the Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY in association with Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA.

Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts : Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum is made possible through support from the Choptank Foundation, The Bryn Mawr Trust Company of Delaware and the Delaware Division of the Arts.  ​

Children’s Abstract Art Exhibition

March 4 –  May 7, 2022

Inspired by Guild Hall: An Adventure in the Arts: Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Guild Hall Museum, the Biggs Museum of American Art put out a call for abstract art created by artists in Pre – K through 12th grade. Nearly 100 submissions were received and installed. Come see the future of Delaware arts!

Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray

November 5, 2021 –  February 12, 2022

In May 1931 the eminent photographer Nickolas Muray traveled to Mexico on vacation where he met Frida Kahlo, a woman he would never forget. The two started a romance that continued on and off for the next ten years and a friendship that lasted until her death in 1954. Approximately forty photographic portraits taken by Muray of Kahlo comprise the exhibition. The photographs, dating from 1937 to 1946, explore Muray’s unique perspective; as Kahlo’s friend, lover and confidant. Muray’s photographs bring to light Kahlo’s deep interest in her Mexican heritage, her life and the people with whom she shared a close friendship.

Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray is made possible through support from the Choptank Foundation, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware and The Bryn Mawr Trust Company of Delaware.  Additionally, these exhibitions and related programming are supported by the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.  The Delaware Division of the Arts promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.

Unmasking Culture: An Examination of the Ritual Masks of Mexico

November 5, 2021 –  February 12, 2022

Unmasking Culture will accompany Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray to celebrate and enhance the understanding of the cultural heritage of Mexico for which Kahlo has become a global icon. This exhibition presents antique masks and figures used by Mexican indigenous people in their centuries-old religious dances and ceremonies. Items in this collection are on loan from The Althouse Collection, which was established by the late Thomas and Charlotte Althouse during their travels and residence in Mexico in the 1950s and 1970s. The private collection was later passed on to their son, artist Stephen Althouse.

Mi Frida: Children’s Portrait Contest Exhibition

November 5, 2021 –  February 12, 2022

Frida Kahlo and portraits of her have become iconic in pop culture because of her unique sense of self. Kahlo’s Tehuana-inspired dress, elaborate hairstyles, and dignified unibrow are as recognizable as her paintings. The Biggs put out a call to young artists in grades K – 12 to submit their portraits of Frida Kahlo to celebrate her powerful and uncompromising sense of self. With talent beyond their years, this exhibition will showcase all of the submissions to the Mi Frida Portrait Contest by our amazing Biggs Kids.

Contemporary Refresh

November 5, 2021 –  January 22, 2022

The Biggs Museum will create a fresh showcase of modern and contemporary artworks curated from its permanent collection in Galleries 23-25. This exhibition will feature paintings, prints, sculptures and more created by artists from the 1960s through practicing artists today.

Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction – The Engraved Works

July 2, 2021 – October 16, 2021

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) captured a cross section of American society that tells a story of triumph and tragedy in American history through his monochromatic engravings created during the pre-war years, the Civil War and the following decade. Featuring Homer’s early work that was produced in New York’s Hudson River Valley, this exhibition is accompanied by never-before-exhibited period photographs of his subjects.

Inventing Illustration: Illuminating Vintage Children’s Literature & Other Stories

July 2, 2021 – October 16, 2021

Wilmington-based artist Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972) created thousands of book illustrations throughout his career, including the cover art for such well-known stories as Swiss Family Robinson (1921), Gulliver’s Travels (1921) and Treasure Island (1921). This exhibition traces Schoonover’s design steps, beginning with preparatory photographs, drawings and sketches for illustrations and ending with paintings and book covers that he created for best-selling children’s literature. Inventing Illustration – generously loaned to the Biggs Museum by the late Dr. Edward Burka – is the perfect accompaniment to Winslow Homer From Poetry to Fiction—The Engraved Works.

Award Winners XXI

June 4, 2021 – July 24, 2021

The Delaware Division of the Arts annually recognizes outstanding artists across the state in the areas of visual, literary and performing arts through their Individual Artist Fellowships. The Division awarded 25 Delaware artists with a prestigious Fellowship award this year. The Fellows’ work is exhibited among the Biggs’ fine and decorative arts collection, creating a stark contrast and a unique experience for museum visitors.

Out of the Vault:  Modern and Contemporary Art 

March 5, 2021 – June 19, 2021

Allow us to reintroduce ourselves. Witness an evolution of the Biggs through a reinstallation of the museum’s entire third-floor galleries to feature rarely exhibited paintings, photographs, sculpture and crafts from the Post WWI period to the contemporary arts of the present day.  Much of this work has been added to the collection in the past ten years, but has rarely been shared with the public.

In Fresh Air: Impressionism and the Plein Air Movement

March 5, 2021 – June 19, 2021

The artistic drive to leave the studio and to collect inspiration, impressions and ideas directly from nature is featured in this new exhibition. Drawn from works rarely seen at the Biggs Museum, the exhibition tracks the influence of plein air painting in the United States, particularly in Delaware, with a focus on the museum’s extensive Barbizon, Tonalist and Impressionist collections. Over 100 years of paintings connected by the plein air tradition will be brought together in this comprehensive exhibition.

Toni Frissell: In Italy with the Tuskegee Airmen 

January 8, 2021 – April 24, 2021

The imminent fashion and society photographer, Toni Frissell (1907-88), held several official positions with the American Red Cross, the Women’s Army Corp and the US Air Force to document World War II. This exhibition highlights her images of the Tuskegee Airmen, the 332d Fighter Group, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

Stairway to Heaven: Life and Death in the Visions of Salvador Dalí

Illustrations for Les Chants de Maldoror and The Divine Comedy

December 4, 2020 – (Extended through) February 20, 2021

Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) is among the most recognized and eccentric artists of the 20^th century. He layered the surreal imagery of his “paranoiac-critical method” onto hundreds of artworks, including paintings, theatrical designs, films, architecture, sculptures, jewelry and fine art prints, such as those featured in Life and Death in the Visions of Salvador Dalí. Created for two publications, the artworks in this exhibition signal two distinct periods in Dalí’s career: the hedonism of his youth and the redemption he sought later in life. These two sets of artworks also signal his transition from Surrealism to Mysticism, which can be seen in this exhibition through his unwavering technical mastery in printmaking and draftsmanship.  With nearly 150 individual artworks on view, this exhibition provides an expansive selection to interpret Dalí‘s dream-like subjects.

Jack Lewis: Delaware’s Hidden Gem

August 7 – November 22, 2020

The Biggs Museum is proud to feature the work of our “Ultimate Hidden Gem” artists, Jack Lewis. This exhibition highlights rarely seen views across the Delmarva Peninsula from the collections of the Biggs Museum, the Rehoboth Art League and the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.

Since Lewis was known for his local scenes, we invite you to participate in a self guided socially distanced road trip, to see some of the sites that inspired these works, noting how they were painted and what they look like today.

Explore the Eastern Shore of Maryland, as well as each County in Delaware. Download our Jack Lewis Driving Tour with map for side by side comparisons, or explore our interactive map.

Delaware Watercolor Society

August 7, 2020 – September 20, 2020

The Biggs welcomes back the winners of the juried competition of Delaware’s premier membership of artists of the watercolor medium. This year’s juror, Joel Popadics, is an esteemed watercolorist whose work has been collected widely and who teaches and exhibits internationally.

Award Winners Reunion

June 5 – August 29

Elite 8: Fan-Favorites

June 5 – July 23, 2020

In the spirit of the NCAA March Madness Tournament, the Biggs hosted the Interactive BMAA March Madness Tournament, where we let the public vote on 64 rarely seen artworks packed away in the Biggs Museum’s object storage, the Elite 8 features the top winners of the museum’s first people’s choice award. Chosen through an on-line competition this spring by hundreds of participants, these works represent the best-from-the-vault.

Award Winners: XX

June 5 – July 23, 2020

Award Winners: XX – the 20th anniversary exhibition of the Biggs Museum’s annual presentation of visual, performing and literary arts fellowship winners of the Delaware Division of the Arts.

The Biggs Museum’s exhibition will combine this year’s fellowship winners with a selection of new works by notable past winners. The 2020 fellows’ works will also travel to be on view at CAMP Rehoboth in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Cab Calloway School for the Arts in Wilmington, Delaware.

Stephen Althouse: Relics

Extended through July 14, 2020

After receiving a Fulbright Grant to participate in an artist-in-residency program in Belgium, sculptor and photographer Stephen Althouse began exhibiting his uniquely constructed photographs in museums and galleries internationally. Featuring enormous images captured between 2003 and 2017, this exhibition elevates and transforms antique tools and decorative arts into universal symbols. The monumental scale and spiritualizing compositions of these artworks reference artifacts of the past to illuminate a collective human experience that transcends time.

Lessons: an Exhibition by Billy Colbert

February 7 – March 29, 2020

The Biggs Museum has partnered with University of Delaware Professor of Africana Studies Tiffany Barber to curate an exhibition of recent works by Billy Colbert of the Delaware State University Fine Art Department in conjunction with Dover’s Citywide Black History Celebration.

Colbert’s works are drawn from the theme of this year’s celebration “African American Education Under Segregation.” His exhibition incorporates rare historic video and photographs of black life in the U.S. in the early 20th century alongside artifacts of the separate and unequal educational system on loan from the African American community of Kent County. The artist and museum staff will collect oral histories on this topic during the exhibition to create an original documentary sharing memories of local segregated schools.

Emma Plowman’s Moment Becomes Memory

Ripped From the Headlines: Photojournalism in Delaware

November 1, 2019 – January 19, 2020

News publishers are among the nation’s oldest and most revered image makers. The art of photojournalism, especially in local newspapers, is under appreciated in American art museums even though they tell the stories that unify communities. The Biggs Museum is proud to partner with nearly every major news and magazine platform within Delaware to select highlights in local photojournalism form the past 20 years in one group exhibition. In addition, select photos will also be on view from some of Delaware’s premier photojournalists like Gary Emeigh and Kevin Fleming.

Detail of Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural

Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural

November 1, 2019 – January 19, 2020

A mural-arts project highlighting the Past, Present and Future of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware. This public art project was created through a partnership between Cheyney University professor and painter Marietta Dantonio-Madsen, Cheyney art students and the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware.

Biggs Body: A Juried Competition of Figural Art

September 6 – November 17, 2019

The Biggs Museum is proud to introduce a new juried competition and exhibition concept of art forms featuring human and animal figures. This exhibition showcases 60 exceptional artworks selected from nearly 400 competition submissions in all visual art media including, but not limited to: painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, fiber, installation and video. Selected artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region most successfully interpreted, evoked and responded to the body.

Rebecca Raubacher: Drawings and Paintings

August 2 – October 20, 2019

Rebecca Raubacher’s depictions of human and animal figures emerge over time from a few simple marks layered onto a piece of paper. Without any specific person in mind, she carefully, but almost hypnotically, builds her faces and bodies with cross-hatched lines of a wide range of artistic media. At times, her characters reveal themselves fully formed from within a simple line drawing. At other times, and often much after she started a specific composition, complex personalities appear through veiled skins of layered drawings and paint to demonstrate psychological tensions and universal narratives.

Practically born with a pencil in her hand, Raubacher’s career in art began early with gallery representation in New York but her local celebrity grew as a Kent County gallery owner and advocate of regional talent. She then ran a successful design business developing products with her unique horse portraits for racing fans across the country. Relocating to Lewes, the artist has reinvested herself in painting full-time developing an enormous body of work that radiates the joy of her good fortune and personal accomplishments.

Drawings and Paintings is the first one-woman show of this artist at the Biggs Museum of American Art and is first and foremost a love letter to Raubacher’s unique drawing style. The exhibition and catalog then trace the evolution of the artist’s artistic technique with a deep dive into her recent work.

Detail of Paulo Machado’s Thirteen Sick Snails

Delaware Art Educators Association Exhibition in the Child HELP Gallery

September 6 – October 20, 2019

Featuring artworks created by members of the Delaware Art Educators Association-an affiliate of the National Association serving art teachers across the country.

Spirit Revealed: New Works by Aaron Paskins

May 3 – July 21, 2019

Aaron Paskins is a Dover sculptor who has been building a national and local reputation for imaginative, inspiring African figures and imagery using unexpected materials. The essence of Paskins’ sculptures capture the complexity of various indigenous tribes, executed with imagination and a touch of fantasy. 

ArtLane: Visualizing the Museum

May 3 – July 21, 2019

The Biggs invited the artist critique group exhibition club, ArtLane, to study the museum as a subject of their photographic art works and to each create a distinct series of images that reflect their own artistic points of view. Featured artists include: Elisabeth Bard, Pat Field, Karl Leck, Ray Magnani, Dain Simons, Heather Siple, Beth Trepper, and Rob Tuttle.

Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Award Winners XIX

June 7 – July 21, 2019

Each year, the Biggs Museum of American Art hosts the winning artists of Delaware’s most prestigious fellowship competition in one group exhibition. The Delaware State Arts Council, in cooperation with the Delaware Division of the Arts, selects these fellowship winners from a pool of hundreds of literary, visual and performing artists at all professional levels. They are awarded cash grants, exhibition and performance opportunities and yearlong recognition. The Biggs Museum has partnered with CAMP Rehoboth and Cab Calloway School of the Arts to feature this exhibition in Sussex and New Castle Counties.

Caesar Rodney School District Art Show

May 4 – May 31, 2019

This annual exhibition celebrates the success of student artists in the Caesar Rodney School District. Open to all age levels, skill sets, and media, this show is an exemplary display of the diversity of perspective, experience, and personalities found in the Caesar Rodney community.

Rooted, Revived and Reinvented: Basketry in America

February 1 – April 28, 2019

Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America chronicles a history of American basketry from its origins in Native American, immigrant, and slave communities to its presence within the contemporary fine art world. Baskets convey meaning through the artists’ selection of materials; the techniques they use; and the colors, designs, patterns, and textures they employ. Historical baskets were rooted in local landscapes and shaped by cultural traditions. The rise of the industrial revolution and mass production at the end of the nineteenth century led basket makers to create works for new audiences and markets, including tourists, collectors and fine art museums. Today the story continues. Some contemporary artists seek to maintain and revive traditions practiced for centuries. Others combine age-old techniques with nontraditional materials to generate cultural commentary. Still others challenge viewers’ expectations by experimenting with form, materials, and scale. This exhibition is divided into 5 sections: Cultural Origins, New Basketry, Living Traditions, Basket as Vessel, and Beyond the Basket.

Traveling Africa: Citywide Black History Festival

February 1 – March 24, 2019

As part of Dover’s annual Citywide Black History Celebration, the Biggs Museum will examine the ways that Americans record and relate to Africa through tourism. This group exhibition includes travel photography of memorable moments on the continent, as well as the material culture that tourists in Kent County have collected to commemorate their adventures abroad.

From Nature: The Children’s Book Illustrations of Nancy Carol Willis

October 5, 2018 – January 27, 2019

Like John J. Audubon, Nancy Carol Willis demonstrates a deep feeling for nature based upon a lifetime of close observation, sketching, and painting. From October-January, the Schoonover Illustration Gallery will host 18 illustrations from three of Willis’s award-winning natural science children’s picture books. The books depict North American species in their natural habitats.

An Artist’s Education: William H. McDaniel

December 6, 2018 – January 19, 2019

Delaware is known for producing a great number of successful artists. Exceptional art schools in the area have produced luminaries of American illustration and fine arts. William H. McDaniel demonstrated great promise attending the Wilmington Academy of Art in the late 1920s, but the Great Depression ended his hopes of an art career. Despite his turn in fortunes, his family saved the bulk of his art school projects for nearly 100 years and is sharing this archival look into his early art education for the first time to rediscover this talent that was never fully realized.

Biggs Shot 2018

December 7, 2018 – January 27, 2019

The Biggs Museum of American Art presents Biggs Shot 2018, the fifth juried photography competition and exhibition featuring the work of professional and emerging photographers, working and/or living in the Mid-Atlantic region. The theme for Biggs Shot 2018 is open, and any photographic medium can be submitted for consideration, including film, video and digital formats. Click here for a list photographers and works in the exhibition.

Audubon, Then and Now

August 3 – November 25, 2018

In 1826 at the age of 41, encouraged by his wife, Audubon took his portfolio of 300+ works to England. Today, more than ever his work endures and segments of his work are right here at the Biggs in Dover. This exhibition examines the importance of the artist and naturalist, John James Audubon, through a large exhibition of his earliest works from both the Birds of America and Viviparous Quadropeds publications. This historical analysis will be coupled with the works of contemporary artists influenced by early naturalists and recorded in an exhibition catalog with color reproductions and essays by leading scholars.

Modern opinions of Audubon’s legacy will also be explored with displays of artworks by living artists influenced by this paragon of 19th century naturalist art. Learn More

Rembrandt Etchings: States, Fakes and Restrikes

May 12-July 8, 2018

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-69) was one of the most influential printmakers in the history of art. But how can one be sure that a Rembrandt is truly or wholly by THE Rembrandt? This exhibition examines the problem of authenticating this artist’ etchings. The exhibition includes first state pulls of etchings made during the artist’s lifetime as well as restrike prints made after his death and well into the 20^th century.

Body from Egg, Michael Galmer, Silver and Gold

Monumental: Michael Izrael Galmer, Silversmith

April 6-May 20, 2018

The Biggs Museum of American Art is grateful to highlight its 25th Anniversary Celebration with an exhibition on the famed American silversmith, Michael Izrael Galmer. Born to a Jewish family in Soviet Russia, he immigrated with his wife Galina to New York in 1981. Galmer combined his advanced degrees in engineering with a deep-rooted need to express himself artistically to develop a unique process of molding silver. While Galmer is extremely well known for his commercial products of jewelry, accessories and most notably table wares – some produced for the leading American manufacturers of silver today – this exhibition honors a new and more uniquely expressive direction for the artist. At the same time, this fresh body of works explores the emotional impact and, frankly, surprise of immense scale upon admirers of silver objects.

Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850

May 19 – July 22, 2018

The Biggs Museum will honor the upcoming publication of Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850, the definitive study of Delaware girlhood samplers of the 18th and 19th centuries, with an exhibition of historic needlework. The exhibition will feature approximately 80 antique samplers and other forms of embroidery from all three counties of the state with a special emphasis on debuting the work of little-known schools of needlework instruction; It will also be accompanied by a symposium and catalog.

Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Award Winners XVIII

June 1 – July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 5-7 p.m.

For the past 18 years, the Biggs Museum of American Art has hosted the DDOA Award Winners exhibition. This annual group show features artworks, literature and performances of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows-among the state’s most prestigious honors for artists. The winning Fellows are chosen by the Delaware State Arts Council from well over a hundred competitors. They are awarded cash grants, exhibition opportunities and year-long public recognition. This year, the Biggs Museum is partnering with CAMP Rehoboth and Cab Calloway School of the Arts to also showcase the Award Winners in Sussex and New Castle Counties.

The winning artists featured this year can be found here: https://arts.delaware.gov/iafrecipients/2018_iafs/

This exhibition is 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 Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.

Milton Downing: Moral Assembly

June 1 – July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 5-7 p.m.

Milton Downing insists he is not an activist, but perhaps a moralist. This assemblage artist gathers pieces of discarded clothing and other found objects into painted compositions that reveal a wide range of human experiences. His subjects, regardless of their backgrounds, are elevated through an expressive use of color and enlivened through the artist’s gestural use of paint. The emotional content of the people depicted are channeled through the forms emerging from the artist’s incorporated materials: a piece of denim influences a posture that dictates the narrative of his figure. From dejected and harassed people on the fringes of society to sports stars at the center of attention, Downing’s images act as a tribute to emotional and physical endurance. His subjects shed light on challenges facing many Americans with depictions of archetypes within its communities.

Monumental: Michael Izrael Galmer, Silversmith

April 6 – May 20, 2018

Opening Reception on Friday, April 6th from 5-7 p.m.

Based in New York, the silversmith Michael Galmer has succeeded in becoming one of the country’s leading craftsmen having designed for Tiffany and Co., Lenox, Gorham and Kirk Stieff. With a unique technique, the artist has developed a wide variety of repousse-decorated jewelry and vessels as well as the renowned Preakness trophy, commemorative silver forms and contemporary sculptures for such distinguished collections as the Jewish Museum of New York.

Tony Burton, Garden of Eden, Acrylic on Canvas

African American History Live

February 2 – April 29, 2018
Opening reception on February 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.
Meet-the-Artist Reception on Thursday, February 15, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

The Biggs Museum will present its first group exhibition of works created by African American artists of Greater Dover and Kent County. Entitled African American History Live, the exhibition is a focal point of the Dover Citywide Black History Celebration taking place in several locations throughout the city during the month of February. The show will feature approximately two dozen artists in a wide variety of media including: painting, video, photography, fiber, sculpture and works on paper. The artists also represent a diversity of professional backgrounds ranging from Delaware State University faculty, to students and from craft artists to second-career painters.

Jeffrey Rubin’s interpretation of Gerry Meekins’ photograph

Performances: the Brandywine Photo Collective

February 2 – April 22, 2018
Opening reception on Feb 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

The iconic photographer Ansel Adams described that every photograph is a “performance” in which light exposure, composition, color and any number of other tiny details can be arranged by the artist to create an original expression. In Performances, nine artist members of the Brandywine Photo Collective will interpret four photographic images through digital manipulation, post processing and creative printing. The exhibition then compares each artist’s evolution of the members’ source imagery.

Aina, Nergaard-Nammack, #1471 Meditation 5, 3 Circles, Acrylic on canvas

My Countries, My Composers: Aina Nergaard-Nammack

February 2 – March 25, 2018
Opening reception on Feb 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

This is the museum’s first one-woman show of the artist Aina Nergaard-Nammack. The exhibition, entitled My Countries, My Composers, explores the artist’s interpretation of musical scores of key classical music composers of the three countries where she has lived: first Spain, then Norway and now the United States. The artist creates large abstract paintings influenced by the sounds and rhythms of her musical selections. Some of the composers she channels within this body of work include: Aaron Copland, Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados and Edward Grieg.
Image caption: Aina, Nergaard-Nammack, #1471 Meditation 5, 3 Circles, Acrylic on canvas

Delaware By Hand Juried Exhibition

November 3-January 21, 2018

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a juried competition of its Delaware By Hand artist membership in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft.

Delaware Watercolor Society Juried Exhibition

November 3-January 21, 2018

In partnership with the Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS), the Biggs Museum will again exhibit watercolor paintings by this group’s best and brightest in a juried competition. Over fifty works will be featured within the Biggs Museum, many will be for sale. The DWS aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits and other activities.

More information

Biggs Exhibition at the Winterthur Antique Show
At 25: Distinguishing the Biggs Museum of American Art

November 10 – 12, 2017

The Biggs Museum is honored to provide the showcase exhibition of the Delaware Antique Show at the Chase Center in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. This exhibition celebrates the museum’s upcoming 25-year anniversary by featuring 25 recent additions to the museum’s permanent collection that epitomize its continued strengths and new directions. The exhibition is on view for all Delaware Antique Show guests and tickets start at $15. For more information, click here.

Christo & Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden Collection

August 4-October 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, August 4 from 5-7 p.m.

This exhibition chronicles the career of husband and wife artistic team, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The exhibition is a large display of the artists’ portfolios; original drawings and sculptures developed to record the major large scale environmental installations and international projects undertaken by Christo and Jeanne-Claude for more than forty years.

More information

DDOA Award Winners XVII

August 4 – October 22, 2017
Artist Reception: August 30, 2017 from 5-7 p.m.

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows. The Fellows are recommended by out-of-state jurors based on the high quality of their artwork and receive Delaware State Arts Council approval. Each year, the Biggs Museum invites the award winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishments in visual and media arts, literature, and music.

Biggs In Bloom

Calendar of a series of weekends – Please note change in format! 

This year’s Biggs in Bloom showcase of artist floral designs influenced by highlights of the Biggs Museum’s permanent collection will be spread out over several installations to build momentum towards the grander presentation in September 2018 celebrating the museum’s 25-year anniversary. Keep up with all the displays of our floral artists within the museum’s galleries year round!

What Inspired You?: Works by Members of the Delaware Art Education Association

August 4 – September 1, 2017

Almost all artists have a vivid memory of what inspired them to pursue the arts. Through a partnership with the Delaware Art Education Association, the Biggs and DAEA have challenged Delaware art educators to create and submit works of art that explore what inspired them to become artists and teachers. The resulting exhibit will be a testament to the innovative forces behind the educators that are inspiring our state’s future creative leaders.

Ansel Adams: Early Works

May 5 – July 30, 2017

This exhibition presents the work of iconic American photographer, Ansel Adams. His work can be viewed as the end of an arc of American art concerned with capturing the “sublime” in the unspoiled Western landscape: a tradition that includes several painters on view within the Biggs Museum including Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole.

Biggs Picture 2017

June 2 – July 23, 2017

Once every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts this juried, regional competition. Artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic states are invited to compete within this unique exhibition featuring a wide variety of landscape concepts in any artistic medium: photography, sculpture, painting, video, installation, etc. The works will be available for purchase.

Junior Docent Exhibit

June 2 – 30, 2017

Throughout the year, students from schools and afterschool programs throughout the state participate in our Junior Docent Program. These students view and study works of art from our collection and then provide tours of the museum to their peers and families. By the conclusion of the school year, students have also created works of art inspired by the collection at the Biggs and these works are showcased in our Child HELP Foundation Gallery. This program is generously supported by the Susan K. Black Foundation, the Delaware Division of the Arts, the Kent County Fund for the Arts and the PNC Foundation.

Clark Fox: Icon Chains

Through February 5, 2017

Known throughout the contemporary art circles of New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles, Clark Fox has been critiquing modern culture with stories of iconic characters, such as George Washington, Chef from the animated South Park and The Planters Company Mr. Peanut, for over forty years. The exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art will focus on some of the enticing and charismatic formal series that Fox has utilized in his art to confront social themes such as racism and corruption.

In conjunction with the Clark Fox: Icon Chains exhibition, art professor at Delaware State University, George Lorio, will exhibit some of his recent and politically charged artworks.

George Lorio: Recent Works

October 7, 2016 – January 22,2017

In conjunction with the Biggs Museum’s exhibition entitled Clark Fox: Icon Chains, the museum has asked local sculptor and outspoken art professor at Delaware State University, George Lorio, to exhibit his some of his recent and politically charged artworks. Using playful found objects and children’s toys, George brings very serious attention to important topics such as climate change, gun violence and challenges to free speech. Lorio’s work will be on view within the museum’s entrance through the New Year.

Award Winners XVI

August 5 – October 23, 2016

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the 2016 Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Each year, the winning Fellows are chosen by the Delaware State Arts Council from over a hundred visual, literary and performing art competitors. The Fellows are awarded cash grants, exhibition opportunities and year-long public recognition. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff at the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.

Biggs Shot 2016

June 3 – September 25, 2016

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a huge competition of the finest photographers from across the Mid-Atlantic States. This year’s contest will be judged by the museum’s new Director, Charles Guerin. The winners will be featured in a group exhibition with the best of show receiving a $1500 purchase prize for the permanent collection.

Maurice Sendak: The Memorial Exhibition – 50 Years, Works, Reasons

July 30 – September 11, 2016

The Biggs Museum is proud to partner with the Dover Public Library to feature the work and biography of one of America’s most beloved children’s authors and illustrators, Maurice Sendak. Know principally for his publication and now a major motion picture, Where the Wild Things Are, this exhibition spans the career and work of this visionary artist.

© Maurice Sendak: All Rights Reserved

Barbara Warden
365: Elements in Time

May 6 – July 24, 2016

In her first one-person exhibition at the Biggs Museum, artist Barbara Warden features the finest examples of her year-long exercise of creating one drawing a day. Leaving all to chance, the artist starts her abstract compositions from a single gesture across the page that begins a unique experience in monochromatic materials.

Illuminating the Word, The Saint John’s Bible

Volume: Letters and Revelation folio: H3hV Chapter and Verse: Rev. 6: 1-17, 7: 1-7 Containing: Text, 1/2 page ill., “Four Horseman” Page: Revelation 6

December 4, 2015 – April 24, 2016

The Biggs Museum of American Art is exceptionally proud to be a rare American host of Illuminating the Word, The Saint John’s Bible. This international exhibition features 70 pages of The Saint John’s Bible, the first monumental hand-illuminated bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in over 500 years. Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, commissioned the enormous art project of an entire hand-painted bible: every word, every illustration, every image, from one of the best-known contemporary scribes and illuminators in the world, Donald Jackson. The artist’s team worked for almost fifteen years to adorn each vellum page of The Saint John’s Bible in the manner that medieval monks created bibles before the invention of the printing press: quill and ink. These inspiring accomplishments will be accompanied by a display of tools, materials and artists’ drafts used in the Bible’s creation along with other examples of historical illuminated books and manuscripts from the collection of Saint John’s University and private collectors. The exhibition will be accompanied by several educational tours, lectures and artist workshops for all skill levels honoring the ancient traditions of book arts. Learn more.

New Discoveries: Michael Robear

Snap, Michael Robear

November 6, 2015 – February 14, 2016

Often, the Biggs Museum’s staff has the good fortune to discover talented artists within this community who have not received enough critical attention. Michael Robear is undeniably one of those artists. Robear began in childhood depicting wildlife and Mid-Atlantic landscapes. From his home in nearby Cecil County, Maryland, Robear grew up admiring, even emulating the members of the illustrious Wyeth family, especially Andrew Wyeth. From high school, he was accepted to the Corcoran School of the Arts where he developed his surreal interpretation on regional landscapes and people with an adventurous application of his preferred medium, watercolor. The artist’s cavalier use of water-based paints is contrasted by the unique frames he forges from metal. A professional metalsmith, Robear has been completing his works within his own sculptural frames for several years, melding his two passions into unforgettable works of art.

Exhibition: Harmony Weavers Guild

March 4 – April 24, 2016

This bi-annual members’ exhibition of the pre-eminent regional weaving association features masterworks of fiber art. The Harmony Weavers Guild emphasizes fellowship, enthusiasm and especially education in weaving for its members. This feature exhibition will be accented with examples of looms and educational programs.

 Youth Art Month: Sculptures of Ourselves

March 4 – March 24, 2016

The Biggs Museum has challenged art educators from across the state to teach their K-12 students about the art form of self-portraiture by creating outdoor sculptures of themselves using found and recycled materials. This submitted works will be on view outside, in front of the museum’s main entrance.

DEMCO, Inc.

October 2 – November 15, 2015

The Biggs Museum is celebrating its new partnership with The Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization (DEMCO, Inc.), with an exhibition, entitled DEMCO, Inc., of student and staff artworks created during their after-school program in downtown Dover. This exhibition will be on view from October 2 – November 15, 2015 in the Child HELP Foundation Gallery on the museum’s first floor.

A portion of this current exhibition features works created within the Substance Abuse Prevention Narratives project. The DEMCO artists and instructors created this series of collages as narratives, a kind of pictorial story, of Abuse Prevention. This project challenges artists such G.L. Shamir, Desiree Wilson and Dr. Linda Hackett to channel the lessons of such noted artists as Vincent Van Gogh, Gustave Courbet, Ben Shan and Jacob Lawrence to create new works that embody the message of Prevention.

The Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization (DEMCO, Inc.) is a Dover non-profit organization offering educational support and counseling in Kent County. DEMCO, Inc. offers classes, workshops and tutoring to learners from kindergarten to adults. This organization specializes in educational topics including: Economics, Mathematics, Humanities, Science, Fine Art, Coping skills, Leadership, Languages, Substance Abuse Prevention, High School Completion, College Preparation Exams and Teacher Certification.

Small Tapestry International 4: Honoring Tradition, Inspiring Innovation

October 2 – November 22, 2015

The American Tapestry Alliance was established in 1982 to unite tapestry weavers and designers in order to promote an awareness and appreciation of contemporary hand-woven tapestries from around the world. This organization promotes speakers, hosts instructors, produces publications, disseminates information and creates juried exhibitions of the finest textiles artists’ works internationally. This year’s competition of Small Tapestry International features small-scale works by over 40 artists. Each of these works were designed and completed by hand by weaving and knotting thousands of threads on a loom to create one cohesive composition. The works were juried by Kevin Wallace, the Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, California. He is a regular contributor to numerous international publications and has guest-curated exhibitions for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Cultural Affairs Department of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles International Airport, and the San Luis Obispo Art Center.

Award Winners XV

July 3-September 27, 2015

Free Admission

Each year, through a partnership with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA), the Biggs Museum hosts the works of Delaware’s award winning Individual Artist Fellows, honoring their combined accomplishments. The Fellows are recommended by out of state jurors and receive Delaware State Arts Council approval. Fellows receive cash awards ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 to advance their artistic careers.

Sixteen Delaware Fellows were selected in 2015 for the high quality of their artwork. These artists reside throughout Delaware, including in Bethel, Dover, Lewes, New Castle, Newark, Rehoboth Beach, and Wilmington. Awards are given in three categories—Emerging Professional, Established Professional, and Masters. Listed below are the DDOA 2015 Individual Artist Fellows.

2015 INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWS
Masters Award
Kimberly Reighley, Wilmington, Music: Solo Recital – Reighley plays baroque and modern flute, is co-artistic director of Mélomanie, plays principal flute with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and OperaDelaware, and has performed with Brandywine Baroque as well as numerous ensembles in Pennsylvania and California.

Established Professional Award
Robert M. Bickey, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Sculpture
Gail Braune Comorat, Lewes, Literature: Poetry
Kevin J. Cope, Newark, Music: Composition
Christopher Nichols, Newark, Music: Solo Recital
Russell Reece, Bethel, Literature: Fiction
Jeffrey Rubin, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Photography
Billie Travalini, Wilmington, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Lance Winn, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting
Emerging Professional Award
Judy Catterton, Rehoboth Beach, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Barbara Gray, Wilmington, Literature: Fiction
Tom Newby, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting (work pictured above)
Britania Redington, Dover, Music: Solo Recital
James Ulry, Dover, Visual Arts: Crafts
Lindsey Warren, Newark, Literature: Poetry
Karoline Wileczek, Newark, Visual Arts: Works on Paper

Emerging Professional Award
Judy Catterton, Rehoboth Beach, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Barbara Gray, Wilmington, Literature: Fiction
Tom Newby, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting (work pictured above)
Britania Redington, Dover, Music: Solo Recital
James Ulry, Dover, Visual Arts: Crafts
Lindsey Warren, Newark, Literature: Poetry
Karoline Wileczek, Newark, Visual Arts: Works on Paper

The Award Winners XV exhibition will be displayed on the second floor of the Biggs Museum. An Artist Award Presentation will take place at the Biggs Museum on Saturday, September 26, 2015 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. This event will be free of charge and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Delaware Watercolor Society

July 3 – September 20, 2015

Admission: $5 (Free for Members, Children Under 12, and on Sundays)

The Biggs Museum will host a juried member’s exhibition of the Delaware Watercolor Society.  As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

An Artist Reception will take place on Friday, August 7, 2015 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. At the reception, the public will have an opportunity to view over 50 Delaware Watercolor Society works, meet the artists and enjoy a concert with two ensemble members of Mélomanie. Admission will be free for the reception. 

Delaware By Hand: Masters 2015

April 3, 2015 – June 14, 2015

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a juried competition of their Delaware By Hand artist membership in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft. The 2015 winning members, as well as their finest submissions, are selected by Brandi P. Clark, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Each winner is represented by at least three works of art in the Delaware By Hand Masters exhibition. These works are eligible for the coveted Museum Purchase Prize of $1500, a special winning allocation also selected by the competition juror, Ms. Clark. The exhibitors have often selected two additional works to represent the scope of their talent and abilities and their works are on view in the museum’s timeline galleries alongside examples of the historic permanent collection of fine and decorative arts.

Additionally the exhibition includes the work of Honorary Master Craftsman, James Coker to honor his lifetime achievement in hand-crafts. Never-before-seen, Mr. Coker’s unique and distinctive needlework compositions are on view in the museum’s second-floor Gallery 14. This exhibition is funded in part by the Edgar Thronson Foundation, the Donald and Martha DeWees Foundation, and the Delaware Division of the Arts.

The following artists will be featured in the upcoming DBH Masterworks Exhibition:

• Arden Bardol
• Peter Saenger
• Robert Schock
• Betsey VonDreele
• Catherine Walls
• Steve Rogers
• Mike Quattrociocchi
• Thomas Frey
• Louise Gatanas
• Michael Krausz
• C. Denise Bendelewski
• Dolores Michels

…and…

• James Coker

William D. White: Vision and Voice Exhibition

March 6 – June 21, 2015

William D. White: Vision and Voice is the first major exhibition and exhibition catalogue of this unique and important regional artist. This exhibition reintroduces the work of Wilmington, Delaware illustrator, muralist and painter William D. White (1896-1971). This artist’s varied and significant career spans some of the country’s most intense moments of the 20th century as well as the final days of the golden age of American illustration. The exhibition and publication will celebrate significant moments in the life of the artist through an examination of over 75 works.

This exhibition will also be accompanied by a symposium entitled William D. White: The Art of Illustration in Delaware and Beyond on March 28, 2015. To learn more about this symposium click here.

Abraham Lincoln: The WSFS Bank Collection of Frank Schoonover Illustrations

March 31, 2015 – May 3, 2015

For over 50 years, WSFS, the oldest bank and trust company headquartered in Delaware, have been the stewards of a fine collection of paintings and drawings by prized Wilmington illustrator, Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972). Many of the works in this collection were originally owned by Helen L. Card and displayed in the Latendorf Bookshop in New York City.

The bank’s images were illustrated for two stories on President Abraham Lincoln: Margarita Spaulding Gerry’s “The Toy Shop”, published in the December 1907 issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine, and Lucy Foster Madison’s Lincoln, published by the Penn Publishing Company in 1928. These ten images will be on view in the Biggs Museum’s first floor to commemorate the Old Dover Days celebration of America’s most popular president.

March for the Arts

March 6, 2015 – March 29, 2015

In support of Youth Art Month, the Museum will host an exhibition of artwork created by Delaware art educators and their students.  Schools from across the state have submitted a series of works in a variety of media.

Carson Zullinger: The Line of Beauty

November 7, 2014 – February 15, 2015

Delaware native, Carson Zullinger, has been exhibiting his figural and landscape fine-art photographs for forty years. Zullinger often subordinates his dynamic and thoroughly modern compositions to emphasize traditionally held forms of beauty. The Line of Beauty helps to trace his accomplishments in the arts while debuting new works created in response to receiving the coveted Master’s level Individual Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of Arts.

You Are the United States

December 5, 2014 – January 11, 2015

Emile Klein, a classically trained portrait painter from the San Francisco Bay area, recently biked across the country to record America from his perspective. Throughout his journey, Emile stopped at the homes of various short-term sponsor families. In exchange for hosting the artist, he would paint the host’s portrait.

The artist’s process of exchanging his art for room and board parallels the early American art scene of ‘limners’ who made their living traveling from town to town. While Emile painted, he also recorded the conversations he had with his subjects creating a powerful and intimate record of his hosts. These recordings and portraits made up the narratives fueling Emile’s not-for-profit organization, You’re U.S., to create a representation of modern Americans by highlighting people’s singular characteristics while searching for the qualities that tie together a nation. Many of the portraits and biographies compiled for You’re U.S. will be on view from December 5, 2014 through January 11, 2015.

Ain’t I a Woman: Lori Crawford and The Sista’s

September 5 – October 26, 2014

Lori Crawford, Associate Professor of Art at Delaware State University, will present works from The Sista’s series on the Biggs Museum’s third floor. Crawford’s series of digital drawings challenges notions of traditional female beauty. Prints of her figural works will be juxtaposed against the museum’s own collection of 19th-century academic artists and early Impressionist painters within the permanent collection galleries 20 and 21.

Award Winners XIV

August 1 – October 19, 2014

For fourteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual exhibition. The exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the DDOA. Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity and provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community.

R³ Factory Exhibition

May 17 – July 20, 2014

With support from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the Biggs Museum is proud to present a series of educational programs that provide valuable information as well as art-related experiences that focus on the importance of recycling. From May 17 through July 20, the Child HELP Foundation Gallery will be transformed into the R³ Factory providing a designated space for recycling-related activities. The R³ Factory will provide visitors with the opportunity to view recycling-themed art installations, participate in a variety of hands-on activities using recycled materials, and view an award winning documentary about a contemporary artist whose art is inspired by the world’s largest landfill. Four artist installations will provide visitors with the opportunity to view four different interpretations of recycling and art and participate in their completion by adding materials available in the R³ Factory. By providing visitors with the opportunity to engage with the installations, we hope to leave a lasting impression about how each individual can make a significant impact on the amount of waste that is disposed of each year. The four artists are:

• Jennifer Boland, Art Educator at Campus Community School
• Lori Crawford, Professor at Delaware State University
• Heidi Lowe, Professional Jewelry Artist
• Mary Pauer, 2014 Delaware Division of the Arts Established Literary Fellow

Visitors to the R³ Factory will be encouraged to vote on the installation that most inspires them to get involved in recycling. Votes will be accepted at the museum, on the Biggs Museum website and on the Biggs Museum’s Facebook page from May 17 to July 20. The winning artist and their installation will be announced on our website and Facebook page on August 1 and featured in the fall Museletter.

We need your help! Please assist us as we gather recyclable materials for use in the R³ Factory. Donations are being accepted at the front desk of the museum to the attention of Beccy Cooper. Please contact Beccy at 674-2111 ext. 101 or bcooper@biggsmuseum.org with any questions. The artists have requested the following materials:

• aluminum soda cans
• six pack soda rings (yoke)
• small water bottles
• egg cartons
• paper towel rolls
• aluminum foil
• fabric scraps
• use light bulbs
• old books (preferably ledger sized)
• magazines

Biggs Picture Exhibition

May 17 – July 20, 2014

The Biggs Museum of American art is proud to again host the third installment of The Biggs Picture, a landscape competition. This exhibition will present art works from all media; such as, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, and video; of competition winners that most successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape”. Depending on size, the exhibition will display between 40 and 60 works. Each work must fit within at least one of these sub-themes:

Perceived Landscape: interpretations of actual spaces at particular times.
Imagined Landscapes: interpretations of spaces from the past, memory, make-believe, and/or the future.
Landscapes of the Mind: interpreting psychological states of being through creations of space.

This exhibition will be supported by a number of educational programs including, but not limited to: curator led tours of the Biggs Museum’s landscape paintings, juror talks, workshops in the Museum’s galleries, “Paint Outs” in Dover’s historic areas, and Biggs Kids programming.Click here to view a full list of artists

Refining the Region: the Landscapes of Bayard T. Berndt

November 1, 2013 – February 23, 2014
Bayard Taylor Berndt was a 20th century Brandywine Valley artist who studied under such recognizable figures as Frank Schoonover, N.C. Wyeth and Gayle Hoskins. Refining the Region: the Landscapes of Bayard T. Berndt is an exhibition of paintings produced over the course of a sixty-year career. American and local history was a passion and often was a subject of his paintings. He was especially enamored with the beauty and heritage of the Brandywine Valley and often focused on his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Some of his most recognizable scenes highlight commerce on the local waterways, industrialization, urban street views and covered bridges.

Celebration of Creativity

November 1 – December 31, 2013
VSA of Delaware provides children and adults with disabilities opportunities to achieve in the performing and visual arts. VSA of Delaware is a unique organization within the state with a sole mission devoted to enhancing the capabilities, confidence and quality of life for individuals with disabilities by providing life-long learning opportunities in the arts. VSA’s artist-in-residence program pairs professional teaching artist with creative individuals with disabilities across the State of Delaware to explore and develop artistic skills in the areas of visual arts, dance, drama and music. The exhibition currently on view at the Biggs Museum, Celebration of Creativity, highlights art produced by the Artist-in-Residence 2012-2013 program cycle.

Delaware Watercolor Society

September 6 – October 27, 2013
The Biggs Museum will host a juried member’s exhibition of the Delaware Watercolor Society. As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

Award Winners XIII

August 2 – October 13, 2013
For thirteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition.

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.

The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community.

Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.

The Legacy of Currier & Ives: Shaping the American Spirit

July 4 – October 27, 2013
When Nathanial Currier, a young businessman in New York City, published a lithograph in 1835 showing Planters Hotel in New Orleans after a fire, it ushered in a new era of pictorial journalism. The print established the firm which was to achieve its greatest fame as “Currier & Ives” after 1857 when James Merritt Ives became a partner.

Over the next seven decades, the firm consistently provided the public with images that recorded the breaking news of the day. However, as the demand for decorative lithographs increased, Currier & Ives also published prints depicting almost every aspect of American life. Through an ever-expanding repertoire of images, the prints of Currier & Ives celebrated the activities, events and everyday life of nineteenth century Americans. Images included domestic life, historical events, city and country views, religious scenes, scenic wonders, westward expansion, trains, ships, winter scenes and hunting and fishing. Each print was titled and most were hand-colored by women who worked for the firm.

The prints were sold in the New York City shop, distributed through mail-order, and were offered by peddlers and by agents working throughout the United States and Europe. Working with speed and efficiency, Currier & Ives printed two to three images every week for 64 years, and the firm is believed to have produced more than 8,000 different titled lithographic prints.

Many of the images serve to document a wide variety of social trends and attitudes that reflect American culture during the nineteenth century. The Legacy of Currier & Ives allows visitors to experience American history and society through the extraordinary images produced by the legendary firm who called themselves “Printmakers to the People.”

 The Projectionist

March 1 – June 23, 2013

The Projectionist is a documentary, book and multi-media exhibition that explores one man’s lifelong fascination with the golden ago of film and, in particular, the grand movie palace. The exhibition features a fully operational 1920s style movie theater that was created in the basement of Middletown native, Gordon Brinckle. A documentary, created by Kendall Messick, provides a penetrating gaze into the life of this self-taught artist. The narrative follows the course of Brinckle’s life, revealing the profound desire, frustration and motivation that propelled him to create such a distinctive outsider art environment. Original works on paper by Brinkle such as blueprints and floor plans and fine art photographs by Messick of Brinkle operating the theater will also be on view.

The Projectionist press coverage

The News Journal

Article and video: Delaware man’s handcrafted theater returns home for display through June

The Dover Post
Article: ‘The Projectionist’ highlights artistic vision of basement obsession

WDEL
Article and video: Delaware’s last movie palace on display at the Biggs

A Moment in Time: Artist Exchange

January 4, 2013 – February 24, 2013
In conjunction with the museum’s signature Biggs Shot photographyc ompetition, the museum has invited a local artist association to create works based on the photographic notion of capturing a “moment in time.” Artists who specialize in such varied media as ceramics, abstract painting, watercolors, printmaking and textiles will be evaluated for their successful record of an identifiable time period in a group critique that will be filmed, as a documentary and projected during the exhibition.

For a sneak peak view of this exhibition please click here.

Biggs Shot 2012

November 2, 2012 – February 17, 2013
Biggs Shot 2012 will feature submissions to the third juried photography competition of artists living and working in the Greater Delmarva Peninsula. The competition, hosted by the Biggs Museum and juried by Sarah Stolfa, Director of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, is open to all photographers-both amateur and professional. This exhibition will offer visitors a wide view of local talent as well as local artistic perspectives – a showcase on the ways local photographers view this region. The competition is open to artists working in film, digital, and video formats.

Glass Transformed

September 7 – October 28, 2012
Glass Transformed is the first museum presentation within the State of Delaware of the photographic work of Celia Pearson. Based in Annapolis, the artist has traveled as far as Italy to photograph unique sea glass collections. Spanning from still life to abstract studies, the exhibit is presented in forms that vary from framed prints to her more recent fiber installations. Pearson’s work has been published and exhibited widely.

Award Winners XII

July 6, 2012 – October 21, 2012
For twelve years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from over a hundred entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.

Picturing WWI: The American Illustration Collection of the Delaware National Guard

Friday, May 4 through Sunday, June 24
In a time before televisions or even the widespread use of radio, Americans received their news and entertainment from popular magazines and illustrations.  Among Delaware’s most famous illustrators of the early 20th century, Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972) and Gayle Porter Hoskins (1887-1962) painted hundreds of images during their careers to illuminate current articles and popular stories.

These artists were commissioned by one of America’s most popular magazines, The Ladies Home Journal, to illustrate key events and scenes from World War I for thousands of readers.  Picturing WWI features several Hoskins and Schoonover paintings, created between 1917 and 1919, of the experiences of World War I soldiers.  The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see this exceptional collection owned by the Delaware National Guard.

Arts Connect-ED: Campus Community School Exhibition

Monday, March 27 through Sunday, June 24

Celebrate youth talent in the arts by being the first to look at the installment of local school children’s artwork. The featured pieces were created by students of Campus Community School of Dover, DE. Within the exhibition there will be a focus on artwork inspired by Biggs Museum permanent collection objects.

Jewels of the Generations: The Legacy of Loockerman and Bradford Family of Dover

Friday, March 2 through Sunday, June 24

When Dover merchant, Vincent Loockerman, died in 1785 he was probably Dover’s single largest land owner and unrivaled collector of Delaware and Philadelphia-made furniture of the 18th century. For the last 200 years, Vincent’s descendants have lived with the riches of the past while adding treasures from their own times.

The museum’s founder, Sewell C. Biggs, was an avid collector and admirer of the objects accumulated by Vincent Loockerman. In tribute, the Jewels of the Generations exhibition features Loockerman’s material legacy while discussing over 200 years of art collecting by his descendants, the Bradfords.

The jewels that have left the house, and are being borrowed back for this important exhibition, include a wealth of early American clothing, fashionable Victorian jewelry, European and Asian ceramics, American and European silver, important American and European portraits, and Delaware and Philadelphia furniture.

This program is partially funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As the Poet Paints: E. Jean Lanyon

Friday, April 6 through Wednesday, May 23
As the Poet Paints features the literary and visual artworks of the 1979-2001 Delaware Poet Laureate E. Jean Lanyon:“As a Fine Artist I paint what I cannot write, and I write what I cannot paint.”The dual nature of this artist’s personal expression will take form in a comprehensive exhibition of her artistic career in Delaware.

Loving Traditions: The Ann Marcus Valentines Card Collection

Friday, February 3 through Sunday, March 25
Valentines cards have been popularly printed, mailed and received in Europe and America since the 1800s.  Printing innovations of the Industrial Revolution and the professionalization of the U.S. postal service ushered in a large number of card manufacturers.  The design of early Valentines cards drew from popular art forms of the day decorated with the iconic Valentine decorative motifs of flowers, hearts and cupids.Collapsible three-dimensional, or “pop-up” cards, became especially popular with the addition of delicate layers of brightly-colored tissue paper and a sculptural quality that were easily mailed.  The Biggs Museum is pleased to present a large sample of the late 19th- and early 20th-century pop-up Valentine card collection of Ann Marcus.  Mrs. Marcus has been collecting these delicate art forms for over fifteen years and has amassed a collection of hundreds of cards.

Delaware By Hand: Masterworks 2011

Through the Bright Woods, Heather Siple
November 4, 2011 to February 26, 2012
Every two years, Delaware By Hand (DBH) hosts a membership-wide juried competition in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft. The 2011 artists were selected by Bryan Young; Curator of Easton, Maryland’s Academy Art Museum; and Sally Hansen, retired owner and director of The Glass Gallery in Bethesda, MD, antiques dealer and art collector. Each winner will be represented by three works of art in the Masterworks 2011 exhibition. Their primary exhibition piece is the finest example from which they were judged – their winning artwork. The exhibitors have selected two additional works to represent the scope of their talent and abilities.

Award Winners XI:Exhibition

Open July 1 – October 23, 2011

We Are All Poets by Colette C. Gaiter

The Biggs Museum of American Art will open the summer 2011 exhibition: Award Winners XI on Friday, July 1 with a First Look pARTY from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Museum. Be one of the first to preview the works of this year’s Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist fellows. An Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, July 9 from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. The public is invited to attend this free program to enjoy refreshments and celebrate the best of Delaware’s art sceneAward Winners XI features the talent of the current Individual Artist fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, writers, sculptors, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff at the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners XI exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene. This annual exhibition is an important project for the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the Museum and art to the community.The Biggs Museum is pleased to once again feature the media and skills of all winning artists. Their work lies in the areas of folk art, musical, literary, visual, and sculptural arts. The following artists are the 2011 DDOA fellowship recipients to be featured in the Award Winners XI exhibition:

Award Winners XI will be on view through October 23, 2011. Along with this exhibition the Biggs Museum will be offering a variety of summer art workshops and demonstrations for adults, some of which are led by the 2011 individual artist fellows. These classes bring professional artists to the Museum to teach about the visual and literary arts.

The Award Winners XI exhibition is partially funded by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts and the Kent County Fund for the Arts.

The Biggs Picture: the 2011 Landscape Competition and Exhibition

March 4 – June 19, 2011

The Biggs Picture exhibition features paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, craft, video and any artistic medium by regional landscape artists. This juried competition asks artist contestants to interpret the theme of “Landscape.” Chosen works successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape” with the finest examples of their media and fit within one of three, landscape sub-themes.

Landscapes of the Mind: Interpreting psychological states of being through creations of space, such as abstraction, installation art and landscape representations with expressionistic and often non-representational compositions.
Constructed Landscapes:Interpretations of spaces from the past, memory, make-believe, and/or the future, such as studio production and interpretations of spaces from past, memory, imagination and for the future.
Perceived Landscape: Interpretations of actual spaces at particular times, such as plein air and landscape representations of actual spaces at particular times.

Types of media that will be represented include painting, video, drawing, sculpture, photography, and craft. The Biggs Picture 2011 competition drew nearly 300 entries from over 100 individual applicants. The 2011 jurors Robert Koenke, Editor-in-Chief of Wildlife Art Magazine and Catherine Drabkin, Delaware College of Art and Design Founding Faculty Member, selected 73 works to be displayed in the exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art. These works successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape” with the finest examples of their media. The Biggs Museum is pleased to announce the winners of the competition.

2011 Biggs Picture Exhibition Artists

2011 Biggs Picture Exhibition Winners

Click on a thumbnail above to enlarge the image.

Campus Community School: Junior Docent Art Exhibition

May 6 – May 29, 2011
Junior Docents from Dover’s Campus Community School will be featured as the final celebration of this year’s program. The Junior Docent program, which was developed to conform to Delaware Visual and Performing Arts standards, allows the Biggs Museum to support art education by collaborating with local educators and their students. This program, offered free-of-charge, provides students with a unique opportunity to learn about the visual arts, apply their knowledge to specific works of art, and present their knowledge to their peers. Over the course of the program, Junior Docents build an art vocabulary, develop communication, critical thinking and research skills, and learn about the cultural history of the Museum’s collection. The overall goal of the program is to develop a long-term relationship between the student and the Museum in an effort to instill a lifelong appreciation for the arts.

Delaware Watercolor Society: Spring Exhibition

May 6 – May 29, 2011

The Biggs Museum will host the Delaware Watercolor Society largest exhibition in 2011, the juried members exhibition. As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

Art and Poetry

April 1 – May 1, 2011
To commemorate National Poetry Month, the Biggs Museum will host a public reading of some of the region’s most influential poets on Friday, April 1. Each writer has composed an original poem inspired from collections on view within the Biggs Museum’s galleries. Printed versions of the poems will remain on view next to their inspiration artworks through the month of April. These poems will also be available online at biggsmuseum.org

Behind the Blue Doors: Famous Creations from the Rehoboth Art League

November 5, 2010 – February 20, 2011
Behind the Blue Doors: Famous Works from the Rehoboth Art League Collection is the first critical examination of the rarely-seen permanent collection of the Rehoboth Art League (RAL). Founded in the early 1930s, the RAL quickly became a regional hot bed of artistic production and has collected hundreds of art works from area artist masters for the past eighty years. Without a comprehensive catalogue of its important collection or large-scale galleries to display these works, the Rehoboth Art League is partnering with the Biggs Museum to debut its important collection of regional modernism to the public.

The exhibition will feature approximately 60 memorable art works from the RAL permanent collection featuring nearly 50 noted artists. Of special interest are artworks made in the first 40 years of the RAL’s history, a time when Rehoboth Art League instructors like Jack Lewis, Ethel Leach, Orville Peets and Howard Schroeder were coming into local prominence. Behind the Blue Doors will also explore controversies surrounding its long-range plans for growth and for the care of the permanent collection. In a story remarkably similar to Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation, the RAL’s need to conserve and utilize the historic structures on its campus, to expand visitation and to care for its growing permanent collection, is conflicting with zoning regulations of the town that has grown up around the Art League, Henlopen Acres.

“Behind the Blue Doors is a unique collaboration between two arts organizations, each with separate missions and audiences, working towards an achievement of an even greater and universal mission which is to educate and develop awareness of the arts,” states Biggs Museum Director Linda Danko. “It is partnerships like this that will enable arts and culture to grow in Delaware, especially in Kent and Sussex County.”

The Rehoboth Art League, founded by Louise C. Corkran, is a nationally important center of 20th century artistic production within the historic art colony of Rehoboth Beach. Since the late 19th century, artists throughout the eastern seaboard have frequented Rehoboth Beach as an established artist retreat. Other artists’ retreats of national significance include North Carolina’s Penland School; New Hope, Pennsylvania; Provincetown, Massachusetts; Monhegan Island, Maine; and Old Lyme, Connecticut. Like these art destinations, Rehoboth Beach has been a site of artistic instruction for over a hundred years with classes hosted by art groups based throughout the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. Since its opening in the 1930s, the RAL has been a focal point for a community of hundreds artists centered in Sussex County and the State of Delaware.

Behind the Blue Doors tells the early story of the RAL while discussing its significance to America. There are few precious collections of this magnitude that feature art works by Delaware artists inspired by early notions of 20th-century modernism; this is an extremely rare opportunity to see masterpieces by some of the State’s most admired artists. The lives of the artists and their artistic production will help tell the history of the RAL and describe its importance within the cultural life of the region.

Award Winners X and Reunion

July 2 – October 24, 2010
For ten years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.In celebration of the ten anniversary of the annual Award Winners exhibition, the Biggs Museum has invited all of the past individual fellowship recipients to participate in a reunion exhibition of their works. Over thirty artists featured in the Award Winners exhibition in the past ten years will participate in the reunion exhibition alongside the 2010 individual fellows and share their recent work with the public.The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.The Biggs Museum is pleased to once again feature the media and skills of all sixteen 2010 DDOA fellowship recipients. Their work lies in the areas of visual, musical, sculptural, folk art and literary arts.

The following artists are the 2010 DDOA fellowship recipients to be featured in the Award Winners X: Reunion exhibition:Visual Arts
Allison M. Haug, Wilmington
Ashley J. Pigford, Newark
Cybele Clark-Mendes, Newark
Felise Luchansky, Wilmington
Heather Siple, Wilmington
Hunter Clark, Ardencroft
Larry Anderson, Wilmington
Michael Kalmbach, Newark
Nina Spencer, DoverLiterature
Christopher Childers, Middletown
Tery Aine Griffin, Wilmington
L.J. Sysko, Wilmington
Viet Dinh, WilmingtonMusic
Jerry “Crabmeat” Thompson, Middletown
Michael S. Smith, BearReunion Artists

Visions of Dignity

September 15 – October 15, 2010
The Biggs Museum of American Art is partnering, once again, with the Delaware State Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA) to present the exhibition Visions of Dignity, a celebration of Hispanic artists working in the Mid-Atlantic region. The exhibit features the varied artistic points of view from a vibrant local culture. At the same time, Visions of Dignity artists create windows to see into their own cultural origins. Visions of Dignity invited artists to participate who identify as Latin American or U.S. Latino, including those artists from Spanish, Portuguese, French and English speaking countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, living or working in the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. Of all the submissions, forty art works by fourteen artists were selected. The following sculptors, painters, photographers and printmakers were selected by GACHA members, Keyla Rivero-Rodriguez, Eli Ramos and Charito Calvachi-Mateyko, to participate in Visions of Dignity:

Alicia Bonilla-Puig (Landenberg, PA)
Alicia Dominguez (Wilmington, DE)
Magaly Garza (Fairfax, VA)
Masplata (Dover, DE)
Maria de los Angeles Morales (Paoli, PA)
Luis A. Morales (West Chester, PA)
Mara Odette (Buffalo, NY)
Claudia Olivos (Arlington, VA)
Sergio Olivos (Arlington, VA)
Gustavo Rojas (Teaneck, NJ)
Nikki Schiro (New York, NY)
Nicolas F. Shi (Washington, DC)
Miguel Tio (New York, NY)
Raul Villarreal (Verona, NJ)

The exhibition explores the theme of “dignity” through artistic representations of the experience of being Latino in America. The artists chosen for this exhibition have utilized symbols of Hispanic family life, traditions, geographies and other signifiers of Hispanic identity to communicate the stories of their journey through the United States.

To compliment the Visions of Dignity exhibition, GACHA organizers also plan to unveil six paintings by contemporary Hispanic artists from private collections within the State of Delaware, including the Norma Varisco de Garcia Collection as well as works from the collections of Miguel Valazquez and Eli Ramos. These collections are over thirty years in the making and have rarely been seen in public before now. These six works will be on view in the Biggs Museum’s children’s gallery, Sewell’s Studio, for the duration of the Visions of Dignity exhibition.

Please join us at the Biggs Museum of American Art as we kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with the Visions of Dignity public reception on September 15, 2010. This rare opportunity brings together the Museum’s audiences with noted Hispanic artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Blue Water/Still Water: American Society of Marine Artists

Open March 5, 2010 – June 20, 2010

“Artists have always found inspiration in the aquatic:
from the vastness of the open ocean,
where clear water rolls on in deep cobalt waves,
to the stillness of shallow watersheds
lit by the song of bullfrogs and Painted Buntings.

As members of the American Society of Marine Artists, we are some of the most ardent of these creative spirits who have followed our hearts and vision, creating beauty as we have seen it in an Aquarian world.

It’s not only the mission of the Society to educate the public to the inherent value of the marine world that surrounds us,
but it is also our greatest pleasure to share these, our most treasured gifts, with you.”

-Michael Killelea
Chairman of ASMA Regional Exhibitions

A must see for anyone who loves the sea. Celebrating America’s rich maritime history as a seafaring nation, this dynamic exhibition brings together over one hundred of the most talented contemporary artists in the marine art field, recognized both nationally and internationally. Quiet shorelines, harbor views, and seascapes featuring tumultuous, roaring seas are presented with luminous light and emotion. A wide array of mediums – oils, water colors, pastels, scratchboard, pencil, sculpture and scrimshaw make this a most rewarding experience for viewers and collectors alike. Founded in 1978, the American Society of Marine Artists’ purpose is to promote marine art and maritime history and to encourage cooperation among artists, historians, marine enthusiasts and others engaged in activities related to marine art and maritime history.

Arts ConnectEd

Open November 6, 2009 – February 21, 2010


Arts ConnectEd features the young talent of students in Delaware schools. The exhibition consists of four month-long installations, each featuring the artwork of a different school in the state of Delaware. Arts ConnectEd reflects the quality and diversity of art education in Delaware schools. The Biggs Museum is dedicated to promoting and supporting the role arts play in youth development. In addition to the four school installations, Arts ConnectEd will also feature Sewell’s Studio, an interactive creativity center, providing young museum visitors the opportunity to create works of art similar to those currently on display. The Biggs Museum is honored to foster this commitment to learning and community. Delaware Schools showcasing in Arts ConnectEd include, Holy Cross Elementary, Campus Community School, William Henry Middle School and Ursuline Academy. Each month-long exhibition will open on the November 2009, December 2009, January 2010, and February 2010 First Friday programs. The Arts ConnectED First Look! pARTies are sponsored by Chick-fil-A of Camden, DE.

The art projects to be displayed from each of the four school participants are as follows:

November 2009: Holy Cross School
Art Instructor: Sharon Benini
Op Art created with colored pencil in the style of Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley.

December 2009: William Henry Middle School
Art Instructor : Valerie Connaghan
Greeting cards decorated with collage by 5th and 6th grade students.

January 2010: Campus Community School
Art Instructor: Jennifer Boland
Recycled art, 3-dimensional gargoyles by 6th and 7th grade students and self-portrait paintings by
1st through 7th grade students.

February 2010: Ursuline Academy
Art Instructor: Erin McNichol
Sculpture along with a hands-on activity center by 7th through 12th grade students.

In addition to the school displays to be featured in Arts ConnectED, the Biggs Museum is proud to present two month-long exhibitions featuring artwork created through VSA (Very Special Arts of Delaware). VSA Arts of Delaware is a state-wide nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing children and adults with disabilities opportunities to participate and achieve in the area of performing and visual arts. This admirable organization develops programs and resources to help people with disabilities develop artistic skills and enhance confidence while promotion access, inclusion and diversity.

Celebration of Creativity,will be on display in Gallery 7 from November 6, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Celebration of Creativity showcases the visual artwork produced by participants in VSA arts of Delaware’s various artist-in-residency projects during the 2008-2009 program cycle. The second VSA exhibition, A View Through My Window, will be on display in Gallery 7 from January 8, 2010 to February 28, 2010. A View Through My Window features a selection of works created through a domestic violence art project that served nearly 75 adults and children in the state of Delaware. This exhibit features canvas windows representing the messages of individuals who have experienced domestic violence first hand. Artwork included in this exhibit was created in shelters & support groups in all three counties of Delaware and poignant works of art by children who have been affected by domestic violence will also be on display. The messages conveyed by the participants make this a powerful and moving experience.

Fusion: American Classics Meet Latin American Art

Open September 15, 2009 – November 15, 2009

In a partnership with the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA), the Biggs Museum will exhibit the works of contemporary Hispanic artists living or working in the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. This exhibition will commemorate the declaration of the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation at the Museum on September 15, 2009. The exhibition will be strategically placed throughout Galleries Two through Seven and the Old Stair Hall Gallery alongside the Museum’s permanent collection of fine and decorative arts of the 18th and early 19th centuries that were made and used within the State of Delaware. The contemporary Hispanic works displayed will symbolically represent the parallel currents of Early-American/Spanish culture alongside the development of the American mainstream. The exhibition will highlight contrasts and continuity between the influences of contemporary Hispanic and early-American fine and decorative arts.

The following artists will be featured in Fusion: American Classics Meets Latin American Art:
Leonor Brazão: Chantilly, VA
Pablo Caviedes: New York, NY
David Camero: Washington, DC
Felisa Federman: Potomac, MD
Iliana Garcia: Brooklyn, NY
Magaly Garza: Fairfax, VA
Magda Korn: Hockessin, DE
Ruben Lopez: Wilmington, DE
Maria Morales: Paoli, PA
Carlos Nuñez: Philadelphia, PA
Mara Odette: Bethesda, MD
Jorge Posada: New York, NY
Gustavo Rojas: Teaneck, NJ
Jeannette Sababa: New York, NY
Luz Salas: Philadelphia, PA
Marta Sanchez: Philadelphia, PA
Nikki Schiro: New York, NY
Nicolas Shi: Washington, DC
Miguel Tio: New York, NY

* Some portions of the Fusion exhibition, contain nudity and are of mature theme and may not be suitable for children.

Please use discretion. If you have further questions, please contact the Administrative Offices or see a Museum Interpreter when visiting the Biggs Museum.

Award Winners

Open July 3, 2009 – October 25, 2009

Award Winners features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). These artists: painters, photographers, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites the Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene.
The Biggs Museum congratulates the 2009 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Fellows:
2009 Masters Fellow
Christiaan Taggart: Music, Solo Recital

Established
Ronald Brignac: Visual Arts, Photography
Nancy Carol Willis: Visual Arts, Works on Paper
Robert Davis: Literature, Creative Nonfiction
Elizabeth Dolan: Literature, Poetry
Eileen Grycky: Music, Solo Recital
Ramona Long: Literature, Fiction
Ronald Longsdorf: Visual Arts, Sculpture

Emerging
Abby Millager: Literature, Poetry
Stephen Ruszkowski: Visual Arts, Painting

Ellen’s Wacky Chair Contest

Open August 5, 2009 – August 31, 2009
The Biggs Museum is proud to serve as a partner alongside the Delaware State Fair, the Boys & Girls Club, WMDT and the Ellen Degeneres Show in the 2009 Ellen’s Wacky Chair Contest. In July 2009, local artists partnered with all ten Delaware Boys and Girls clubs to design and create a “wacky chair” for an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show in September 2009. One Adirondack chair was created by a local artist for each Boys and Girls Club that incorporated the children’s ideas. All ten chairs were on display at the 2009 Delaware State Fair from July 23rd until August 1st. The chairs will be on display throughout the Permanent Collection at the Biggs Museum during the remainder of the month of August. The public is invited to vote for their favorite chair on the Boys & Girls Club web-site (www.bgclubs.org) from July 23rd until August 28th. All voters are encouraged to make a $1 donation on the web-site that will directly benefit Boy and Girls Clubs of Delaware and Maryland and the Biggs Museum. On Monday, August 31st, the winning chair will be announced. The winning artist, and Director of the winning Boys and Girls Club will attend an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show when Ellen will sit in the “Wacky Chair.” One random voter will also be drawn to win two tickets to the Ellen Degeneres Show along with airfare and hotel accommodations.

Wish for the World

Open August, 8, 2009 – August 31, 2009
As we look around our world today, filled with conflicts, environment destruction and human suffering, we all wish for a more peaceful, healthier and happier world. Every member of the community is invited to participate in the Wish for the World exhibition, by visiting the Museum and interpreting his or her wish for the world through art. The creation of the Wish for the World exhibition will take place at the August 2009 First Friday program. Wishes will be hung on trees and displayed during August 2009 inspiring others to think about their wish for the world.

The Sculpture of Light: Volterra, Italy in Delaware

Open April 4, 2009 – June 21, 2009
In a partnership with the Appoquinimink School District and the Volterra, Italy delegation, the Museum is pleased to present The Sculpture of Light: Volterra, Italy in Delaware: an exhibition celebrating the international artist-in-residency program with the Appoquinimink School District as well as the continuing, rich Volterran tradition of alabaster sculptures in Delaware. In early spring 2009, the Appoquinimink School District will host an artist-in-residency program with Volterra, Italy, brining Roberto Chiti, an alabaster sculptor, to teach students in grades 6-12 traditional sculpture techniques. The Sculpture of Light features over 200 works of the program’s participants as well as the work of Roberto Chiti and a selection of historic sculpture recently featured in Volterran exhibition, Scultura Di Luceoneto.

Biggs Shot 2009

March 4, 2009 – June 28, 2009

Biggs Shot 2009 is the second juried photography competition and exhibition featuring the work of new and emerging photographers, working and/or living in the Mid-Atlantic region. The inaugural Biggs Shot competition in 2005 attracted over 130 applicants within the region. Sally Packard and Dinah Reath, owner of the Packard Reath Gallery, Ryan Grover, Biggs Museum Curator, and Catherine Ware, Curator of Photographs from the Philadelphia Museum of Art selected 40 photographs, which were exhibited at the Biggs Museum November 2008 through February 2006. The Biggs Shot 2009: Competition drew 500 works from over 150 individual applicants. Stephen Perloff, editor of The Photo Review and The Photograph Collector, served as the juror of the Biggs Shot 2009 Competition. Perloff selected 80 photographs to be displayed in the Biggs Shot 2009 Exhibition held this spring. The Biggs Shot 2009 Exhibition offers visitors a wide range of local photographers’ works and their perspectives: a glimpse of the creativity and innovation occurring in our region by photographers of all skill levels. Biggs Shot 2009 images are displayed side-by-side, inviting open discussion and comparison. Biggs Shot 2009 supports the Museum’s mission in tracing the evolution of the local scene through exhibition and documentation of works created today. Biggs Shot 2009 marks the first on-line exhibition hosted by the Biggs Museum on its web-site. Biggs Shot 2009: On-Line creates a virtual exhibition experience for members of the public who are unable to visit the Museum during the exhibition. All 80 selected images are available for view in Biggs Shot 2009: On-Line in addition to Q&A sessions with the photographers.

On a Smaller Scale: Dollhouses

Open November 5, 2008 – February 22, 2009

On a Smaller Scale features the recent acquisition of three exceptional dollhouses from the now closed Delaware Toy and Miniature Museum (DTMM), created by Dover resident, Barbara Merrell. These homes were commended by DTMM for their high degree of naturalistic detail within the incredibly small scale of one-half inch to one foot. Ms. Merrell’s homes are half the size of the industry standard for most doll houses at one inch to a foot but Ms. Merrell’s works are literally half the size. In addition, nearly every object furnishing these mini homes: the furniture, the textiles, the household items, were all made from Ms. Merrell’s hands.

Forgotten Dreams:The Paintings of Edward Grant

November 5, 2008 – February 22, 2009

Rehoboth Artist, Edward Grant

The first retrospective of this artist’s work and his incredibly long and distinguished life within the region, both as a prolific painter as well as a successful graphic artist for one of Wilmington’s best-known companies. Edward Grant’s artistic career spanned an astounding seven decades. While so many of his contemporaries moved to the ideal rural setting of the Delmarva Peninsula, Grant grew up, was trained, and practiced his craft within the region. His dedication to the development of the local art scene gave him, in our opinion, a unique perspective on the spaces, customs, and values he observed throughout his entire life. His earliest works exhibit the social realism of the late 20s and 30s, while his war-period works experimented with the contemporary trends of Cubism and Abstraction. He also was a successful graphic artist for one of Wilmington’s best-known and most successful companies, as well as a prolific painter. His later works, after 1968, are among his most highly regarded for their distinctive interpretations of life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Grant’s artistic associations throughout the Delmarva Peninsula were extremely wide; he learned from some of Delaware’s greatest artists, was active in nearly every major arts organization within the state before 1970, was at the center of the Delaware arts communities, and was a life-long art instructor to hundreds of students. Forgotten Dreams will encompass an exhibition of works from the Biggs Museum, the artist’s own collection, and private collections throughout the region, accompanied by the first-ever retrospective publication of this important Delaware artist, which will review Grant’s large body of work in relation to his biography and significant historic moments that impacted the populations of the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Biggs Museum of American Art would like to congratulate the 2008 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellows.

Alida Fish, Seahorse, from the Cabinet of Curiosities series, tintype, 10” x 8”, 2007

Visual Arts
Alida Fish
Robert Bickey
Nancy Breslin
Lori Crawford
Karin Snoots
Chad States
Andrew Wapinski

Literature
Piotr Florczyk
Marry Kennedy
Annette Opalczynski
C. Delia Scarpitti

Music
Mark Hagerty

Media Arts
Paul Hiuchan

*Some portions of the current exhibition, Award Winners VIII, contain nudity and are of mature theme and may not be suitable for children.
Please use discretion. If you have further questions, please contact the Administrative Offices prior to your visit.

Award Winners VIII

July 9, 2008 – October 26, 2008
This exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). These artists: painters, photographers, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees.  In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites the Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. In conjunction with this exhibition The Biggs Museum is pleased to hold the 2008 Summer Art Series: a series of workshops led by a selection of the 2008 fellows. Please see upcoming events for information on these workshops.

Award Winners VII

For seven years the Biggs Museum has offered its galleries for the presentation of some of Delaware’s finest visual artists, craftspeople, writers and musicians with the Award Winners series of exhibitions.  The summer celebration offers a home each year for a new group of winners of the prestigious Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships.  Monetary prizes are awarded to Delaware artists in all media whose work demonstrates an excellence above their competitors.  This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene.

Young at Art

Open September 20, 2008 – October 19, 2008

In partnership with the Child HELP Foundation, the Biggs Museum is proud to host Young at Art, an exhibition featuring artwork created by children in Delaware who are supported by the Child HELP Foundation and VSA Arts of Delaware. Child HELP Foundation is a nonprofit charitable community organization created to promote extended health care, special education and social programs to enhance the quality of life, develop and fulfill the potential of children with disabilities. VSA Arts of Delaware is an organization dedicated to providing children and adults with disabilities opportunities to participate and achieve in the area of performing and visual arts.

From Four Studios: First State Modernism

From Four Studios: First State Modernism is the first major exhibition of the State’s Modernist art collection.  The show presents key examples of works by four seminal figures in early 20th – century painting of Delaware: Jack Lewis (b. 1912), Howard Schroeder (1910-1995), Orville Peets (1881-1968) and Ethel Peets (1886-1978).  Over the last ten years, the private studio collections and an assortment of personal possessions of these four professional artists have been gifted to the State’s collection. Each of these artists was professionally trained painters and art instructors in Delaware during the adventurous introduction of European Modernism into the American art scene.   The extensive holdings of each of the four collections include large caches of the artists’ works, works by their artistic contemporaries, art supplies and studio tools, as well as extensive archival materials on the artists’ careers and lives.

The exhibition introduces the work of these four artists, as represented by the State’s extensive collections, within the historical context of the introduction of European Modernism.  These artists’ careers are presented in light of the direct influence of the new ideas of Cubism, Social Realism, and Abstraction on the American art scene.  We will elicit common threads between each of these artists that connected them to exciting external influences of the art centers of New York and Paris during the first half of the 20th century.  This exhibition positions Delaware as a regional recipient of this groundbreaking influence.

Greetings from Delaware

Greetings from Delaware and Other Artist Communities, features over 250 hand-made greeting cards, the majority of the Jann Haynes Gilmore and B. Joyce Puckett collection, by both regional and national professional artists.  The exhibition will be filled with artful greetings manufactured and sent by artists such as, Rockwell Kent, N.C. Wyeth, Blanche Lazell, Ethel Leach, Frank Schoonover and John Sloan.  The display of these cards will be highlighted by many full-scale paintings and fine-art prints by several of the featured artists.

As objects designed and often printed by professional artists, the cards of this collection display poignant and timeless visual messages through expert craftsmanship.  At the same time, these artist-generated cards from Delaware, the mid-Atlantic region and throughout the country offered their admirers a unique view into little-known regions of the American art scene of the first half of the twentieth century.  In a period full of changing social values and economic hardships, the cards of the Gilmore/Puckett collection demonstrate the versatility and perseverance of American artists under tremendous adversity.  Perhaps more importantly, these images supplied novel interpretations of universally cherished notions of community, family, beauty, and hope at a time when Americans often needed them most, during the holidays.

Delaware Silver

Featuring
The Col. Kenneth P. & Regina I. Brown Collection
and loan exhibition
Masters in Our Midst

March 5 – June 29, 2008

The Biggs Museum is proud to celebrate Delaware Silver featuring the permanent installation of the Col. Kenneth P. & Regina I. Brown Collection in the State’s first Delaware Silver Study Center and an exciting masterpiece exhibition, Masters in Our Midst.

The Brown Collection at the Biggs Museum represents over 50 years of collecting and includes nearly 750 pieces of silver made and retailed in the State of Delaware during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Featuring silver costume objects, militaria, table wares, commemorative wares, and tea and coffee services; the Brown Collection is among the finest known for studying Delaware silversmiths.  This Brown Collection is also featured in a fully illustrated catalog.

In addition, the loan exhibition, Masters in Our Midst, brings together some of the most exceptional silver by Delaware smiths from private and public collections across the country.  Masters in Our Midst offers family-friendly interactive displays on important stories about Delaware Silver.

Expressions of Time: Photographing a Solution

April 18, 2008 through June 1, 2008
This exhibition features over two-dozen works of art by nine photographers that describes their interpretations of the passage of time. The participating photographers are members of Art Lane PCG, a small group of area photographers who improve their professional skills by critiquing each other’s work. Their work displayed in this exhibition is unified by answering a single question, “How do you represent the passage of time in a photograph?”
Participating Artists in Expressions of Time:

Emma Plowman’s Moment Becomes Memory

Ripped From the Headlines: Photojournalism in Delaware

November 1, 2019 – January 19, 2020

News publishers are among the nation’s oldest and most revered image makers. The art of photojournalism, especially in local newspapers, is under appreciated in American art museums even though they tell the stories that unify communities. The Biggs Museum is proud to partner with nearly every major news and magazine platform within Delaware to select highlights in local photojournalism form the past 20 years in one group exhibition. In addition, select photos will also be on view from some of Delaware’s premier photojournalists like Gary Emeigh and Kevin Fleming.

Detail of Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural

Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural

November 1, 2019 – January 19, 2020

A mural-arts project highlighting the Past, Present and Future of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware. This public art project was created through a partnership between Cheyney University professor and painter Marietta Dantonio-Madsen, Cheyney art students and the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware.

Biggs Body: A Juried Competition of Figural Art

September 6 – November 17, 2019

The Biggs Museum is proud to introduce a new juried competition and exhibition concept of art forms featuring human and animal figures. This exhibition showcases 60 exceptional artworks selected from nearly 400 competition submissions in all visual art media including, but not limited to: painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, fiber, installation and video. Selected artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region most successfully interpreted, evoked and responded to the body.

Rebecca Raubacher: Drawings and Paintings

August 2 – October 20, 2019

Rebecca Raubacher’s depictions of human and animal figures emerge over time from a few simple marks layered onto a piece of paper. Without any specific person in mind, she carefully, but almost hypnotically, builds her faces and bodies with cross-hatched lines of a wide range of artistic media. At times, her characters reveal themselves fully formed from within a simple line drawing. At other times, and often much after she started a specific composition, complex personalities appear through veiled skins of layered drawings and paint to demonstrate psychological tensions and universal narratives.

Practically born with a pencil in her hand, Raubacher’s career in art began early with gallery representation in New York but her local celebrity grew as a Kent County gallery owner and advocate of regional talent. She then ran a successful design business developing products with her unique horse portraits for racing fans across the country. Relocating to Lewes, the artist has reinvested herself in painting full-time developing an enormous body of work that radiates the joy of her good fortune and personal accomplishments.

Drawings and Paintings is the first one-woman show of this artist at the Biggs Museum of American Art and is first and foremost a love letter to Raubacher’s unique drawing style. The exhibition and catalog then trace the evolution of the artist’s artistic technique with a deep dive into her recent work.

Detail of Paulo Machado’s Thirteen Sick Snails

Delaware Art Educators Association Exhibition in the Child HELP Gallery

September 6 – October 20, 2019

Featuring artworks created by members of the Delaware Art Educators Association-an affiliate of the National Association serving art teachers across the country.

Spirit Revealed: New Works by Aaron Paskins

May 3 – July 21, 2019

Aaron Paskins is a Dover sculptor who has been building a national and local reputation for imaginative, inspiring African figures and imagery using unexpected materials. The essence of Paskins’ sculptures capture the complexity of various indigenous tribes, executed with imagination and a touch of fantasy. 

ArtLane: Visualizing the Museum

May 3 – July 21, 2019

The Biggs invited the artist critique group exhibition club, ArtLane, to study the museum as a subject of their photographic art works and to each create a distinct series of images that reflect their own artistic points of view. Featured artists include: Elisabeth Bard, Pat Field, Karl Leck, Ray Magnani, Dain Simons, Heather Siple, Beth Trepper, and Rob Tuttle.

Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Award Winners XIX

June 7 – July 21, 2019

Each year, the Biggs Museum of American Art hosts the winning artists of Delaware’s most prestigious fellowship competition in one group exhibition. The Delaware State Arts Council, in cooperation with the Delaware Division of the Arts, selects these fellowship winners from a pool of hundreds of literary, visual and performing artists at all professional levels. They are awarded cash grants, exhibition and performance opportunities and yearlong recognition. The Biggs Museum has partnered with CAMP Rehoboth and Cab Calloway School of the Arts to feature this exhibition in Sussex and New Castle Counties.

Caesar Rodney School District Art Show

May 4 – May 31, 2019

This annual exhibition celebrates the success of student artists in the Caesar Rodney School District. Open to all age levels, skill sets, and media, this show is an exemplary display of the diversity of perspective, experience, and personalities found in the Caesar Rodney community.

Rooted, Revived and Reinvented: Basketry in America

February 1 – April 28, 2019

Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America chronicles a history of American basketry from its origins in Native American, immigrant, and slave communities to its presence within the contemporary fine art world. Baskets convey meaning through the artists’ selection of materials; the techniques they use; and the colors, designs, patterns, and textures they employ. Historical baskets were rooted in local landscapes and shaped by cultural traditions. The rise of the industrial revolution and mass production at the end of the nineteenth century led basket makers to create works for new audiences and markets, including tourists, collectors and fine art museums. Today the story continues. Some contemporary artists seek to maintain and revive traditions practiced for centuries. Others combine age-old techniques with nontraditional materials to generate cultural commentary. Still others challenge viewers’ expectations by experimenting with form, materials, and scale. This exhibition is divided into 5 sections: Cultural Origins, New Basketry, Living Traditions, Basket as Vessel, and Beyond the Basket.

Traveling Africa: Citywide Black History Festival

February 1 – March 24, 2019

As part of Dover’s annual Citywide Black History Celebration, the Biggs Museum will examine the ways that Americans record and relate to Africa through tourism. This group exhibition includes travel photography of memorable moments on the continent, as well as the material culture that tourists in Kent County have collected to commemorate their adventures abroad.

From Nature: The Children’s Book Illustrations of Nancy Carol Willis

October 5, 2018 – January 27, 2019

Like John J. Audubon, Nancy Carol Willis demonstrates a deep feeling for nature based upon a lifetime of close observation, sketching, and painting. From October-January, the Schoonover Illustration Gallery will host 18 illustrations from three of Willis’s award-winning natural science children’s picture books. The books depict North American species in their natural habitats.

An Artist’s Education: William H. McDaniel

December 6, 2018 – January 19, 2019

Delaware is known for producing a great number of successful artists. Exceptional art schools in the area have produced luminaries of American illustration and fine arts. William H. McDaniel demonstrated great promise attending the Wilmington Academy of Art in the late 1920s, but the Great Depression ended his hopes of an art career. Despite his turn in fortunes, his family saved the bulk of his art school projects for nearly 100 years and is sharing this archival look into his early art education for the first time to rediscover this talent that was never fully realized.

Biggs Shot 2018

December 7, 2018 – January 27, 2019

The Biggs Museum of American Art presents Biggs Shot 2018, the fifth juried photography competition and exhibition featuring the work of professional and emerging photographers, working and/or living in the Mid-Atlantic region. The theme for Biggs Shot 2018 is open, and any photographic medium can be submitted for consideration, including film, video and digital formats. Click here for a list photographers and works in the exhibition.

Audubon, Then and Now

August 3 – November 25, 2018

In 1826 at the age of 41, encouraged by his wife, Audubon took his portfolio of 300+ works to England. Today, more than ever his work endures and segments of his work are right here at the Biggs in Dover. This exhibition examines the importance of the artist and naturalist, John James Audubon, through a large exhibition of his earliest works from both the Birds of America and Viviparous Quadropeds publications. This historical analysis will be coupled with the works of contemporary artists influenced by early naturalists and recorded in an exhibition catalog with color reproductions and essays by leading scholars.

Modern opinions of Audubon’s legacy will also be explored with displays of artworks by living artists influenced by this paragon of 19th century naturalist art. Learn More

Rembrandt Etchings: States, Fakes and Restrikes

May 12-July 8, 2018

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-69) was one of the most influential printmakers in the history of art. But how can one be sure that a Rembrandt is truly or wholly by THE Rembrandt? This exhibition examines the problem of authenticating this artist’ etchings. The exhibition includes first state pulls of etchings made during the artist’s lifetime as well as restrike prints made after his death and well into the 20^th century.

Body from Egg, Michael Galmer, Silver and Gold

Monumental: Michael Izrael Galmer, Silversmith

April 6-May 20, 2018

The Biggs Museum of American Art is grateful to highlight its 25th Anniversary Celebration with an exhibition on the famed American silversmith, Michael Izrael Galmer. Born to a Jewish family in Soviet Russia, he immigrated with his wife Galina to New York in 1981. Galmer combined his advanced degrees in engineering with a deep-rooted need to express himself artistically to develop a unique process of molding silver. While Galmer is extremely well known for his commercial products of jewelry, accessories and most notably table wares – some produced for the leading American manufacturers of silver today – this exhibition honors a new and more uniquely expressive direction for the artist. At the same time, this fresh body of works explores the emotional impact and, frankly, surprise of immense scale upon admirers of silver objects.

Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850

May 19 – July 22, 2018

The Biggs Museum will honor the upcoming publication of Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850, the definitive study of Delaware girlhood samplers of the 18th and 19th centuries, with an exhibition of historic needlework. The exhibition will feature approximately 80 antique samplers and other forms of embroidery from all three counties of the state with a special emphasis on debuting the work of little-known schools of needlework instruction; It will also be accompanied by a symposium and catalog.

Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Award Winners XVIII

June 1 – July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 5-7 p.m.

For the past 18 years, the Biggs Museum of American Art has hosted the DDOA Award Winners exhibition. This annual group show features artworks, literature and performances of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows-among the state’s most prestigious honors for artists. The winning Fellows are chosen by the Delaware State Arts Council from well over a hundred competitors. They are awarded cash grants, exhibition opportunities and year-long public recognition. This year, the Biggs Museum is partnering with CAMP Rehoboth and Cab Calloway School of the Arts to also showcase the Award Winners in Sussex and New Castle Counties.

The winning artists featured this year can be found here: https://arts.delaware.gov/iafrecipients/2018_iafs/

This exhibition is 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 Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.

Milton Downing: Moral Assembly

June 1 – July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 5-7 p.m.

Milton Downing insists he is not an activist, but perhaps a moralist. This assemblage artist gathers pieces of discarded clothing and other found objects into painted compositions that reveal a wide range of human experiences. His subjects, regardless of their backgrounds, are elevated through an expressive use of color and enlivened through the artist’s gestural use of paint. The emotional content of the people depicted are channeled through the forms emerging from the artist’s incorporated materials: a piece of denim influences a posture that dictates the narrative of his figure. From dejected and harassed people on the fringes of society to sports stars at the center of attention, Downing’s images act as a tribute to emotional and physical endurance. His subjects shed light on challenges facing many Americans with depictions of archetypes within its communities.

Monumental: Michael Izrael Galmer, Silversmith

April 6 – May 20, 2018

Opening Reception on Friday, April 6th from 5-7 p.m.

Based in New York, the silversmith Michael Galmer has succeeded in becoming one of the country’s leading craftsmen having designed for Tiffany and Co., Lenox, Gorham and Kirk Stieff. With a unique technique, the artist has developed a wide variety of repousse-decorated jewelry and vessels as well as the renowned Preakness trophy, commemorative silver forms and contemporary sculptures for such distinguished collections as the Jewish Museum of New York.

Tony Burton, Garden of Eden, Acrylic on Canvas

African American History Live

February 2 – April 29, 2018
Opening reception on February 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.
Meet-the-Artist Reception on Thursday, February 15, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

The Biggs Museum will present its first group exhibition of works created by African American artists of Greater Dover and Kent County. Entitled African American History Live, the exhibition is a focal point of the Dover Citywide Black History Celebration taking place in several locations throughout the city during the month of February. The show will feature approximately two dozen artists in a wide variety of media including: painting, video, photography, fiber, sculpture and works on paper. The artists also represent a diversity of professional backgrounds ranging from Delaware State University faculty, to students and from craft artists to second-career painters.

Jeffrey Rubin’s interpretation of Gerry Meekins’ photograph

Performances: the Brandywine Photo Collective

February 2 – April 22, 2018
Opening reception on Feb 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

The iconic photographer Ansel Adams described that every photograph is a “performance” in which light exposure, composition, color and any number of other tiny details can be arranged by the artist to create an original expression. In Performances, nine artist members of the Brandywine Photo Collective will interpret four photographic images through digital manipulation, post processing and creative printing. The exhibition then compares each artist’s evolution of the members’ source imagery.

Aina, Nergaard-Nammack, #1471 Meditation 5, 3 Circles, Acrylic on canvas

My Countries, My Composers: Aina Nergaard-Nammack

February 2 – March 25, 2018
Opening reception on Feb 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

This is the museum’s first one-woman show of the artist Aina Nergaard-Nammack. The exhibition, entitled My Countries, My Composers, explores the artist’s interpretation of musical scores of key classical music composers of the three countries where she has lived: first Spain, then Norway and now the United States. The artist creates large abstract paintings influenced by the sounds and rhythms of her musical selections. Some of the composers she channels within this body of work include: Aaron Copland, Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados and Edward Grieg.
Image caption: Aina, Nergaard-Nammack, #1471 Meditation 5, 3 Circles, Acrylic on canvas

Delaware By Hand Juried Exhibition

November 3-January 21, 2018

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a juried competition of its Delaware By Hand artist membership in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft.

Delaware Watercolor Society Juried Exhibition

November 3-January 21, 2018

In partnership with the Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS), the Biggs Museum will again exhibit watercolor paintings by this group’s best and brightest in a juried competition. Over fifty works will be featured within the Biggs Museum, many will be for sale. The DWS aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits and other activities.

More information

Biggs Exhibition at the Winterthur Antique Show
At 25: Distinguishing the Biggs Museum of American Art

November 10 – 12, 2017

The Biggs Museum is honored to provide the showcase exhibition of the Delaware Antique Show at the Chase Center in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. This exhibition celebrates the museum’s upcoming 25-year anniversary by featuring 25 recent additions to the museum’s permanent collection that epitomize its continued strengths and new directions. The exhibition is on view for all Delaware Antique Show guests and tickets start at $15. For more information, click here.

Christo & Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden Collection

August 4-October 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, August 4 from 5-7 p.m.

This exhibition chronicles the career of husband and wife artistic team, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The exhibition is a large display of the artists’ portfolios; original drawings and sculptures developed to record the major large scale environmental installations and international projects undertaken by Christo and Jeanne-Claude for more than forty years.

More information

DDOA Award Winners XVII

August 4 – October 22, 2017
Artist Reception: August 30, 2017 from 5-7 p.m.

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows. The Fellows are recommended by out-of-state jurors based on the high quality of their artwork and receive Delaware State Arts Council approval. Each year, the Biggs Museum invites the award winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishments in visual and media arts, literature, and music.

Biggs In Bloom

Calendar of a series of weekends – Please note change in format! 

This year’s Biggs in Bloom showcase of artist floral designs influenced by highlights of the Biggs Museum’s permanent collection will be spread out over several installations to build momentum towards the grander presentation in September 2018 celebrating the museum’s 25-year anniversary. Keep up with all the displays of our floral artists within the museum’s galleries year round!

What Inspired You?: Works by Members of the Delaware Art Education Association

August 4 – September 1, 2017

Almost all artists have a vivid memory of what inspired them to pursue the arts. Through a partnership with the Delaware Art Education Association, the Biggs and DAEA have challenged Delaware art educators to create and submit works of art that explore what inspired them to become artists and teachers. The resulting exhibit will be a testament to the innovative forces behind the educators that are inspiring our state’s future creative leaders.

Ansel Adams: Early Works

May 5 – July 30, 2017

This exhibition presents the work of iconic American photographer, Ansel Adams. His work can be viewed as the end of an arc of American art concerned with capturing the “sublime” in the unspoiled Western landscape: a tradition that includes several painters on view within the Biggs Museum including Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole.

Biggs Picture 2017

June 2 – July 23, 2017

Once every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts this juried, regional competition. Artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic states are invited to compete within this unique exhibition featuring a wide variety of landscape concepts in any artistic medium: photography, sculpture, painting, video, installation, etc. The works will be available for purchase.

Junior Docent Exhibit

June 2 – 30, 2017

Throughout the year, students from schools and afterschool programs throughout the state participate in our Junior Docent Program. These students view and study works of art from our collection and then provide tours of the museum to their peers and families. By the conclusion of the school year, students have also created works of art inspired by the collection at the Biggs and these works are showcased in our Child HELP Foundation Gallery. This program is generously supported by the Susan K. Black Foundation, the Delaware Division of the Arts, the Kent County Fund for the Arts and the PNC Foundation.

Clark Fox: Icon Chains

Through February 5, 2017

Known throughout the contemporary art circles of New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles, Clark Fox has been critiquing modern culture with stories of iconic characters, such as George Washington, Chef from the animated South Park and The Planters Company Mr. Peanut, for over forty years. The exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art will focus on some of the enticing and charismatic formal series that Fox has utilized in his art to confront social themes such as racism and corruption.

In conjunction with the Clark Fox: Icon Chains exhibition, art professor at Delaware State University, George Lorio, will exhibit some of his recent and politically charged artworks.

George Lorio: Recent Works

October 7, 2016 – January 22,2017

In conjunction with the Biggs Museum’s exhibition entitled Clark Fox: Icon Chains, the museum has asked local sculptor and outspoken art professor at Delaware State University, George Lorio, to exhibit his some of his recent and politically charged artworks. Using playful found objects and children’s toys, George brings very serious attention to important topics such as climate change, gun violence and challenges to free speech. Lorio’s work will be on view within the museum’s entrance through the New Year.

Award Winners XVI

August 5 – October 23, 2016

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the 2016 Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Each year, the winning Fellows are chosen by the Delaware State Arts Council from over a hundred visual, literary and performing art competitors. The Fellows are awarded cash grants, exhibition opportunities and year-long public recognition. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff at the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.

Biggs Shot 2016

June 3 – September 25, 2016

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a huge competition of the finest photographers from across the Mid-Atlantic States. This year’s contest will be judged by the museum’s new Director, Charles Guerin. The winners will be featured in a group exhibition with the best of show receiving a $1500 purchase prize for the permanent collection.

Maurice Sendak: The Memorial Exhibition – 50 Years, Works, Reasons

July 30 – September 11, 2016

The Biggs Museum is proud to partner with the Dover Public Library to feature the work and biography of one of America’s most beloved children’s authors and illustrators, Maurice Sendak. Know principally for his publication and now a major motion picture, Where the Wild Things Are, this exhibition spans the career and work of this visionary artist.

© Maurice Sendak: All Rights Reserved

Barbara Warden
365: Elements in Time

May 6 – July 24, 2016

In her first one-person exhibition at the Biggs Museum, artist Barbara Warden features the finest examples of her year-long exercise of creating one drawing a day. Leaving all to chance, the artist starts her abstract compositions from a single gesture across the page that begins a unique experience in monochromatic materials.

Illuminating the Word, The Saint John’s Bible

Volume: Letters and Revelation folio: H3hV Chapter and Verse: Rev. 6: 1-17, 7: 1-7 Containing: Text, 1/2 page ill., “Four Horseman” Page: Revelation 6

December 4, 2015 – April 24, 2016

The Biggs Museum of American Art is exceptionally proud to be a rare American host of Illuminating the Word, The Saint John’s Bible. This international exhibition features 70 pages of The Saint John’s Bible, the first monumental hand-illuminated bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in over 500 years. Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, commissioned the enormous art project of an entire hand-painted bible: every word, every illustration, every image, from one of the best-known contemporary scribes and illuminators in the world, Donald Jackson. The artist’s team worked for almost fifteen years to adorn each vellum page of The Saint John’s Bible in the manner that medieval monks created bibles before the invention of the printing press: quill and ink. These inspiring accomplishments will be accompanied by a display of tools, materials and artists’ drafts used in the Bible’s creation along with other examples of historical illuminated books and manuscripts from the collection of Saint John’s University and private collectors. The exhibition will be accompanied by several educational tours, lectures and artist workshops for all skill levels honoring the ancient traditions of book arts. Learn more.

New Discoveries: Michael Robear

Snap, Michael Robear

November 6, 2015 – February 14, 2016

Often, the Biggs Museum’s staff has the good fortune to discover talented artists within this community who have not received enough critical attention. Michael Robear is undeniably one of those artists. Robear began in childhood depicting wildlife and Mid-Atlantic landscapes. From his home in nearby Cecil County, Maryland, Robear grew up admiring, even emulating the members of the illustrious Wyeth family, especially Andrew Wyeth. From high school, he was accepted to the Corcoran School of the Arts where he developed his surreal interpretation on regional landscapes and people with an adventurous application of his preferred medium, watercolor. The artist’s cavalier use of water-based paints is contrasted by the unique frames he forges from metal. A professional metalsmith, Robear has been completing his works within his own sculptural frames for several years, melding his two passions into unforgettable works of art.

Exhibition: Harmony Weavers Guild

March 4 – April 24, 2016

This bi-annual members’ exhibition of the pre-eminent regional weaving association features masterworks of fiber art. The Harmony Weavers Guild emphasizes fellowship, enthusiasm and especially education in weaving for its members. This feature exhibition will be accented with examples of looms and educational programs.

 Youth Art Month: Sculptures of Ourselves

March 4 – March 24, 2016

The Biggs Museum has challenged art educators from across the state to teach their K-12 students about the art form of self-portraiture by creating outdoor sculptures of themselves using found and recycled materials. This submitted works will be on view outside, in front of the museum’s main entrance.

DEMCO, Inc.

October 2 – November 15, 2015

The Biggs Museum is celebrating its new partnership with The Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization (DEMCO, Inc.), with an exhibition, entitled DEMCO, Inc., of student and staff artworks created during their after-school program in downtown Dover. This exhibition will be on view from October 2 – November 15, 2015 in the Child HELP Foundation Gallery on the museum’s first floor.

A portion of this current exhibition features works created within the Substance Abuse Prevention Narratives project. The DEMCO artists and instructors created this series of collages as narratives, a kind of pictorial story, of Abuse Prevention. This project challenges artists such G.L. Shamir, Desiree Wilson and Dr. Linda Hackett to channel the lessons of such noted artists as Vincent Van Gogh, Gustave Courbet, Ben Shan and Jacob Lawrence to create new works that embody the message of Prevention.

The Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization (DEMCO, Inc.) is a Dover non-profit organization offering educational support and counseling in Kent County. DEMCO, Inc. offers classes, workshops and tutoring to learners from kindergarten to adults. This organization specializes in educational topics including: Economics, Mathematics, Humanities, Science, Fine Art, Coping skills, Leadership, Languages, Substance Abuse Prevention, High School Completion, College Preparation Exams and Teacher Certification.

Small Tapestry International 4: Honoring Tradition, Inspiring Innovation

October 2 – November 22, 2015

The American Tapestry Alliance was established in 1982 to unite tapestry weavers and designers in order to promote an awareness and appreciation of contemporary hand-woven tapestries from around the world. This organization promotes speakers, hosts instructors, produces publications, disseminates information and creates juried exhibitions of the finest textiles artists’ works internationally. This year’s competition of Small Tapestry International features small-scale works by over 40 artists. Each of these works were designed and completed by hand by weaving and knotting thousands of threads on a loom to create one cohesive composition. The works were juried by Kevin Wallace, the Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, California. He is a regular contributor to numerous international publications and has guest-curated exhibitions for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Cultural Affairs Department of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles International Airport, and the San Luis Obispo Art Center.

Award Winners XV

July 3-September 27, 2015

Free Admission

Each year, through a partnership with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA), the Biggs Museum hosts the works of Delaware’s award winning Individual Artist Fellows, honoring their combined accomplishments. The Fellows are recommended by out of state jurors and receive Delaware State Arts Council approval. Fellows receive cash awards ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 to advance their artistic careers.

Sixteen Delaware Fellows were selected in 2015 for the high quality of their artwork. These artists reside throughout Delaware, including in Bethel, Dover, Lewes, New Castle, Newark, Rehoboth Beach, and Wilmington. Awards are given in three categories—Emerging Professional, Established Professional, and Masters. Listed below are the DDOA 2015 Individual Artist Fellows.

2015 INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWS
Masters Award
Kimberly Reighley, Wilmington, Music: Solo Recital – Reighley plays baroque and modern flute, is co-artistic director of Mélomanie, plays principal flute with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and OperaDelaware, and has performed with Brandywine Baroque as well as numerous ensembles in Pennsylvania and California.

Established Professional Award
Robert M. Bickey, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Sculpture
Gail Braune Comorat, Lewes, Literature: Poetry
Kevin J. Cope, Newark, Music: Composition
Christopher Nichols, Newark, Music: Solo Recital
Russell Reece, Bethel, Literature: Fiction
Jeffrey Rubin, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Photography
Billie Travalini, Wilmington, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Lance Winn, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting
Emerging Professional Award
Judy Catterton, Rehoboth Beach, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Barbara Gray, Wilmington, Literature: Fiction
Tom Newby, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting (work pictured above)
Britania Redington, Dover, Music: Solo Recital
James Ulry, Dover, Visual Arts: Crafts
Lindsey Warren, Newark, Literature: Poetry
Karoline Wileczek, Newark, Visual Arts: Works on Paper

Emerging Professional Award
Judy Catterton, Rehoboth Beach, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Barbara Gray, Wilmington, Literature: Fiction
Tom Newby, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting (work pictured above)
Britania Redington, Dover, Music: Solo Recital
James Ulry, Dover, Visual Arts: Crafts
Lindsey Warren, Newark, Literature: Poetry
Karoline Wileczek, Newark, Visual Arts: Works on Paper

The Award Winners XV exhibition will be displayed on the second floor of the Biggs Museum. An Artist Award Presentation will take place at the Biggs Museum on Saturday, September 26, 2015 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. This event will be free of charge and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Delaware Watercolor Society

July 3 – September 20, 2015

Admission: $5 (Free for Members, Children Under 12, and on Sundays)

The Biggs Museum will host a juried member’s exhibition of the Delaware Watercolor Society.  As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

An Artist Reception will take place on Friday, August 7, 2015 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. At the reception, the public will have an opportunity to view over 50 Delaware Watercolor Society works, meet the artists and enjoy a concert with two ensemble members of Mélomanie. Admission will be free for the reception. 

Delaware By Hand: Masters 2015

April 3, 2015 – June 14, 2015

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a juried competition of their Delaware By Hand artist membership in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft. The 2015 winning members, as well as their finest submissions, are selected by Brandi P. Clark, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Each winner is represented by at least three works of art in the Delaware By Hand Masters exhibition. These works are eligible for the coveted Museum Purchase Prize of $1500, a special winning allocation also selected by the competition juror, Ms. Clark. The exhibitors have often selected two additional works to represent the scope of their talent and abilities and their works are on view in the museum’s timeline galleries alongside examples of the historic permanent collection of fine and decorative arts.

Additionally the exhibition includes the work of Honorary Master Craftsman, James Coker to honor his lifetime achievement in hand-crafts. Never-before-seen, Mr. Coker’s unique and distinctive needlework compositions are on view in the museum’s second-floor Gallery 14. This exhibition is funded in part by the Edgar Thronson Foundation, the Donald and Martha DeWees Foundation, and the Delaware Division of the Arts.

The following artists will be featured in the upcoming DBH Masterworks Exhibition:

• Arden Bardol
• Peter Saenger
• Robert Schock
• Betsey VonDreele
• Catherine Walls
• Steve Rogers
• Mike Quattrociocchi
• Thomas Frey
• Louise Gatanas
• Michael Krausz
• C. Denise Bendelewski
• Dolores Michels

…and…

• James Coker

William D. White: Vision and Voice Exhibition

March 6 – June 21, 2015

William D. White: Vision and Voice is the first major exhibition and exhibition catalogue of this unique and important regional artist. This exhibition reintroduces the work of Wilmington, Delaware illustrator, muralist and painter William D. White (1896-1971). This artist’s varied and significant career spans some of the country’s most intense moments of the 20th century as well as the final days of the golden age of American illustration. The exhibition and publication will celebrate significant moments in the life of the artist through an examination of over 75 works.

This exhibition will also be accompanied by a symposium entitled William D. White: The Art of Illustration in Delaware and Beyond on March 28, 2015. To learn more about this symposium click here.

Abraham Lincoln: The WSFS Bank Collection of Frank Schoonover Illustrations

March 31, 2015 – May 3, 2015

For over 50 years, WSFS, the oldest bank and trust company headquartered in Delaware, have been the stewards of a fine collection of paintings and drawings by prized Wilmington illustrator, Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972). Many of the works in this collection were originally owned by Helen L. Card and displayed in the Latendorf Bookshop in New York City.

The bank’s images were illustrated for two stories on President Abraham Lincoln: Margarita Spaulding Gerry’s “The Toy Shop”, published in the December 1907 issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine, and Lucy Foster Madison’s Lincoln, published by the Penn Publishing Company in 1928. These ten images will be on view in the Biggs Museum’s first floor to commemorate the Old Dover Days celebration of America’s most popular president.

March for the Arts

March 6, 2015 – March 29, 2015

In support of Youth Art Month, the Museum will host an exhibition of artwork created by Delaware art educators and their students.  Schools from across the state have submitted a series of works in a variety of media.

Carson Zullinger: The Line of Beauty

November 7, 2014 – February 15, 2015

Delaware native, Carson Zullinger, has been exhibiting his figural and landscape fine-art photographs for forty years. Zullinger often subordinates his dynamic and thoroughly modern compositions to emphasize traditionally held forms of beauty. The Line of Beauty helps to trace his accomplishments in the arts while debuting new works created in response to receiving the coveted Master’s level Individual Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of Arts.

You Are the United States

December 5, 2014 – January 11, 2015

Emile Klein, a classically trained portrait painter from the San Francisco Bay area, recently biked across the country to record America from his perspective. Throughout his journey, Emile stopped at the homes of various short-term sponsor families. In exchange for hosting the artist, he would paint the host’s portrait.

The artist’s process of exchanging his art for room and board parallels the early American art scene of ‘limners’ who made their living traveling from town to town. While Emile painted, he also recorded the conversations he had with his subjects creating a powerful and intimate record of his hosts. These recordings and portraits made up the narratives fueling Emile’s not-for-profit organization, You’re U.S., to create a representation of modern Americans by highlighting people’s singular characteristics while searching for the qualities that tie together a nation. Many of the portraits and biographies compiled for You’re U.S. will be on view from December 5, 2014 through January 11, 2015.

Ain’t I a Woman: Lori Crawford and The Sista’s

September 5 – October 26, 2014

Lori Crawford, Associate Professor of Art at Delaware State University, will present works from The Sista’s series on the Biggs Museum’s third floor. Crawford’s series of digital drawings challenges notions of traditional female beauty. Prints of her figural works will be juxtaposed against the museum’s own collection of 19th-century academic artists and early Impressionist painters within the permanent collection galleries 20 and 21.

Award Winners XIV

August 1 – October 19, 2014

For fourteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual exhibition. The exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the DDOA. Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity and provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community.

R³ Factory Exhibition

May 17 – July 20, 2014

With support from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the Biggs Museum is proud to present a series of educational programs that provide valuable information as well as art-related experiences that focus on the importance of recycling. From May 17 through July 20, the Child HELP Foundation Gallery will be transformed into the R³ Factory providing a designated space for recycling-related activities. The R³ Factory will provide visitors with the opportunity to view recycling-themed art installations, participate in a variety of hands-on activities using recycled materials, and view an award winning documentary about a contemporary artist whose art is inspired by the world’s largest landfill. Four artist installations will provide visitors with the opportunity to view four different interpretations of recycling and art and participate in their completion by adding materials available in the R³ Factory. By providing visitors with the opportunity to engage with the installations, we hope to leave a lasting impression about how each individual can make a significant impact on the amount of waste that is disposed of each year. The four artists are:

• Jennifer Boland, Art Educator at Campus Community School
• Lori Crawford, Professor at Delaware State University
• Heidi Lowe, Professional Jewelry Artist
• Mary Pauer, 2014 Delaware Division of the Arts Established Literary Fellow

Visitors to the R³ Factory will be encouraged to vote on the installation that most inspires them to get involved in recycling. Votes will be accepted at the museum, on the Biggs Museum website and on the Biggs Museum’s Facebook page from May 17 to July 20. The winning artist and their installation will be announced on our website and Facebook page on August 1 and featured in the fall Museletter.

We need your help! Please assist us as we gather recyclable materials for use in the R³ Factory. Donations are being accepted at the front desk of the museum to the attention of Beccy Cooper. Please contact Beccy at 674-2111 ext. 101 or bcooper@biggsmuseum.org with any questions. The artists have requested the following materials:

• aluminum soda cans
• six pack soda rings (yoke)
• small water bottles
• egg cartons
• paper towel rolls
• aluminum foil
• fabric scraps
• use light bulbs
• old books (preferably ledger sized)
• magazines

Biggs Picture Exhibition

May 17 – July 20, 2014

The Biggs Museum of American art is proud to again host the third installment of The Biggs Picture, a landscape competition. This exhibition will present art works from all media; such as, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, and video; of competition winners that most successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape”. Depending on size, the exhibition will display between 40 and 60 works. Each work must fit within at least one of these sub-themes:

Perceived Landscape: interpretations of actual spaces at particular times.
Imagined Landscapes: interpretations of spaces from the past, memory, make-believe, and/or the future.
Landscapes of the Mind: interpreting psychological states of being through creations of space.

This exhibition will be supported by a number of educational programs including, but not limited to: curator led tours of the Biggs Museum’s landscape paintings, juror talks, workshops in the Museum’s galleries, “Paint Outs” in Dover’s historic areas, and Biggs Kids programming.Click here to view a full list of artists

Refining the Region: the Landscapes of Bayard T. Berndt

November 1, 2013 – February 23, 2014
Bayard Taylor Berndt was a 20th century Brandywine Valley artist who studied under such recognizable figures as Frank Schoonover, N.C. Wyeth and Gayle Hoskins. Refining the Region: the Landscapes of Bayard T. Berndt is an exhibition of paintings produced over the course of a sixty-year career. American and local history was a passion and often was a subject of his paintings. He was especially enamored with the beauty and heritage of the Brandywine Valley and often focused on his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Some of his most recognizable scenes highlight commerce on the local waterways, industrialization, urban street views and covered bridges.

Celebration of Creativity

November 1 – December 31, 2013
VSA of Delaware provides children and adults with disabilities opportunities to achieve in the performing and visual arts. VSA of Delaware is a unique organization within the state with a sole mission devoted to enhancing the capabilities, confidence and quality of life for individuals with disabilities by providing life-long learning opportunities in the arts. VSA’s artist-in-residence program pairs professional teaching artist with creative individuals with disabilities across the State of Delaware to explore and develop artistic skills in the areas of visual arts, dance, drama and music. The exhibition currently on view at the Biggs Museum, Celebration of Creativity, highlights art produced by the Artist-in-Residence 2012-2013 program cycle.

Delaware Watercolor Society

September 6 – October 27, 2013
The Biggs Museum will host a juried member’s exhibition of the Delaware Watercolor Society. As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

Award Winners XIII

August 2 – October 13, 2013
For thirteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition.

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.

The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community.

Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.

The Legacy of Currier & Ives: Shaping the American Spirit

July 4 – October 27, 2013
When Nathanial Currier, a young businessman in New York City, published a lithograph in 1835 showing Planters Hotel in New Orleans after a fire, it ushered in a new era of pictorial journalism. The print established the firm which was to achieve its greatest fame as “Currier & Ives” after 1857 when James Merritt Ives became a partner.

Over the next seven decades, the firm consistently provided the public with images that recorded the breaking news of the day. However, as the demand for decorative lithographs increased, Currier & Ives also published prints depicting almost every aspect of American life. Through an ever-expanding repertoire of images, the prints of Currier & Ives celebrated the activities, events and everyday life of nineteenth century Americans. Images included domestic life, historical events, city and country views, religious scenes, scenic wonders, westward expansion, trains, ships, winter scenes and hunting and fishing. Each print was titled and most were hand-colored by women who worked for the firm.

The prints were sold in the New York City shop, distributed through mail-order, and were offered by peddlers and by agents working throughout the United States and Europe. Working with speed and efficiency, Currier & Ives printed two to three images every week for 64 years, and the firm is believed to have produced more than 8,000 different titled lithographic prints.

Many of the images serve to document a wide variety of social trends and attitudes that reflect American culture during the nineteenth century. The Legacy of Currier & Ives allows visitors to experience American history and society through the extraordinary images produced by the legendary firm who called themselves “Printmakers to the People.”

 The Projectionist

March 1 – June 23, 2013

The Projectionist is a documentary, book and multi-media exhibition that explores one man’s lifelong fascination with the golden ago of film and, in particular, the grand movie palace. The exhibition features a fully operational 1920s style movie theater that was created in the basement of Middletown native, Gordon Brinckle. A documentary, created by Kendall Messick, provides a penetrating gaze into the life of this self-taught artist. The narrative follows the course of Brinckle’s life, revealing the profound desire, frustration and motivation that propelled him to create such a distinctive outsider art environment. Original works on paper by Brinkle such as blueprints and floor plans and fine art photographs by Messick of Brinkle operating the theater will also be on view.

The Projectionist press coverage

The News Journal

Article and video: Delaware man’s handcrafted theater returns home for display through June

The Dover Post
Article: ‘The Projectionist’ highlights artistic vision of basement obsession

WDEL
Article and video: Delaware’s last movie palace on display at the Biggs

A Moment in Time: Artist Exchange

January 4, 2013 – February 24, 2013
In conjunction with the museum’s signature Biggs Shot photographyc ompetition, the museum has invited a local artist association to create works based on the photographic notion of capturing a “moment in time.” Artists who specialize in such varied media as ceramics, abstract painting, watercolors, printmaking and textiles will be evaluated for their successful record of an identifiable time period in a group critique that will be filmed, as a documentary and projected during the exhibition.

For a sneak peak view of this exhibition please click here.

Biggs Shot 2012

November 2, 2012 – February 17, 2013
Biggs Shot 2012 will feature submissions to the third juried photography competition of artists living and working in the Greater Delmarva Peninsula. The competition, hosted by the Biggs Museum and juried by Sarah Stolfa, Director of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, is open to all photographers-both amateur and professional. This exhibition will offer visitors a wide view of local talent as well as local artistic perspectives – a showcase on the ways local photographers view this region. The competition is open to artists working in film, digital, and video formats.

Glass Transformed

September 7 – October 28, 2012
Glass Transformed is the first museum presentation within the State of Delaware of the photographic work of Celia Pearson. Based in Annapolis, the artist has traveled as far as Italy to photograph unique sea glass collections. Spanning from still life to abstract studies, the exhibit is presented in forms that vary from framed prints to her more recent fiber installations. Pearson’s work has been published and exhibited widely.

Award Winners XII

July 6, 2012 – October 21, 2012
For twelve years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from over a hundred entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.

Picturing WWI: The American Illustration Collection of the Delaware National Guard

Friday, May 4 through Sunday, June 24
In a time before televisions or even the widespread use of radio, Americans received their news and entertainment from popular magazines and illustrations.  Among Delaware’s most famous illustrators of the early 20th century, Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972) and Gayle Porter Hoskins (1887-1962) painted hundreds of images during their careers to illuminate current articles and popular stories.

These artists were commissioned by one of America’s most popular magazines, The Ladies Home Journal, to illustrate key events and scenes from World War I for thousands of readers.  Picturing WWI features several Hoskins and Schoonover paintings, created between 1917 and 1919, of the experiences of World War I soldiers.  The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see this exceptional collection owned by the Delaware National Guard.

Arts Connect-ED: Campus Community School Exhibition

Monday, March 27 through Sunday, June 24

Celebrate youth talent in the arts by being the first to look at the installment of local school children’s artwork. The featured pieces were created by students of Campus Community School of Dover, DE. Within the exhibition there will be a focus on artwork inspired by Biggs Museum permanent collection objects.

Jewels of the Generations: The Legacy of Loockerman and Bradford Family of Dover

Friday, March 2 through Sunday, June 24

When Dover merchant, Vincent Loockerman, died in 1785 he was probably Dover’s single largest land owner and unrivaled collector of Delaware and Philadelphia-made furniture of the 18th century. For the last 200 years, Vincent’s descendants have lived with the riches of the past while adding treasures from their own times.

The museum’s founder, Sewell C. Biggs, was an avid collector and admirer of the objects accumulated by Vincent Loockerman. In tribute, the Jewels of the Generations exhibition features Loockerman’s material legacy while discussing over 200 years of art collecting by his descendants, the Bradfords.

The jewels that have left the house, and are being borrowed back for this important exhibition, include a wealth of early American clothing, fashionable Victorian jewelry, European and Asian ceramics, American and European silver, important American and European portraits, and Delaware and Philadelphia furniture.

This program is partially funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As the Poet Paints: E. Jean Lanyon

Friday, April 6 through Wednesday, May 23
As the Poet Paints features the literary and visual artworks of the 1979-2001 Delaware Poet Laureate E. Jean Lanyon:“As a Fine Artist I paint what I cannot write, and I write what I cannot paint.”The dual nature of this artist’s personal expression will take form in a comprehensive exhibition of her artistic career in Delaware.

Loving Traditions: The Ann Marcus Valentines Card Collection

Friday, February 3 through Sunday, March 25
Valentines cards have been popularly printed, mailed and received in Europe and America since the 1800s.  Printing innovations of the Industrial Revolution and the professionalization of the U.S. postal service ushered in a large number of card manufacturers.  The design of early Valentines cards drew from popular art forms of the day decorated with the iconic Valentine decorative motifs of flowers, hearts and cupids.Collapsible three-dimensional, or “pop-up” cards, became especially popular with the addition of delicate layers of brightly-colored tissue paper and a sculptural quality that were easily mailed.  The Biggs Museum is pleased to present a large sample of the late 19th- and early 20th-century pop-up Valentine card collection of Ann Marcus.  Mrs. Marcus has been collecting these delicate art forms for over fifteen years and has amassed a collection of hundreds of cards.

Delaware By Hand: Masterworks 2011

Through the Bright Woods, Heather Siple
November 4, 2011 to February 26, 2012
Every two years, Delaware By Hand (DBH) hosts a membership-wide juried competition in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft. The 2011 artists were selected by Bryan Young; Curator of Easton, Maryland’s Academy Art Museum; and Sally Hansen, retired owner and director of The Glass Gallery in Bethesda, MD, antiques dealer and art collector. Each winner will be represented by three works of art in the Masterworks 2011 exhibition. Their primary exhibition piece is the finest example from which they were judged – their winning artwork. The exhibitors have selected two additional works to represent the scope of their talent and abilities.

Award Winners XI:Exhibition

Open July 1 – October 23, 2011

We Are All Poets by Colette C. Gaiter

The Biggs Museum of American Art will open the summer 2011 exhibition: Award Winners XI on Friday, July 1 with a First Look pARTY from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Museum. Be one of the first to preview the works of this year’s Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist fellows. An Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, July 9 from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. The public is invited to attend this free program to enjoy refreshments and celebrate the best of Delaware’s art sceneAward Winners XI features the talent of the current Individual Artist fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, writers, sculptors, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff at the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners XI exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene. This annual exhibition is an important project for the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the Museum and art to the community.The Biggs Museum is pleased to once again feature the media and skills of all winning artists. Their work lies in the areas of folk art, musical, literary, visual, and sculptural arts. The following artists are the 2011 DDOA fellowship recipients to be featured in the Award Winners XI exhibition:

Award Winners XI will be on view through October 23, 2011. Along with this exhibition the Biggs Museum will be offering a variety of summer art workshops and demonstrations for adults, some of which are led by the 2011 individual artist fellows. These classes bring professional artists to the Museum to teach about the visual and literary arts.

The Award Winners XI exhibition is partially funded by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts and the Kent County Fund for the Arts.

The Biggs Picture: the 2011 Landscape Competition and Exhibition

March 4 – June 19, 2011

The Biggs Picture exhibition features paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, craft, video and any artistic medium by regional landscape artists. This juried competition asks artist contestants to interpret the theme of “Landscape.” Chosen works successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape” with the finest examples of their media and fit within one of three, landscape sub-themes.

Landscapes of the Mind: Interpreting psychological states of being through creations of space, such as abstraction, installation art and landscape representations with expressionistic and often non-representational compositions.
Constructed Landscapes:Interpretations of spaces from the past, memory, make-believe, and/or the future, such as studio production and interpretations of spaces from past, memory, imagination and for the future.
Perceived Landscape: Interpretations of actual spaces at particular times, such as plein air and landscape representations of actual spaces at particular times.

Types of media that will be represented include painting, video, drawing, sculpture, photography, and craft. The Biggs Picture 2011 competition drew nearly 300 entries from over 100 individual applicants. The 2011 jurors Robert Koenke, Editor-in-Chief of Wildlife Art Magazine and Catherine Drabkin, Delaware College of Art and Design Founding Faculty Member, selected 73 works to be displayed in the exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art. These works successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape” with the finest examples of their media. The Biggs Museum is pleased to announce the winners of the competition.

2011 Biggs Picture Exhibition Artists

2011 Biggs Picture Exhibition Winners

Click on a thumbnail above to enlarge the image.

Campus Community School: Junior Docent Art Exhibition

May 6 – May 29, 2011
Junior Docents from Dover’s Campus Community School will be featured as the final celebration of this year’s program. The Junior Docent program, which was developed to conform to Delaware Visual and Performing Arts standards, allows the Biggs Museum to support art education by collaborating with local educators and their students. This program, offered free-of-charge, provides students with a unique opportunity to learn about the visual arts, apply their knowledge to specific works of art, and present their knowledge to their peers. Over the course of the program, Junior Docents build an art vocabulary, develop communication, critical thinking and research skills, and learn about the cultural history of the Museum’s collection. The overall goal of the program is to develop a long-term relationship between the student and the Museum in an effort to instill a lifelong appreciation for the arts.

Delaware Watercolor Society: Spring Exhibition

May 6 – May 29, 2011

The Biggs Museum will host the Delaware Watercolor Society largest exhibition in 2011, the juried members exhibition. As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

Art and Poetry

April 1 – May 1, 2011
To commemorate National Poetry Month, the Biggs Museum will host a public reading of some of the region’s most influential poets on Friday, April 1. Each writer has composed an original poem inspired from collections on view within the Biggs Museum’s galleries. Printed versions of the poems will remain on view next to their inspiration artworks through the month of April. These poems will also be available online at biggsmuseum.org

Behind the Blue Doors: Famous Creations from the Rehoboth Art League

November 5, 2010 – February 20, 2011
Behind the Blue Doors: Famous Works from the Rehoboth Art League Collection is the first critical examination of the rarely-seen permanent collection of the Rehoboth Art League (RAL). Founded in the early 1930s, the RAL quickly became a regional hot bed of artistic production and has collected hundreds of art works from area artist masters for the past eighty years. Without a comprehensive catalogue of its important collection or large-scale galleries to display these works, the Rehoboth Art League is partnering with the Biggs Museum to debut its important collection of regional modernism to the public.

The exhibition will feature approximately 60 memorable art works from the RAL permanent collection featuring nearly 50 noted artists. Of special interest are artworks made in the first 40 years of the RAL’s history, a time when Rehoboth Art League instructors like Jack Lewis, Ethel Leach, Orville Peets and Howard Schroeder were coming into local prominence. Behind the Blue Doors will also explore controversies surrounding its long-range plans for growth and for the care of the permanent collection. In a story remarkably similar to Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation, the RAL’s need to conserve and utilize the historic structures on its campus, to expand visitation and to care for its growing permanent collection, is conflicting with zoning regulations of the town that has grown up around the Art League, Henlopen Acres.

“Behind the Blue Doors is a unique collaboration between two arts organizations, each with separate missions and audiences, working towards an achievement of an even greater and universal mission which is to educate and develop awareness of the arts,” states Biggs Museum Director Linda Danko. “It is partnerships like this that will enable arts and culture to grow in Delaware, especially in Kent and Sussex County.”

The Rehoboth Art League, founded by Louise C. Corkran, is a nationally important center of 20th century artistic production within the historic art colony of Rehoboth Beach. Since the late 19th century, artists throughout the eastern seaboard have frequented Rehoboth Beach as an established artist retreat. Other artists’ retreats of national significance include North Carolina’s Penland School; New Hope, Pennsylvania; Provincetown, Massachusetts; Monhegan Island, Maine; and Old Lyme, Connecticut. Like these art destinations, Rehoboth Beach has been a site of artistic instruction for over a hundred years with classes hosted by art groups based throughout the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. Since its opening in the 1930s, the RAL has been a focal point for a community of hundreds artists centered in Sussex County and the State of Delaware.

Behind the Blue Doors tells the early story of the RAL while discussing its significance to America. There are few precious collections of this magnitude that feature art works by Delaware artists inspired by early notions of 20th-century modernism; this is an extremely rare opportunity to see masterpieces by some of the State’s most admired artists. The lives of the artists and their artistic production will help tell the history of the RAL and describe its importance within the cultural life of the region.

Award Winners X and Reunion

July 2 – October 24, 2010
For ten years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.In celebration of the ten anniversary of the annual Award Winners exhibition, the Biggs Museum has invited all of the past individual fellowship recipients to participate in a reunion exhibition of their works. Over thirty artists featured in the Award Winners exhibition in the past ten years will participate in the reunion exhibition alongside the 2010 individual fellows and share their recent work with the public.The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.The Biggs Museum is pleased to once again feature the media and skills of all sixteen 2010 DDOA fellowship recipients. Their work lies in the areas of visual, musical, sculptural, folk art and literary arts.

The following artists are the 2010 DDOA fellowship recipients to be featured in the Award Winners X: Reunion exhibition:Visual Arts
Allison M. Haug, Wilmington
Ashley J. Pigford, Newark
Cybele Clark-Mendes, Newark
Felise Luchansky, Wilmington
Heather Siple, Wilmington
Hunter Clark, Ardencroft
Larry Anderson, Wilmington
Michael Kalmbach, Newark
Nina Spencer, DoverLiterature
Christopher Childers, Middletown
Tery Aine Griffin, Wilmington
L.J. Sysko, Wilmington
Viet Dinh, WilmingtonMusic
Jerry “Crabmeat” Thompson, Middletown
Michael S. Smith, BearReunion Artists

Visions of Dignity

September 15 – October 15, 2010
The Biggs Museum of American Art is partnering, once again, with the Delaware State Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA) to present the exhibition Visions of Dignity, a celebration of Hispanic artists working in the Mid-Atlantic region. The exhibit features the varied artistic points of view from a vibrant local culture. At the same time, Visions of Dignity artists create windows to see into their own cultural origins. Visions of Dignity invited artists to participate who identify as Latin American or U.S. Latino, including those artists from Spanish, Portuguese, French and English speaking countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, living or working in the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. Of all the submissions, forty art works by fourteen artists were selected. The following sculptors, painters, photographers and printmakers were selected by GACHA members, Keyla Rivero-Rodriguez, Eli Ramos and Charito Calvachi-Mateyko, to participate in Visions of Dignity:

Alicia Bonilla-Puig (Landenberg, PA)
Alicia Dominguez (Wilmington, DE)
Magaly Garza (Fairfax, VA)
Masplata (Dover, DE)
Maria de los Angeles Morales (Paoli, PA)
Luis A. Morales (West Chester, PA)
Mara Odette (Buffalo, NY)
Claudia Olivos (Arlington, VA)
Sergio Olivos (Arlington, VA)
Gustavo Rojas (Teaneck, NJ)
Nikki Schiro (New York, NY)
Nicolas F. Shi (Washington, DC)
Miguel Tio (New York, NY)
Raul Villarreal (Verona, NJ)

The exhibition explores the theme of “dignity” through artistic representations of the experience of being Latino in America. The artists chosen for this exhibition have utilized symbols of Hispanic family life, traditions, geographies and other signifiers of Hispanic identity to communicate the stories of their journey through the United States.

To compliment the Visions of Dignity exhibition, GACHA organizers also plan to unveil six paintings by contemporary Hispanic artists from private collections within the State of Delaware, including the Norma Varisco de Garcia Collection as well as works from the collections of Miguel Valazquez and Eli Ramos. These collections are over thirty years in the making and have rarely been seen in public before now. These six works will be on view in the Biggs Museum’s children’s gallery, Sewell’s Studio, for the duration of the Visions of Dignity exhibition.

Please join us at the Biggs Museum of American Art as we kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with the Visions of Dignity public reception on September 15, 2010. This rare opportunity brings together the Museum’s audiences with noted Hispanic artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Blue Water/Still Water: American Society of Marine Artists

Open March 5, 2010 – June 20, 2010

“Artists have always found inspiration in the aquatic:
from the vastness of the open ocean,
where clear water rolls on in deep cobalt waves,
to the stillness of shallow watersheds
lit by the song of bullfrogs and Painted Buntings.

As members of the American Society of Marine Artists, we are some of the most ardent of these creative spirits who have followed our hearts and vision, creating beauty as we have seen it in an Aquarian world.

It’s not only the mission of the Society to educate the public to the inherent value of the marine world that surrounds us,
but it is also our greatest pleasure to share these, our most treasured gifts, with you.”

-Michael Killelea
Chairman of ASMA Regional Exhibitions

A must see for anyone who loves the sea. Celebrating America’s rich maritime history as a seafaring nation, this dynamic exhibition brings together over one hundred of the most talented contemporary artists in the marine art field, recognized both nationally and internationally. Quiet shorelines, harbor views, and seascapes featuring tumultuous, roaring seas are presented with luminous light and emotion. A wide array of mediums – oils, water colors, pastels, scratchboard, pencil, sculpture and scrimshaw make this a most rewarding experience for viewers and collectors alike. Founded in 1978, the American Society of Marine Artists’ purpose is to promote marine art and maritime history and to encourage cooperation among artists, historians, marine enthusiasts and others engaged in activities related to marine art and maritime history.

Arts ConnectEd

Open November 6, 2009 – February 21, 2010


Arts ConnectEd features the young talent of students in Delaware schools. The exhibition consists of four month-long installations, each featuring the artwork of a different school in the state of Delaware. Arts ConnectEd reflects the quality and diversity of art education in Delaware schools. The Biggs Museum is dedicated to promoting and supporting the role arts play in youth development. In addition to the four school installations, Arts ConnectEd will also feature Sewell’s Studio, an interactive creativity center, providing young museum visitors the opportunity to create works of art similar to those currently on display. The Biggs Museum is honored to foster this commitment to learning and community. Delaware Schools showcasing in Arts ConnectEd include, Holy Cross Elementary, Campus Community School, William Henry Middle School and Ursuline Academy. Each month-long exhibition will open on the November 2009, December 2009, January 2010, and February 2010 First Friday programs. The Arts ConnectED First Look! pARTies are sponsored by Chick-fil-A of Camden, DE.

The art projects to be displayed from each of the four school participants are as follows:

November 2009: Holy Cross School
Art Instructor: Sharon Benini
Op Art created with colored pencil in the style of Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley.

December 2009: William Henry Middle School
Art Instructor : Valerie Connaghan
Greeting cards decorated with collage by 5th and 6th grade students.

January 2010: Campus Community School
Art Instructor: Jennifer Boland
Recycled art, 3-dimensional gargoyles by 6th and 7th grade students and self-portrait paintings by
1st through 7th grade students.

February 2010: Ursuline Academy
Art Instructor: Erin McNichol
Sculpture along with a hands-on activity center by 7th through 12th grade students.

In addition to the school displays to be featured in Arts ConnectED, the Biggs Museum is proud to present two month-long exhibitions featuring artwork created through VSA (Very Special Arts of Delaware). VSA Arts of Delaware is a state-wide nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing children and adults with disabilities opportunities to participate and achieve in the area of performing and visual arts. This admirable organization develops programs and resources to help people with disabilities develop artistic skills and enhance confidence while promotion access, inclusion and diversity.

Celebration of Creativity,will be on display in Gallery 7 from November 6, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Celebration of Creativity showcases the visual artwork produced by participants in VSA arts of Delaware’s various artist-in-residency projects during the 2008-2009 program cycle. The second VSA exhibition, A View Through My Window, will be on display in Gallery 7 from January 8, 2010 to February 28, 2010. A View Through My Window features a selection of works created through a domestic violence art project that served nearly 75 adults and children in the state of Delaware. This exhibit features canvas windows representing the messages of individuals who have experienced domestic violence first hand. Artwork included in this exhibit was created in shelters & support groups in all three counties of Delaware and poignant works of art by children who have been affected by domestic violence will also be on display. The messages conveyed by the participants make this a powerful and moving experience.

Fusion: American Classics Meet Latin American Art

Open September 15, 2009 – November 15, 2009

In a partnership with the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA), the Biggs Museum will exhibit the works of contemporary Hispanic artists living or working in the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. This exhibition will commemorate the declaration of the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation at the Museum on September 15, 2009. The exhibition will be strategically placed throughout Galleries Two through Seven and the Old Stair Hall Gallery alongside the Museum’s permanent collection of fine and decorative arts of the 18th and early 19th centuries that were made and used within the State of Delaware. The contemporary Hispanic works displayed will symbolically represent the parallel currents of Early-American/Spanish culture alongside the development of the American mainstream. The exhibition will highlight contrasts and continuity between the influences of contemporary Hispanic and early-American fine and decorative arts.

The following artists will be featured in Fusion: American Classics Meets Latin American Art:
Leonor Brazão: Chantilly, VA
Pablo Caviedes: New York, NY
David Camero: Washington, DC
Felisa Federman: Potomac, MD
Iliana Garcia: Brooklyn, NY
Magaly Garza: Fairfax, VA
Magda Korn: Hockessin, DE
Ruben Lopez: Wilmington, DE
Maria Morales: Paoli, PA
Carlos Nuñez: Philadelphia, PA
Mara Odette: Bethesda, MD
Jorge Posada: New York, NY
Gustavo Rojas: Teaneck, NJ
Jeannette Sababa: New York, NY
Luz Salas: Philadelphia, PA
Marta Sanchez: Philadelphia, PA
Nikki Schiro: New York, NY
Nicolas Shi: Washington, DC
Miguel Tio: New York, NY

* Some portions of the Fusion exhibition, contain nudity and are of mature theme and may not be suitable for children.

Please use discretion. If you have further questions, please contact the Administrative Offices or see a Museum Interpreter when visiting the Biggs Museum.

Award Winners

Open July 3, 2009 – October 25, 2009

Award Winners features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). These artists: painters, photographers, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites the Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene.
The Biggs Museum congratulates the 2009 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Fellows:
2009 Masters Fellow
Christiaan Taggart: Music, Solo Recital

Established
Ronald Brignac: Visual Arts, Photography
Nancy Carol Willis: Visual Arts, Works on Paper
Robert Davis: Literature, Creative Nonfiction
Elizabeth Dolan: Literature, Poetry
Eileen Grycky: Music, Solo Recital
Ramona Long: Literature, Fiction
Ronald Longsdorf: Visual Arts, Sculpture

Emerging
Abby Millager: Literature, Poetry
Stephen Ruszkowski: Visual Arts, Painting

Ellen’s Wacky Chair Contest

Open August 5, 2009 – August 31, 2009
The Biggs Museum is proud to serve as a partner alongside the Delaware State Fair, the Boys & Girls Club, WMDT and the Ellen Degeneres Show in the 2009 Ellen’s Wacky Chair Contest. In July 2009, local artists partnered with all ten Delaware Boys and Girls clubs to design and create a “wacky chair” for an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show in September 2009. One Adirondack chair was created by a local artist for each Boys and Girls Club that incorporated the children’s ideas. All ten chairs were on display at the 2009 Delaware State Fair from July 23rd until August 1st. The chairs will be on display throughout the Permanent Collection at the Biggs Museum during the remainder of the month of August. The public is invited to vote for their favorite chair on the Boys & Girls Club web-site (www.bgclubs.org) from July 23rd until August 28th. All voters are encouraged to make a $1 donation on the web-site that will directly benefit Boy and Girls Clubs of Delaware and Maryland and the Biggs Museum. On Monday, August 31st, the winning chair will be announced. The winning artist, and Director of the winning Boys and Girls Club will attend an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show when Ellen will sit in the “Wacky Chair.” One random voter will also be drawn to win two tickets to the Ellen Degeneres Show along with airfare and hotel accommodations.

Wish for the World

Open August, 8, 2009 – August 31, 2009
As we look around our world today, filled with conflicts, environment destruction and human suffering, we all wish for a more peaceful, healthier and happier world. Every member of the community is invited to participate in the Wish for the World exhibition, by visiting the Museum and interpreting his or her wish for the world through art. The creation of the Wish for the World exhibition will take place at the August 2009 First Friday program. Wishes will be hung on trees and displayed during August 2009 inspiring others to think about their wish for the world.

The Sculpture of Light: Volterra, Italy in Delaware

Open April 4, 2009 – June 21, 2009
In a partnership with the Appoquinimink School District and the Volterra, Italy delegation, the Museum is pleased to present The Sculpture of Light: Volterra, Italy in Delaware: an exhibition celebrating the international artist-in-residency program with the Appoquinimink School District as well as the continuing, rich Volterran tradition of alabaster sculptures in Delaware. In early spring 2009, the Appoquinimink School District will host an artist-in-residency program with Volterra, Italy, brining Roberto Chiti, an alabaster sculptor, to teach students in grades 6-12 traditional sculpture techniques. The Sculpture of Light features over 200 works of the program’s participants as well as the work of Roberto Chiti and a selection of historic sculpture recently featured in Volterran exhibition, Scultura Di Luceoneto.

Biggs Shot 2009

March 4, 2009 – June 28, 2009

Biggs Shot 2009 is the second juried photography competition and exhibition featuring the work of new and emerging photographers, working and/or living in the Mid-Atlantic region. The inaugural Biggs Shot competition in 2005 attracted over 130 applicants within the region. Sally Packard and Dinah Reath, owner of the Packard Reath Gallery, Ryan Grover, Biggs Museum Curator, and Catherine Ware, Curator of Photographs from the Philadelphia Museum of Art selected 40 photographs, which were exhibited at the Biggs Museum November 2008 through February 2006. The Biggs Shot 2009: Competition drew 500 works from over 150 individual applicants. Stephen Perloff, editor of The Photo Review and The Photograph Collector, served as the juror of the Biggs Shot 2009 Competition. Perloff selected 80 photographs to be displayed in the Biggs Shot 2009 Exhibition held this spring. The Biggs Shot 2009 Exhibition offers visitors a wide range of local photographers’ works and their perspectives: a glimpse of the creativity and innovation occurring in our region by photographers of all skill levels. Biggs Shot 2009 images are displayed side-by-side, inviting open discussion and comparison. Biggs Shot 2009 supports the Museum’s mission in tracing the evolution of the local scene through exhibition and documentation of works created today. Biggs Shot 2009 marks the first on-line exhibition hosted by the Biggs Museum on its web-site. Biggs Shot 2009: On-Line creates a virtual exhibition experience for members of the public who are unable to visit the Museum during the exhibition. All 80 selected images are available for view in Biggs Shot 2009: On-Line in addition to Q&A sessions with the photographers.

On a Smaller Scale: Dollhouses

Open November 5, 2008 – February 22, 2009

On a Smaller Scale features the recent acquisition of three exceptional dollhouses from the now closed Delaware Toy and Miniature Museum (DTMM), created by Dover resident, Barbara Merrell. These homes were commended by DTMM for their high degree of naturalistic detail within the incredibly small scale of one-half inch to one foot. Ms. Merrell’s homes are half the size of the industry standard for most doll houses at one inch to a foot but Ms. Merrell’s works are literally half the size. In addition, nearly every object furnishing these mini homes: the furniture, the textiles, the household items, were all made from Ms. Merrell’s hands.

Forgotten Dreams:The Paintings of Edward Grant

November 5, 2008 – February 22, 2009

Rehoboth Artist, Edward Grant

The first retrospective of this artist’s work and his incredibly long and distinguished life within the region, both as a prolific painter as well as a successful graphic artist for one of Wilmington’s best-known companies. Edward Grant’s artistic career spanned an astounding seven decades. While so many of his contemporaries moved to the ideal rural setting of the Delmarva Peninsula, Grant grew up, was trained, and practiced his craft within the region. His dedication to the development of the local art scene gave him, in our opinion, a unique perspective on the spaces, customs, and values he observed throughout his entire life. His earliest works exhibit the social realism of the late 20s and 30s, while his war-period works experimented with the contemporary trends of Cubism and Abstraction. He also was a successful graphic artist for one of Wilmington’s best-known and most successful companies, as well as a prolific painter. His later works, after 1968, are among his most highly regarded for their distinctive interpretations of life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Grant’s artistic associations throughout the Delmarva Peninsula were extremely wide; he learned from some of Delaware’s greatest artists, was active in nearly every major arts organization within the state before 1970, was at the center of the Delaware arts communities, and was a life-long art instructor to hundreds of students. Forgotten Dreams will encompass an exhibition of works from the Biggs Museum, the artist’s own collection, and private collections throughout the region, accompanied by the first-ever retrospective publication of this important Delaware artist, which will review Grant’s large body of work in relation to his biography and significant historic moments that impacted the populations of the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Biggs Museum of American Art would like to congratulate the 2008 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellows.

Alida Fish, Seahorse, from the Cabinet of Curiosities series, tintype, 10” x 8”, 2007

Visual Arts
Alida Fish
Robert Bickey
Nancy Breslin
Lori Crawford
Karin Snoots
Chad States
Andrew Wapinski

Literature
Piotr Florczyk
Marry Kennedy
Annette Opalczynski
C. Delia Scarpitti

Music
Mark Hagerty

Media Arts
Paul Hiuchan

*Some portions of the current exhibition, Award Winners VIII, contain nudity and are of mature theme and may not be suitable for children.
Please use discretion. If you have further questions, please contact the Administrative Offices prior to your visit.

Award Winners VIII

July 9, 2008 – October 26, 2008
This exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). These artists: painters, photographers, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees.  In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites the Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. In conjunction with this exhibition The Biggs Museum is pleased to hold the 2008 Summer Art Series: a series of workshops led by a selection of the 2008 fellows. Please see upcoming events for information on these workshops.

Award Winners VII

For seven years the Biggs Museum has offered its galleries for the presentation of some of Delaware’s finest visual artists, craftspeople, writers and musicians with the Award Winners series of exhibitions.  The summer celebration offers a home each year for a new group of winners of the prestigious Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships.  Monetary prizes are awarded to Delaware artists in all media whose work demonstrates an excellence above their competitors.  This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene.

Young at Art

Open September 20, 2008 – October 19, 2008

In partnership with the Child HELP Foundation, the Biggs Museum is proud to host Young at Art, an exhibition featuring artwork created by children in Delaware who are supported by the Child HELP Foundation and VSA Arts of Delaware. Child HELP Foundation is a nonprofit charitable community organization created to promote extended health care, special education and social programs to enhance the quality of life, develop and fulfill the potential of children with disabilities. VSA Arts of Delaware is an organization dedicated to providing children and adults with disabilities opportunities to participate and achieve in the area of performing and visual arts.

From Four Studios: First State Modernism

From Four Studios: First State Modernism is the first major exhibition of the State’s Modernist art collection.  The show presents key examples of works by four seminal figures in early 20th – century painting of Delaware: Jack Lewis (b. 1912), Howard Schroeder (1910-1995), Orville Peets (1881-1968) and Ethel Peets (1886-1978).  Over the last ten years, the private studio collections and an assortment of personal possessions of these four professional artists have been gifted to the State’s collection. Each of these artists was professionally trained painters and art instructors in Delaware during the adventurous introduction of European Modernism into the American art scene.   The extensive holdings of each of the four collections include large caches of the artists’ works, works by their artistic contemporaries, art supplies and studio tools, as well as extensive archival materials on the artists’ careers and lives.

The exhibition introduces the work of these four artists, as represented by the State’s extensive collections, within the historical context of the introduction of European Modernism.  These artists’ careers are presented in light of the direct influence of the new ideas of Cubism, Social Realism, and Abstraction on the American art scene.  We will elicit common threads between each of these artists that connected them to exciting external influences of the art centers of New York and Paris during the first half of the 20th century.  This exhibition positions Delaware as a regional recipient of this groundbreaking influence.

Greetings from Delaware

Greetings from Delaware and Other Artist Communities, features over 250 hand-made greeting cards, the majority of the Jann Haynes Gilmore and B. Joyce Puckett collection, by both regional and national professional artists.  The exhibition will be filled with artful greetings manufactured and sent by artists such as, Rockwell Kent, N.C. Wyeth, Blanche Lazell, Ethel Leach, Frank Schoonover and John Sloan.  The display of these cards will be highlighted by many full-scale paintings and fine-art prints by several of the featured artists.

As objects designed and often printed by professional artists, the cards of this collection display poignant and timeless visual messages through expert craftsmanship.  At the same time, these artist-generated cards from Delaware, the mid-Atlantic region and throughout the country offered their admirers a unique view into little-known regions of the American art scene of the first half of the twentieth century.  In a period full of changing social values and economic hardships, the cards of the Gilmore/Puckett collection demonstrate the versatility and perseverance of American artists under tremendous adversity.  Perhaps more importantly, these images supplied novel interpretations of universally cherished notions of community, family, beauty, and hope at a time when Americans often needed them most, during the holidays.

Delaware Silver

Featuring
The Col. Kenneth P. & Regina I. Brown Collection
and loan exhibition
Masters in Our Midst

March 5 – June 29, 2008

The Biggs Museum is proud to celebrate Delaware Silver featuring the permanent installation of the Col. Kenneth P. & Regina I. Brown Collection in the State’s first Delaware Silver Study Center and an exciting masterpiece exhibition, Masters in Our Midst.

The Brown Collection at the Biggs Museum represents over 50 years of collecting and includes nearly 750 pieces of silver made and retailed in the State of Delaware during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Featuring silver costume objects, militaria, table wares, commemorative wares, and tea and coffee services; the Brown Collection is among the finest known for studying Delaware silversmiths.  This Brown Collection is also featured in a fully illustrated catalog.

In addition, the loan exhibition, Masters in Our Midst, brings together some of the most exceptional silver by Delaware smiths from private and public collections across the country.  Masters in Our Midst offers family-friendly interactive displays on important stories about Delaware Silver.

Expressions of Time: Photographing a Solution

April 18, 2008 through June 1, 2008
This exhibition features over two-dozen works of art by nine photographers that describes their interpretations of the passage of time. The participating photographers are members of Art Lane PCG, a small group of area photographers who improve their professional skills by critiquing each other’s work. Their work displayed in this exhibition is unified by answering a single question, “How do you represent the passage of time in a photograph?”
Participating Artists in Expressions of Time:

Emma Plowman’s Moment Becomes Memory

Ripped From the Headlines: Photojournalism in Delaware

November 1, 2019 – January 19, 2020

News publishers are among the nation’s oldest and most revered image makers. The art of photojournalism, especially in local newspapers, is under appreciated in American art museums even though they tell the stories that unify communities. The Biggs Museum is proud to partner with nearly every major news and magazine platform within Delaware to select highlights in local photojournalism form the past 20 years in one group exhibition. In addition, select photos will also be on view from some of Delaware’s premier photojournalists like Gary Emeigh and Kevin Fleming.

Detail of Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural

Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural

November 1, 2019 – January 19, 2020

A mural-arts project highlighting the Past, Present and Future of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware. This public art project was created through a partnership between Cheyney University professor and painter Marietta Dantonio-Madsen, Cheyney art students and the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware.

Biggs Body: A Juried Competition of Figural Art

September 6 – November 17, 2019

The Biggs Museum is proud to introduce a new juried competition and exhibition concept of art forms featuring human and animal figures. This exhibition showcases 60 exceptional artworks selected from nearly 400 competition submissions in all visual art media including, but not limited to: painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, fiber, installation and video. Selected artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region most successfully interpreted, evoked and responded to the body.

Rebecca Raubacher: Drawings and Paintings

August 2 – October 20, 2019

Rebecca Raubacher’s depictions of human and animal figures emerge over time from a few simple marks layered onto a piece of paper. Without any specific person in mind, she carefully, but almost hypnotically, builds her faces and bodies with cross-hatched lines of a wide range of artistic media. At times, her characters reveal themselves fully formed from within a simple line drawing. At other times, and often much after she started a specific composition, complex personalities appear through veiled skins of layered drawings and paint to demonstrate psychological tensions and universal narratives.

Practically born with a pencil in her hand, Raubacher’s career in art began early with gallery representation in New York but her local celebrity grew as a Kent County gallery owner and advocate of regional talent. She then ran a successful design business developing products with her unique horse portraits for racing fans across the country. Relocating to Lewes, the artist has reinvested herself in painting full-time developing an enormous body of work that radiates the joy of her good fortune and personal accomplishments.

Drawings and Paintings is the first one-woman show of this artist at the Biggs Museum of American Art and is first and foremost a love letter to Raubacher’s unique drawing style. The exhibition and catalog then trace the evolution of the artist’s artistic technique with a deep dive into her recent work.

Detail of Paulo Machado’s Thirteen Sick Snails

Delaware Art Educators Association Exhibition in the Child HELP Gallery

September 6 – October 20, 2019

Featuring artworks created by members of the Delaware Art Educators Association-an affiliate of the National Association serving art teachers across the country.

Spirit Revealed: New Works by Aaron Paskins

May 3 – July 21, 2019

Aaron Paskins is a Dover sculptor who has been building a national and local reputation for imaginative, inspiring African figures and imagery using unexpected materials. The essence of Paskins’ sculptures capture the complexity of various indigenous tribes, executed with imagination and a touch of fantasy. 

ArtLane: Visualizing the Museum

May 3 – July 21, 2019

The Biggs invited the artist critique group exhibition club, ArtLane, to study the museum as a subject of their photographic art works and to each create a distinct series of images that reflect their own artistic points of view. Featured artists include: Elisabeth Bard, Pat Field, Karl Leck, Ray Magnani, Dain Simons, Heather Siple, Beth Trepper, and Rob Tuttle.

Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Award Winners XIX

June 7 – July 21, 2019

Each year, the Biggs Museum of American Art hosts the winning artists of Delaware’s most prestigious fellowship competition in one group exhibition. The Delaware State Arts Council, in cooperation with the Delaware Division of the Arts, selects these fellowship winners from a pool of hundreds of literary, visual and performing artists at all professional levels. They are awarded cash grants, exhibition and performance opportunities and yearlong recognition. The Biggs Museum has partnered with CAMP Rehoboth and Cab Calloway School of the Arts to feature this exhibition in Sussex and New Castle Counties.

Caesar Rodney School District Art Show

May 4 – May 31, 2019

This annual exhibition celebrates the success of student artists in the Caesar Rodney School District. Open to all age levels, skill sets, and media, this show is an exemplary display of the diversity of perspective, experience, and personalities found in the Caesar Rodney community.

Rooted, Revived and Reinvented: Basketry in America

February 1 – April 28, 2019

Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America chronicles a history of American basketry from its origins in Native American, immigrant, and slave communities to its presence within the contemporary fine art world. Baskets convey meaning through the artists’ selection of materials; the techniques they use; and the colors, designs, patterns, and textures they employ. Historical baskets were rooted in local landscapes and shaped by cultural traditions. The rise of the industrial revolution and mass production at the end of the nineteenth century led basket makers to create works for new audiences and markets, including tourists, collectors and fine art museums. Today the story continues. Some contemporary artists seek to maintain and revive traditions practiced for centuries. Others combine age-old techniques with nontraditional materials to generate cultural commentary. Still others challenge viewers’ expectations by experimenting with form, materials, and scale. This exhibition is divided into 5 sections: Cultural Origins, New Basketry, Living Traditions, Basket as Vessel, and Beyond the Basket.

Traveling Africa: Citywide Black History Festival

February 1 – March 24, 2019

As part of Dover’s annual Citywide Black History Celebration, the Biggs Museum will examine the ways that Americans record and relate to Africa through tourism. This group exhibition includes travel photography of memorable moments on the continent, as well as the material culture that tourists in Kent County have collected to commemorate their adventures abroad.

From Nature: The Children’s Book Illustrations of Nancy Carol Willis

October 5, 2018 – January 27, 2019

Like John J. Audubon, Nancy Carol Willis demonstrates a deep feeling for nature based upon a lifetime of close observation, sketching, and painting. From October-January, the Schoonover Illustration Gallery will host 18 illustrations from three of Willis’s award-winning natural science children’s picture books. The books depict North American species in their natural habitats.

An Artist’s Education: William H. McDaniel

December 6, 2018 – January 19, 2019

Delaware is known for producing a great number of successful artists. Exceptional art schools in the area have produced luminaries of American illustration and fine arts. William H. McDaniel demonstrated great promise attending the Wilmington Academy of Art in the late 1920s, but the Great Depression ended his hopes of an art career. Despite his turn in fortunes, his family saved the bulk of his art school projects for nearly 100 years and is sharing this archival look into his early art education for the first time to rediscover this talent that was never fully realized.

Biggs Shot 2018

December 7, 2018 – January 27, 2019

The Biggs Museum of American Art presents Biggs Shot 2018, the fifth juried photography competition and exhibition featuring the work of professional and emerging photographers, working and/or living in the Mid-Atlantic region. The theme for Biggs Shot 2018 is open, and any photographic medium can be submitted for consideration, including film, video and digital formats. Click here for a list photographers and works in the exhibition.

Audubon, Then and Now

August 3 – November 25, 2018

In 1826 at the age of 41, encouraged by his wife, Audubon took his portfolio of 300+ works to England. Today, more than ever his work endures and segments of his work are right here at the Biggs in Dover. This exhibition examines the importance of the artist and naturalist, John James Audubon, through a large exhibition of his earliest works from both the Birds of America and Viviparous Quadropeds publications. This historical analysis will be coupled with the works of contemporary artists influenced by early naturalists and recorded in an exhibition catalog with color reproductions and essays by leading scholars.

Modern opinions of Audubon’s legacy will also be explored with displays of artworks by living artists influenced by this paragon of 19th century naturalist art. Learn More

Rembrandt Etchings: States, Fakes and Restrikes

May 12-July 8, 2018

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-69) was one of the most influential printmakers in the history of art. But how can one be sure that a Rembrandt is truly or wholly by THE Rembrandt? This exhibition examines the problem of authenticating this artist’ etchings. The exhibition includes first state pulls of etchings made during the artist’s lifetime as well as restrike prints made after his death and well into the 20^th century.

Body from Egg, Michael Galmer, Silver and Gold

Monumental: Michael Izrael Galmer, Silversmith

April 6-May 20, 2018

The Biggs Museum of American Art is grateful to highlight its 25th Anniversary Celebration with an exhibition on the famed American silversmith, Michael Izrael Galmer. Born to a Jewish family in Soviet Russia, he immigrated with his wife Galina to New York in 1981. Galmer combined his advanced degrees in engineering with a deep-rooted need to express himself artistically to develop a unique process of molding silver. While Galmer is extremely well known for his commercial products of jewelry, accessories and most notably table wares – some produced for the leading American manufacturers of silver today – this exhibition honors a new and more uniquely expressive direction for the artist. At the same time, this fresh body of works explores the emotional impact and, frankly, surprise of immense scale upon admirers of silver objects.

Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850

May 19 – July 22, 2018

The Biggs Museum will honor the upcoming publication of Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850, the definitive study of Delaware girlhood samplers of the 18th and 19th centuries, with an exhibition of historic needlework. The exhibition will feature approximately 80 antique samplers and other forms of embroidery from all three counties of the state with a special emphasis on debuting the work of little-known schools of needlework instruction; It will also be accompanied by a symposium and catalog.

Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Award Winners XVIII

June 1 – July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 5-7 p.m.

For the past 18 years, the Biggs Museum of American Art has hosted the DDOA Award Winners exhibition. This annual group show features artworks, literature and performances of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows-among the state’s most prestigious honors for artists. The winning Fellows are chosen by the Delaware State Arts Council from well over a hundred competitors. They are awarded cash grants, exhibition opportunities and year-long public recognition. This year, the Biggs Museum is partnering with CAMP Rehoboth and Cab Calloway School of the Arts to also showcase the Award Winners in Sussex and New Castle Counties.

The winning artists featured this year can be found here: https://arts.delaware.gov/iafrecipients/2018_iafs/

This exhibition is 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 Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.

Milton Downing: Moral Assembly

June 1 – July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 5-7 p.m.

Milton Downing insists he is not an activist, but perhaps a moralist. This assemblage artist gathers pieces of discarded clothing and other found objects into painted compositions that reveal a wide range of human experiences. His subjects, regardless of their backgrounds, are elevated through an expressive use of color and enlivened through the artist’s gestural use of paint. The emotional content of the people depicted are channeled through the forms emerging from the artist’s incorporated materials: a piece of denim influences a posture that dictates the narrative of his figure. From dejected and harassed people on the fringes of society to sports stars at the center of attention, Downing’s images act as a tribute to emotional and physical endurance. His subjects shed light on challenges facing many Americans with depictions of archetypes within its communities.

Monumental: Michael Izrael Galmer, Silversmith

April 6 – May 20, 2018

Opening Reception on Friday, April 6th from 5-7 p.m.

Based in New York, the silversmith Michael Galmer has succeeded in becoming one of the country’s leading craftsmen having designed for Tiffany and Co., Lenox, Gorham and Kirk Stieff. With a unique technique, the artist has developed a wide variety of repousse-decorated jewelry and vessels as well as the renowned Preakness trophy, commemorative silver forms and contemporary sculptures for such distinguished collections as the Jewish Museum of New York.

Tony Burton, Garden of Eden, Acrylic on Canvas

African American History Live

February 2 – April 29, 2018
Opening reception on February 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.
Meet-the-Artist Reception on Thursday, February 15, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

The Biggs Museum will present its first group exhibition of works created by African American artists of Greater Dover and Kent County. Entitled African American History Live, the exhibition is a focal point of the Dover Citywide Black History Celebration taking place in several locations throughout the city during the month of February. The show will feature approximately two dozen artists in a wide variety of media including: painting, video, photography, fiber, sculpture and works on paper. The artists also represent a diversity of professional backgrounds ranging from Delaware State University faculty, to students and from craft artists to second-career painters.

Jeffrey Rubin’s interpretation of Gerry Meekins’ photograph

Performances: the Brandywine Photo Collective

February 2 – April 22, 2018
Opening reception on Feb 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

The iconic photographer Ansel Adams described that every photograph is a “performance” in which light exposure, composition, color and any number of other tiny details can be arranged by the artist to create an original expression. In Performances, nine artist members of the Brandywine Photo Collective will interpret four photographic images through digital manipulation, post processing and creative printing. The exhibition then compares each artist’s evolution of the members’ source imagery.

Aina, Nergaard-Nammack, #1471 Meditation 5, 3 Circles, Acrylic on canvas

My Countries, My Composers: Aina Nergaard-Nammack

February 2 – March 25, 2018
Opening reception on Feb 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

This is the museum’s first one-woman show of the artist Aina Nergaard-Nammack. The exhibition, entitled My Countries, My Composers, explores the artist’s interpretation of musical scores of key classical music composers of the three countries where she has lived: first Spain, then Norway and now the United States. The artist creates large abstract paintings influenced by the sounds and rhythms of her musical selections. Some of the composers she channels within this body of work include: Aaron Copland, Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados and Edward Grieg.
Image caption: Aina, Nergaard-Nammack, #1471 Meditation 5, 3 Circles, Acrylic on canvas

Delaware By Hand Juried Exhibition

November 3-January 21, 2018

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a juried competition of its Delaware By Hand artist membership in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft.

Delaware Watercolor Society Juried Exhibition

November 3-January 21, 2018

In partnership with the Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS), the Biggs Museum will again exhibit watercolor paintings by this group’s best and brightest in a juried competition. Over fifty works will be featured within the Biggs Museum, many will be for sale. The DWS aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits and other activities.

More information

Biggs Exhibition at the Winterthur Antique Show
At 25: Distinguishing the Biggs Museum of American Art

November 10 – 12, 2017

The Biggs Museum is honored to provide the showcase exhibition of the Delaware Antique Show at the Chase Center in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. This exhibition celebrates the museum’s upcoming 25-year anniversary by featuring 25 recent additions to the museum’s permanent collection that epitomize its continued strengths and new directions. The exhibition is on view for all Delaware Antique Show guests and tickets start at $15. For more information, click here.

Christo & Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden Collection

August 4-October 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, August 4 from 5-7 p.m.

This exhibition chronicles the career of husband and wife artistic team, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The exhibition is a large display of the artists’ portfolios; original drawings and sculptures developed to record the major large scale environmental installations and international projects undertaken by Christo and Jeanne-Claude for more than forty years.

More information

DDOA Award Winners XVII

August 4 – October 22, 2017
Artist Reception: August 30, 2017 from 5-7 p.m.

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows. The Fellows are recommended by out-of-state jurors based on the high quality of their artwork and receive Delaware State Arts Council approval. Each year, the Biggs Museum invites the award winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishments in visual and media arts, literature, and music.

Biggs In Bloom

Calendar of a series of weekends – Please note change in format! 

This year’s Biggs in Bloom showcase of artist floral designs influenced by highlights of the Biggs Museum’s permanent collection will be spread out over several installations to build momentum towards the grander presentation in September 2018 celebrating the museum’s 25-year anniversary. Keep up with all the displays of our floral artists within the museum’s galleries year round!

What Inspired You?: Works by Members of the Delaware Art Education Association

August 4 – September 1, 2017

Almost all artists have a vivid memory of what inspired them to pursue the arts. Through a partnership with the Delaware Art Education Association, the Biggs and DAEA have challenged Delaware art educators to create and submit works of art that explore what inspired them to become artists and teachers. The resulting exhibit will be a testament to the innovative forces behind the educators that are inspiring our state’s future creative leaders.

Ansel Adams: Early Works

May 5 – July 30, 2017

This exhibition presents the work of iconic American photographer, Ansel Adams. His work can be viewed as the end of an arc of American art concerned with capturing the “sublime” in the unspoiled Western landscape: a tradition that includes several painters on view within the Biggs Museum including Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole.

Biggs Picture 2017

June 2 – July 23, 2017

Once every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts this juried, regional competition. Artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic states are invited to compete within this unique exhibition featuring a wide variety of landscape concepts in any artistic medium: photography, sculpture, painting, video, installation, etc. The works will be available for purchase.

Junior Docent Exhibit

June 2 – 30, 2017

Throughout the year, students from schools and afterschool programs throughout the state participate in our Junior Docent Program. These students view and study works of art from our collection and then provide tours of the museum to their peers and families. By the conclusion of the school year, students have also created works of art inspired by the collection at the Biggs and these works are showcased in our Child HELP Foundation Gallery. This program is generously supported by the Susan K. Black Foundation, the Delaware Division of the Arts, the Kent County Fund for the Arts and the PNC Foundation.

Clark Fox: Icon Chains

Through February 5, 2017

Known throughout the contemporary art circles of New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles, Clark Fox has been critiquing modern culture with stories of iconic characters, such as George Washington, Chef from the animated South Park and The Planters Company Mr. Peanut, for over forty years. The exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art will focus on some of the enticing and charismatic formal series that Fox has utilized in his art to confront social themes such as racism and corruption.

In conjunction with the Clark Fox: Icon Chains exhibition, art professor at Delaware State University, George Lorio, will exhibit some of his recent and politically charged artworks.

George Lorio: Recent Works

October 7, 2016 – January 22,2017

In conjunction with the Biggs Museum’s exhibition entitled Clark Fox: Icon Chains, the museum has asked local sculptor and outspoken art professor at Delaware State University, George Lorio, to exhibit his some of his recent and politically charged artworks. Using playful found objects and children’s toys, George brings very serious attention to important topics such as climate change, gun violence and challenges to free speech. Lorio’s work will be on view within the museum’s entrance through the New Year.

Award Winners XVI

August 5 – October 23, 2016

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the 2016 Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Each year, the winning Fellows are chosen by the Delaware State Arts Council from over a hundred visual, literary and performing art competitors. The Fellows are awarded cash grants, exhibition opportunities and year-long public recognition. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff at the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.

Biggs Shot 2016

June 3 – September 25, 2016

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a huge competition of the finest photographers from across the Mid-Atlantic States. This year’s contest will be judged by the museum’s new Director, Charles Guerin. The winners will be featured in a group exhibition with the best of show receiving a $1500 purchase prize for the permanent collection.

Maurice Sendak: The Memorial Exhibition – 50 Years, Works, Reasons

July 30 – September 11, 2016

The Biggs Museum is proud to partner with the Dover Public Library to feature the work and biography of one of America’s most beloved children’s authors and illustrators, Maurice Sendak. Know principally for his publication and now a major motion picture, Where the Wild Things Are, this exhibition spans the career and work of this visionary artist.

© Maurice Sendak: All Rights Reserved

Barbara Warden
365: Elements in Time

May 6 – July 24, 2016

In her first one-person exhibition at the Biggs Museum, artist Barbara Warden features the finest examples of her year-long exercise of creating one drawing a day. Leaving all to chance, the artist starts her abstract compositions from a single gesture across the page that begins a unique experience in monochromatic materials.

Illuminating the Word, The Saint John’s Bible

Volume: Letters and Revelation folio: H3hV Chapter and Verse: Rev. 6: 1-17, 7: 1-7 Containing: Text, 1/2 page ill., “Four Horseman” Page: Revelation 6

December 4, 2015 – April 24, 2016

The Biggs Museum of American Art is exceptionally proud to be a rare American host of Illuminating the Word, The Saint John’s Bible. This international exhibition features 70 pages of The Saint John’s Bible, the first monumental hand-illuminated bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in over 500 years. Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, commissioned the enormous art project of an entire hand-painted bible: every word, every illustration, every image, from one of the best-known contemporary scribes and illuminators in the world, Donald Jackson. The artist’s team worked for almost fifteen years to adorn each vellum page of The Saint John’s Bible in the manner that medieval monks created bibles before the invention of the printing press: quill and ink. These inspiring accomplishments will be accompanied by a display of tools, materials and artists’ drafts used in the Bible’s creation along with other examples of historical illuminated books and manuscripts from the collection of Saint John’s University and private collectors. The exhibition will be accompanied by several educational tours, lectures and artist workshops for all skill levels honoring the ancient traditions of book arts. Learn more.

New Discoveries: Michael Robear

Snap, Michael Robear

November 6, 2015 – February 14, 2016

Often, the Biggs Museum’s staff has the good fortune to discover talented artists within this community who have not received enough critical attention. Michael Robear is undeniably one of those artists. Robear began in childhood depicting wildlife and Mid-Atlantic landscapes. From his home in nearby Cecil County, Maryland, Robear grew up admiring, even emulating the members of the illustrious Wyeth family, especially Andrew Wyeth. From high school, he was accepted to the Corcoran School of the Arts where he developed his surreal interpretation on regional landscapes and people with an adventurous application of his preferred medium, watercolor. The artist’s cavalier use of water-based paints is contrasted by the unique frames he forges from metal. A professional metalsmith, Robear has been completing his works within his own sculptural frames for several years, melding his two passions into unforgettable works of art.

Exhibition: Harmony Weavers Guild

March 4 – April 24, 2016

This bi-annual members’ exhibition of the pre-eminent regional weaving association features masterworks of fiber art. The Harmony Weavers Guild emphasizes fellowship, enthusiasm and especially education in weaving for its members. This feature exhibition will be accented with examples of looms and educational programs.

 Youth Art Month: Sculptures of Ourselves

March 4 – March 24, 2016

The Biggs Museum has challenged art educators from across the state to teach their K-12 students about the art form of self-portraiture by creating outdoor sculptures of themselves using found and recycled materials. This submitted works will be on view outside, in front of the museum’s main entrance.

DEMCO, Inc.

October 2 – November 15, 2015

The Biggs Museum is celebrating its new partnership with The Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization (DEMCO, Inc.), with an exhibition, entitled DEMCO, Inc., of student and staff artworks created during their after-school program in downtown Dover. This exhibition will be on view from October 2 – November 15, 2015 in the Child HELP Foundation Gallery on the museum’s first floor.

A portion of this current exhibition features works created within the Substance Abuse Prevention Narratives project. The DEMCO artists and instructors created this series of collages as narratives, a kind of pictorial story, of Abuse Prevention. This project challenges artists such G.L. Shamir, Desiree Wilson and Dr. Linda Hackett to channel the lessons of such noted artists as Vincent Van Gogh, Gustave Courbet, Ben Shan and Jacob Lawrence to create new works that embody the message of Prevention.

The Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization (DEMCO, Inc.) is a Dover non-profit organization offering educational support and counseling in Kent County. DEMCO, Inc. offers classes, workshops and tutoring to learners from kindergarten to adults. This organization specializes in educational topics including: Economics, Mathematics, Humanities, Science, Fine Art, Coping skills, Leadership, Languages, Substance Abuse Prevention, High School Completion, College Preparation Exams and Teacher Certification.

Small Tapestry International 4: Honoring Tradition, Inspiring Innovation

October 2 – November 22, 2015

The American Tapestry Alliance was established in 1982 to unite tapestry weavers and designers in order to promote an awareness and appreciation of contemporary hand-woven tapestries from around the world. This organization promotes speakers, hosts instructors, produces publications, disseminates information and creates juried exhibitions of the finest textiles artists’ works internationally. This year’s competition of Small Tapestry International features small-scale works by over 40 artists. Each of these works were designed and completed by hand by weaving and knotting thousands of threads on a loom to create one cohesive composition. The works were juried by Kevin Wallace, the Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, California. He is a regular contributor to numerous international publications and has guest-curated exhibitions for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Cultural Affairs Department of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles International Airport, and the San Luis Obispo Art Center.

Award Winners XV

July 3-September 27, 2015

Free Admission

Each year, through a partnership with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA), the Biggs Museum hosts the works of Delaware’s award winning Individual Artist Fellows, honoring their combined accomplishments. The Fellows are recommended by out of state jurors and receive Delaware State Arts Council approval. Fellows receive cash awards ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 to advance their artistic careers.

Sixteen Delaware Fellows were selected in 2015 for the high quality of their artwork. These artists reside throughout Delaware, including in Bethel, Dover, Lewes, New Castle, Newark, Rehoboth Beach, and Wilmington. Awards are given in three categories—Emerging Professional, Established Professional, and Masters. Listed below are the DDOA 2015 Individual Artist Fellows.

2015 INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWS
Masters Award
Kimberly Reighley, Wilmington, Music: Solo Recital – Reighley plays baroque and modern flute, is co-artistic director of Mélomanie, plays principal flute with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and OperaDelaware, and has performed with Brandywine Baroque as well as numerous ensembles in Pennsylvania and California.

Established Professional Award
Robert M. Bickey, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Sculpture
Gail Braune Comorat, Lewes, Literature: Poetry
Kevin J. Cope, Newark, Music: Composition
Christopher Nichols, Newark, Music: Solo Recital
Russell Reece, Bethel, Literature: Fiction
Jeffrey Rubin, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Photography
Billie Travalini, Wilmington, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Lance Winn, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting
Emerging Professional Award
Judy Catterton, Rehoboth Beach, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Barbara Gray, Wilmington, Literature: Fiction
Tom Newby, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting (work pictured above)
Britania Redington, Dover, Music: Solo Recital
James Ulry, Dover, Visual Arts: Crafts
Lindsey Warren, Newark, Literature: Poetry
Karoline Wileczek, Newark, Visual Arts: Works on Paper

Emerging Professional Award
Judy Catterton, Rehoboth Beach, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Barbara Gray, Wilmington, Literature: Fiction
Tom Newby, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting (work pictured above)
Britania Redington, Dover, Music: Solo Recital
James Ulry, Dover, Visual Arts: Crafts
Lindsey Warren, Newark, Literature: Poetry
Karoline Wileczek, Newark, Visual Arts: Works on Paper

The Award Winners XV exhibition will be displayed on the second floor of the Biggs Museum. An Artist Award Presentation will take place at the Biggs Museum on Saturday, September 26, 2015 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. This event will be free of charge and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Delaware Watercolor Society

July 3 – September 20, 2015

Admission: $5 (Free for Members, Children Under 12, and on Sundays)

The Biggs Museum will host a juried member’s exhibition of the Delaware Watercolor Society.  As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

An Artist Reception will take place on Friday, August 7, 2015 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. At the reception, the public will have an opportunity to view over 50 Delaware Watercolor Society works, meet the artists and enjoy a concert with two ensemble members of Mélomanie. Admission will be free for the reception. 

Delaware By Hand: Masters 2015

April 3, 2015 – June 14, 2015

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a juried competition of their Delaware By Hand artist membership in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft. The 2015 winning members, as well as their finest submissions, are selected by Brandi P. Clark, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Each winner is represented by at least three works of art in the Delaware By Hand Masters exhibition. These works are eligible for the coveted Museum Purchase Prize of $1500, a special winning allocation also selected by the competition juror, Ms. Clark. The exhibitors have often selected two additional works to represent the scope of their talent and abilities and their works are on view in the museum’s timeline galleries alongside examples of the historic permanent collection of fine and decorative arts.

Additionally the exhibition includes the work of Honorary Master Craftsman, James Coker to honor his lifetime achievement in hand-crafts. Never-before-seen, Mr. Coker’s unique and distinctive needlework compositions are on view in the museum’s second-floor Gallery 14. This exhibition is funded in part by the Edgar Thronson Foundation, the Donald and Martha DeWees Foundation, and the Delaware Division of the Arts.

The following artists will be featured in the upcoming DBH Masterworks Exhibition:

• Arden Bardol
• Peter Saenger
• Robert Schock
• Betsey VonDreele
• Catherine Walls
• Steve Rogers
• Mike Quattrociocchi
• Thomas Frey
• Louise Gatanas
• Michael Krausz
• C. Denise Bendelewski
• Dolores Michels

…and…

• James Coker

William D. White: Vision and Voice Exhibition

March 6 – June 21, 2015

William D. White: Vision and Voice is the first major exhibition and exhibition catalogue of this unique and important regional artist. This exhibition reintroduces the work of Wilmington, Delaware illustrator, muralist and painter William D. White (1896-1971). This artist’s varied and significant career spans some of the country’s most intense moments of the 20th century as well as the final days of the golden age of American illustration. The exhibition and publication will celebrate significant moments in the life of the artist through an examination of over 75 works.

This exhibition will also be accompanied by a symposium entitled William D. White: The Art of Illustration in Delaware and Beyond on March 28, 2015. To learn more about this symposium click here.

Abraham Lincoln: The WSFS Bank Collection of Frank Schoonover Illustrations

March 31, 2015 – May 3, 2015

For over 50 years, WSFS, the oldest bank and trust company headquartered in Delaware, have been the stewards of a fine collection of paintings and drawings by prized Wilmington illustrator, Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972). Many of the works in this collection were originally owned by Helen L. Card and displayed in the Latendorf Bookshop in New York City.

The bank’s images were illustrated for two stories on President Abraham Lincoln: Margarita Spaulding Gerry’s “The Toy Shop”, published in the December 1907 issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine, and Lucy Foster Madison’s Lincoln, published by the Penn Publishing Company in 1928. These ten images will be on view in the Biggs Museum’s first floor to commemorate the Old Dover Days celebration of America’s most popular president.

March for the Arts

March 6, 2015 – March 29, 2015

In support of Youth Art Month, the Museum will host an exhibition of artwork created by Delaware art educators and their students.  Schools from across the state have submitted a series of works in a variety of media.

Carson Zullinger: The Line of Beauty

November 7, 2014 – February 15, 2015

Delaware native, Carson Zullinger, has been exhibiting his figural and landscape fine-art photographs for forty years. Zullinger often subordinates his dynamic and thoroughly modern compositions to emphasize traditionally held forms of beauty. The Line of Beauty helps to trace his accomplishments in the arts while debuting new works created in response to receiving the coveted Master’s level Individual Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of Arts.

You Are the United States

December 5, 2014 – January 11, 2015

Emile Klein, a classically trained portrait painter from the San Francisco Bay area, recently biked across the country to record America from his perspective. Throughout his journey, Emile stopped at the homes of various short-term sponsor families. In exchange for hosting the artist, he would paint the host’s portrait.

The artist’s process of exchanging his art for room and board parallels the early American art scene of ‘limners’ who made their living traveling from town to town. While Emile painted, he also recorded the conversations he had with his subjects creating a powerful and intimate record of his hosts. These recordings and portraits made up the narratives fueling Emile’s not-for-profit organization, You’re U.S., to create a representation of modern Americans by highlighting people’s singular characteristics while searching for the qualities that tie together a nation. Many of the portraits and biographies compiled for You’re U.S. will be on view from December 5, 2014 through January 11, 2015.

Ain’t I a Woman: Lori Crawford and The Sista’s

September 5 – October 26, 2014

Lori Crawford, Associate Professor of Art at Delaware State University, will present works from The Sista’s series on the Biggs Museum’s third floor. Crawford’s series of digital drawings challenges notions of traditional female beauty. Prints of her figural works will be juxtaposed against the museum’s own collection of 19th-century academic artists and early Impressionist painters within the permanent collection galleries 20 and 21.

Award Winners XIV

August 1 – October 19, 2014

For fourteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual exhibition. The exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the DDOA. Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity and provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community.

R³ Factory Exhibition

May 17 – July 20, 2014

With support from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the Biggs Museum is proud to present a series of educational programs that provide valuable information as well as art-related experiences that focus on the importance of recycling. From May 17 through July 20, the Child HELP Foundation Gallery will be transformed into the R³ Factory providing a designated space for recycling-related activities. The R³ Factory will provide visitors with the opportunity to view recycling-themed art installations, participate in a variety of hands-on activities using recycled materials, and view an award winning documentary about a contemporary artist whose art is inspired by the world’s largest landfill. Four artist installations will provide visitors with the opportunity to view four different interpretations of recycling and art and participate in their completion by adding materials available in the R³ Factory. By providing visitors with the opportunity to engage with the installations, we hope to leave a lasting impression about how each individual can make a significant impact on the amount of waste that is disposed of each year. The four artists are:

• Jennifer Boland, Art Educator at Campus Community School
• Lori Crawford, Professor at Delaware State University
• Heidi Lowe, Professional Jewelry Artist
• Mary Pauer, 2014 Delaware Division of the Arts Established Literary Fellow

Visitors to the R³ Factory will be encouraged to vote on the installation that most inspires them to get involved in recycling. Votes will be accepted at the museum, on the Biggs Museum website and on the Biggs Museum’s Facebook page from May 17 to July 20. The winning artist and their installation will be announced on our website and Facebook page on August 1 and featured in the fall Museletter.

We need your help! Please assist us as we gather recyclable materials for use in the R³ Factory. Donations are being accepted at the front desk of the museum to the attention of Beccy Cooper. Please contact Beccy at 674-2111 ext. 101 or bcooper@biggsmuseum.org with any questions. The artists have requested the following materials:

• aluminum soda cans
• six pack soda rings (yoke)
• small water bottles
• egg cartons
• paper towel rolls
• aluminum foil
• fabric scraps
• use light bulbs
• old books (preferably ledger sized)
• magazines

Biggs Picture Exhibition

May 17 – July 20, 2014

The Biggs Museum of American art is proud to again host the third installment of The Biggs Picture, a landscape competition. This exhibition will present art works from all media; such as, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, and video; of competition winners that most successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape”. Depending on size, the exhibition will display between 40 and 60 works. Each work must fit within at least one of these sub-themes:

Perceived Landscape: interpretations of actual spaces at particular times.
Imagined Landscapes: interpretations of spaces from the past, memory, make-believe, and/or the future.
Landscapes of the Mind: interpreting psychological states of being through creations of space.

This exhibition will be supported by a number of educational programs including, but not limited to: curator led tours of the Biggs Museum’s landscape paintings, juror talks, workshops in the Museum’s galleries, “Paint Outs” in Dover’s historic areas, and Biggs Kids programming.Click here to view a full list of artists

Refining the Region: the Landscapes of Bayard T. Berndt

November 1, 2013 – February 23, 2014
Bayard Taylor Berndt was a 20th century Brandywine Valley artist who studied under such recognizable figures as Frank Schoonover, N.C. Wyeth and Gayle Hoskins. Refining the Region: the Landscapes of Bayard T. Berndt is an exhibition of paintings produced over the course of a sixty-year career. American and local history was a passion and often was a subject of his paintings. He was especially enamored with the beauty and heritage of the Brandywine Valley and often focused on his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Some of his most recognizable scenes highlight commerce on the local waterways, industrialization, urban street views and covered bridges.

Celebration of Creativity

November 1 – December 31, 2013
VSA of Delaware provides children and adults with disabilities opportunities to achieve in the performing and visual arts. VSA of Delaware is a unique organization within the state with a sole mission devoted to enhancing the capabilities, confidence and quality of life for individuals with disabilities by providing life-long learning opportunities in the arts. VSA’s artist-in-residence program pairs professional teaching artist with creative individuals with disabilities across the State of Delaware to explore and develop artistic skills in the areas of visual arts, dance, drama and music. The exhibition currently on view at the Biggs Museum, Celebration of Creativity, highlights art produced by the Artist-in-Residence 2012-2013 program cycle.

Delaware Watercolor Society

September 6 – October 27, 2013
The Biggs Museum will host a juried member’s exhibition of the Delaware Watercolor Society. As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

Award Winners XIII

August 2 – October 13, 2013
For thirteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition.

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.

The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community.

Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.

The Legacy of Currier & Ives: Shaping the American Spirit

July 4 – October 27, 2013
When Nathanial Currier, a young businessman in New York City, published a lithograph in 1835 showing Planters Hotel in New Orleans after a fire, it ushered in a new era of pictorial journalism. The print established the firm which was to achieve its greatest fame as “Currier & Ives” after 1857 when James Merritt Ives became a partner.

Over the next seven decades, the firm consistently provided the public with images that recorded the breaking news of the day. However, as the demand for decorative lithographs increased, Currier & Ives also published prints depicting almost every aspect of American life. Through an ever-expanding repertoire of images, the prints of Currier & Ives celebrated the activities, events and everyday life of nineteenth century Americans. Images included domestic life, historical events, city and country views, religious scenes, scenic wonders, westward expansion, trains, ships, winter scenes and hunting and fishing. Each print was titled and most were hand-colored by women who worked for the firm.

The prints were sold in the New York City shop, distributed through mail-order, and were offered by peddlers and by agents working throughout the United States and Europe. Working with speed and efficiency, Currier & Ives printed two to three images every week for 64 years, and the firm is believed to have produced more than 8,000 different titled lithographic prints.

Many of the images serve to document a wide variety of social trends and attitudes that reflect American culture during the nineteenth century. The Legacy of Currier & Ives allows visitors to experience American history and society through the extraordinary images produced by the legendary firm who called themselves “Printmakers to the People.”

 The Projectionist

March 1 – June 23, 2013

The Projectionist is a documentary, book and multi-media exhibition that explores one man’s lifelong fascination with the golden ago of film and, in particular, the grand movie palace. The exhibition features a fully operational 1920s style movie theater that was created in the basement of Middletown native, Gordon Brinckle. A documentary, created by Kendall Messick, provides a penetrating gaze into the life of this self-taught artist. The narrative follows the course of Brinckle’s life, revealing the profound desire, frustration and motivation that propelled him to create such a distinctive outsider art environment. Original works on paper by Brinkle such as blueprints and floor plans and fine art photographs by Messick of Brinkle operating the theater will also be on view.

The Projectionist press coverage

The News Journal

Article and video: Delaware man’s handcrafted theater returns home for display through June

The Dover Post
Article: ‘The Projectionist’ highlights artistic vision of basement obsession

WDEL
Article and video: Delaware’s last movie palace on display at the Biggs

A Moment in Time: Artist Exchange

January 4, 2013 – February 24, 2013
In conjunction with the museum’s signature Biggs Shot photographyc ompetition, the museum has invited a local artist association to create works based on the photographic notion of capturing a “moment in time.” Artists who specialize in such varied media as ceramics, abstract painting, watercolors, printmaking and textiles will be evaluated for their successful record of an identifiable time period in a group critique that will be filmed, as a documentary and projected during the exhibition.

For a sneak peak view of this exhibition please click here.

Biggs Shot 2012

November 2, 2012 – February 17, 2013
Biggs Shot 2012 will feature submissions to the third juried photography competition of artists living and working in the Greater Delmarva Peninsula. The competition, hosted by the Biggs Museum and juried by Sarah Stolfa, Director of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, is open to all photographers-both amateur and professional. This exhibition will offer visitors a wide view of local talent as well as local artistic perspectives – a showcase on the ways local photographers view this region. The competition is open to artists working in film, digital, and video formats.

Glass Transformed

September 7 – October 28, 2012
Glass Transformed is the first museum presentation within the State of Delaware of the photographic work of Celia Pearson. Based in Annapolis, the artist has traveled as far as Italy to photograph unique sea glass collections. Spanning from still life to abstract studies, the exhibit is presented in forms that vary from framed prints to her more recent fiber installations. Pearson’s work has been published and exhibited widely.

Award Winners XII

July 6, 2012 – October 21, 2012
For twelve years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from over a hundred entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.

Picturing WWI: The American Illustration Collection of the Delaware National Guard

Friday, May 4 through Sunday, June 24
In a time before televisions or even the widespread use of radio, Americans received their news and entertainment from popular magazines and illustrations.  Among Delaware’s most famous illustrators of the early 20th century, Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972) and Gayle Porter Hoskins (1887-1962) painted hundreds of images during their careers to illuminate current articles and popular stories.

These artists were commissioned by one of America’s most popular magazines, The Ladies Home Journal, to illustrate key events and scenes from World War I for thousands of readers.  Picturing WWI features several Hoskins and Schoonover paintings, created between 1917 and 1919, of the experiences of World War I soldiers.  The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see this exceptional collection owned by the Delaware National Guard.

Arts Connect-ED: Campus Community School Exhibition

Monday, March 27 through Sunday, June 24

Celebrate youth talent in the arts by being the first to look at the installment of local school children’s artwork. The featured pieces were created by students of Campus Community School of Dover, DE. Within the exhibition there will be a focus on artwork inspired by Biggs Museum permanent collection objects.

Jewels of the Generations: The Legacy of Loockerman and Bradford Family of Dover

Friday, March 2 through Sunday, June 24

When Dover merchant, Vincent Loockerman, died in 1785 he was probably Dover’s single largest land owner and unrivaled collector of Delaware and Philadelphia-made furniture of the 18th century. For the last 200 years, Vincent’s descendants have lived with the riches of the past while adding treasures from their own times.

The museum’s founder, Sewell C. Biggs, was an avid collector and admirer of the objects accumulated by Vincent Loockerman. In tribute, the Jewels of the Generations exhibition features Loockerman’s material legacy while discussing over 200 years of art collecting by his descendants, the Bradfords.

The jewels that have left the house, and are being borrowed back for this important exhibition, include a wealth of early American clothing, fashionable Victorian jewelry, European and Asian ceramics, American and European silver, important American and European portraits, and Delaware and Philadelphia furniture.

This program is partially funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As the Poet Paints: E. Jean Lanyon

Friday, April 6 through Wednesday, May 23
As the Poet Paints features the literary and visual artworks of the 1979-2001 Delaware Poet Laureate E. Jean Lanyon:“As a Fine Artist I paint what I cannot write, and I write what I cannot paint.”The dual nature of this artist’s personal expression will take form in a comprehensive exhibition of her artistic career in Delaware.

Loving Traditions: The Ann Marcus Valentines Card Collection

Friday, February 3 through Sunday, March 25
Valentines cards have been popularly printed, mailed and received in Europe and America since the 1800s.  Printing innovations of the Industrial Revolution and the professionalization of the U.S. postal service ushered in a large number of card manufacturers.  The design of early Valentines cards drew from popular art forms of the day decorated with the iconic Valentine decorative motifs of flowers, hearts and cupids.Collapsible three-dimensional, or “pop-up” cards, became especially popular with the addition of delicate layers of brightly-colored tissue paper and a sculptural quality that were easily mailed.  The Biggs Museum is pleased to present a large sample of the late 19th- and early 20th-century pop-up Valentine card collection of Ann Marcus.  Mrs. Marcus has been collecting these delicate art forms for over fifteen years and has amassed a collection of hundreds of cards.

Delaware By Hand: Masterworks 2011

Through the Bright Woods, Heather Siple
November 4, 2011 to February 26, 2012
Every two years, Delaware By Hand (DBH) hosts a membership-wide juried competition in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft. The 2011 artists were selected by Bryan Young; Curator of Easton, Maryland’s Academy Art Museum; and Sally Hansen, retired owner and director of The Glass Gallery in Bethesda, MD, antiques dealer and art collector. Each winner will be represented by three works of art in the Masterworks 2011 exhibition. Their primary exhibition piece is the finest example from which they were judged – their winning artwork. The exhibitors have selected two additional works to represent the scope of their talent and abilities.

Award Winners XI:Exhibition

Open July 1 – October 23, 2011

We Are All Poets by Colette C. Gaiter

The Biggs Museum of American Art will open the summer 2011 exhibition: Award Winners XI on Friday, July 1 with a First Look pARTY from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Museum. Be one of the first to preview the works of this year’s Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist fellows. An Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, July 9 from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. The public is invited to attend this free program to enjoy refreshments and celebrate the best of Delaware’s art sceneAward Winners XI features the talent of the current Individual Artist fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, writers, sculptors, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff at the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners XI exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene. This annual exhibition is an important project for the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the Museum and art to the community.The Biggs Museum is pleased to once again feature the media and skills of all winning artists. Their work lies in the areas of folk art, musical, literary, visual, and sculptural arts. The following artists are the 2011 DDOA fellowship recipients to be featured in the Award Winners XI exhibition:

Award Winners XI will be on view through October 23, 2011. Along with this exhibition the Biggs Museum will be offering a variety of summer art workshops and demonstrations for adults, some of which are led by the 2011 individual artist fellows. These classes bring professional artists to the Museum to teach about the visual and literary arts.

The Award Winners XI exhibition is partially funded by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts and the Kent County Fund for the Arts.

The Biggs Picture: the 2011 Landscape Competition and Exhibition

March 4 – June 19, 2011

The Biggs Picture exhibition features paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, craft, video and any artistic medium by regional landscape artists. This juried competition asks artist contestants to interpret the theme of “Landscape.” Chosen works successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape” with the finest examples of their media and fit within one of three, landscape sub-themes.

Landscapes of the Mind: Interpreting psychological states of being through creations of space, such as abstraction, installation art and landscape representations with expressionistic and often non-representational compositions.
Constructed Landscapes:Interpretations of spaces from the past, memory, make-believe, and/or the future, such as studio production and interpretations of spaces from past, memory, imagination and for the future.
Perceived Landscape: Interpretations of actual spaces at particular times, such as plein air and landscape representations of actual spaces at particular times.

Types of media that will be represented include painting, video, drawing, sculpture, photography, and craft. The Biggs Picture 2011 competition drew nearly 300 entries from over 100 individual applicants. The 2011 jurors Robert Koenke, Editor-in-Chief of Wildlife Art Magazine and Catherine Drabkin, Delaware College of Art and Design Founding Faculty Member, selected 73 works to be displayed in the exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art. These works successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape” with the finest examples of their media. The Biggs Museum is pleased to announce the winners of the competition.

2011 Biggs Picture Exhibition Artists

2011 Biggs Picture Exhibition Winners

Click on a thumbnail above to enlarge the image.

Campus Community School: Junior Docent Art Exhibition

May 6 – May 29, 2011
Junior Docents from Dover’s Campus Community School will be featured as the final celebration of this year’s program. The Junior Docent program, which was developed to conform to Delaware Visual and Performing Arts standards, allows the Biggs Museum to support art education by collaborating with local educators and their students. This program, offered free-of-charge, provides students with a unique opportunity to learn about the visual arts, apply their knowledge to specific works of art, and present their knowledge to their peers. Over the course of the program, Junior Docents build an art vocabulary, develop communication, critical thinking and research skills, and learn about the cultural history of the Museum’s collection. The overall goal of the program is to develop a long-term relationship between the student and the Museum in an effort to instill a lifelong appreciation for the arts.

Delaware Watercolor Society: Spring Exhibition

May 6 – May 29, 2011

The Biggs Museum will host the Delaware Watercolor Society largest exhibition in 2011, the juried members exhibition. As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

Art and Poetry

April 1 – May 1, 2011
To commemorate National Poetry Month, the Biggs Museum will host a public reading of some of the region’s most influential poets on Friday, April 1. Each writer has composed an original poem inspired from collections on view within the Biggs Museum’s galleries. Printed versions of the poems will remain on view next to their inspiration artworks through the month of April. These poems will also be available online at biggsmuseum.org

Behind the Blue Doors: Famous Creations from the Rehoboth Art League

November 5, 2010 – February 20, 2011
Behind the Blue Doors: Famous Works from the Rehoboth Art League Collection is the first critical examination of the rarely-seen permanent collection of the Rehoboth Art League (RAL). Founded in the early 1930s, the RAL quickly became a regional hot bed of artistic production and has collected hundreds of art works from area artist masters for the past eighty years. Without a comprehensive catalogue of its important collection or large-scale galleries to display these works, the Rehoboth Art League is partnering with the Biggs Museum to debut its important collection of regional modernism to the public.

The exhibition will feature approximately 60 memorable art works from the RAL permanent collection featuring nearly 50 noted artists. Of special interest are artworks made in the first 40 years of the RAL’s history, a time when Rehoboth Art League instructors like Jack Lewis, Ethel Leach, Orville Peets and Howard Schroeder were coming into local prominence. Behind the Blue Doors will also explore controversies surrounding its long-range plans for growth and for the care of the permanent collection. In a story remarkably similar to Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation, the RAL’s need to conserve and utilize the historic structures on its campus, to expand visitation and to care for its growing permanent collection, is conflicting with zoning regulations of the town that has grown up around the Art League, Henlopen Acres.

“Behind the Blue Doors is a unique collaboration between two arts organizations, each with separate missions and audiences, working towards an achievement of an even greater and universal mission which is to educate and develop awareness of the arts,” states Biggs Museum Director Linda Danko. “It is partnerships like this that will enable arts and culture to grow in Delaware, especially in Kent and Sussex County.”

The Rehoboth Art League, founded by Louise C. Corkran, is a nationally important center of 20th century artistic production within the historic art colony of Rehoboth Beach. Since the late 19th century, artists throughout the eastern seaboard have frequented Rehoboth Beach as an established artist retreat. Other artists’ retreats of national significance include North Carolina’s Penland School; New Hope, Pennsylvania; Provincetown, Massachusetts; Monhegan Island, Maine; and Old Lyme, Connecticut. Like these art destinations, Rehoboth Beach has been a site of artistic instruction for over a hundred years with classes hosted by art groups based throughout the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. Since its opening in the 1930s, the RAL has been a focal point for a community of hundreds artists centered in Sussex County and the State of Delaware.

Behind the Blue Doors tells the early story of the RAL while discussing its significance to America. There are few precious collections of this magnitude that feature art works by Delaware artists inspired by early notions of 20th-century modernism; this is an extremely rare opportunity to see masterpieces by some of the State’s most admired artists. The lives of the artists and their artistic production will help tell the history of the RAL and describe its importance within the cultural life of the region.

Award Winners X and Reunion

July 2 – October 24, 2010
For ten years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.In celebration of the ten anniversary of the annual Award Winners exhibition, the Biggs Museum has invited all of the past individual fellowship recipients to participate in a reunion exhibition of their works. Over thirty artists featured in the Award Winners exhibition in the past ten years will participate in the reunion exhibition alongside the 2010 individual fellows and share their recent work with the public.The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.The Biggs Museum is pleased to once again feature the media and skills of all sixteen 2010 DDOA fellowship recipients. Their work lies in the areas of visual, musical, sculptural, folk art and literary arts.

The following artists are the 2010 DDOA fellowship recipients to be featured in the Award Winners X: Reunion exhibition:Visual Arts
Allison M. Haug, Wilmington
Ashley J. Pigford, Newark
Cybele Clark-Mendes, Newark
Felise Luchansky, Wilmington
Heather Siple, Wilmington
Hunter Clark, Ardencroft
Larry Anderson, Wilmington
Michael Kalmbach, Newark
Nina Spencer, DoverLiterature
Christopher Childers, Middletown
Tery Aine Griffin, Wilmington
L.J. Sysko, Wilmington
Viet Dinh, WilmingtonMusic
Jerry “Crabmeat” Thompson, Middletown
Michael S. Smith, BearReunion Artists

Visions of Dignity

September 15 – October 15, 2010
The Biggs Museum of American Art is partnering, once again, with the Delaware State Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA) to present the exhibition Visions of Dignity, a celebration of Hispanic artists working in the Mid-Atlantic region. The exhibit features the varied artistic points of view from a vibrant local culture. At the same time, Visions of Dignity artists create windows to see into their own cultural origins. Visions of Dignity invited artists to participate who identify as Latin American or U.S. Latino, including those artists from Spanish, Portuguese, French and English speaking countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, living or working in the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. Of all the submissions, forty art works by fourteen artists were selected. The following sculptors, painters, photographers and printmakers were selected by GACHA members, Keyla Rivero-Rodriguez, Eli Ramos and Charito Calvachi-Mateyko, to participate in Visions of Dignity:

Alicia Bonilla-Puig (Landenberg, PA)
Alicia Dominguez (Wilmington, DE)
Magaly Garza (Fairfax, VA)
Masplata (Dover, DE)
Maria de los Angeles Morales (Paoli, PA)
Luis A. Morales (West Chester, PA)
Mara Odette (Buffalo, NY)
Claudia Olivos (Arlington, VA)
Sergio Olivos (Arlington, VA)
Gustavo Rojas (Teaneck, NJ)
Nikki Schiro (New York, NY)
Nicolas F. Shi (Washington, DC)
Miguel Tio (New York, NY)
Raul Villarreal (Verona, NJ)

The exhibition explores the theme of “dignity” through artistic representations of the experience of being Latino in America. The artists chosen for this exhibition have utilized symbols of Hispanic family life, traditions, geographies and other signifiers of Hispanic identity to communicate the stories of their journey through the United States.

To compliment the Visions of Dignity exhibition, GACHA organizers also plan to unveil six paintings by contemporary Hispanic artists from private collections within the State of Delaware, including the Norma Varisco de Garcia Collection as well as works from the collections of Miguel Valazquez and Eli Ramos. These collections are over thirty years in the making and have rarely been seen in public before now. These six works will be on view in the Biggs Museum’s children’s gallery, Sewell’s Studio, for the duration of the Visions of Dignity exhibition.

Please join us at the Biggs Museum of American Art as we kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with the Visions of Dignity public reception on September 15, 2010. This rare opportunity brings together the Museum’s audiences with noted Hispanic artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Blue Water/Still Water: American Society of Marine Artists

Open March 5, 2010 – June 20, 2010

“Artists have always found inspiration in the aquatic:
from the vastness of the open ocean,
where clear water rolls on in deep cobalt waves,
to the stillness of shallow watersheds
lit by the song of bullfrogs and Painted Buntings.

As members of the American Society of Marine Artists, we are some of the most ardent of these creative spirits who have followed our hearts and vision, creating beauty as we have seen it in an Aquarian world.

It’s not only the mission of the Society to educate the public to the inherent value of the marine world that surrounds us,
but it is also our greatest pleasure to share these, our most treasured gifts, with you.”

-Michael Killelea
Chairman of ASMA Regional Exhibitions

A must see for anyone who loves the sea. Celebrating America’s rich maritime history as a seafaring nation, this dynamic exhibition brings together over one hundred of the most talented contemporary artists in the marine art field, recognized both nationally and internationally. Quiet shorelines, harbor views, and seascapes featuring tumultuous, roaring seas are presented with luminous light and emotion. A wide array of mediums – oils, water colors, pastels, scratchboard, pencil, sculpture and scrimshaw make this a most rewarding experience for viewers and collectors alike. Founded in 1978, the American Society of Marine Artists’ purpose is to promote marine art and maritime history and to encourage cooperation among artists, historians, marine enthusiasts and others engaged in activities related to marine art and maritime history.

Arts ConnectEd

Open November 6, 2009 – February 21, 2010


Arts ConnectEd features the young talent of students in Delaware schools. The exhibition consists of four month-long installations, each featuring the artwork of a different school in the state of Delaware. Arts ConnectEd reflects the quality and diversity of art education in Delaware schools. The Biggs Museum is dedicated to promoting and supporting the role arts play in youth development. In addition to the four school installations, Arts ConnectEd will also feature Sewell’s Studio, an interactive creativity center, providing young museum visitors the opportunity to create works of art similar to those currently on display. The Biggs Museum is honored to foster this commitment to learning and community. Delaware Schools showcasing in Arts ConnectEd include, Holy Cross Elementary, Campus Community School, William Henry Middle School and Ursuline Academy. Each month-long exhibition will open on the November 2009, December 2009, January 2010, and February 2010 First Friday programs. The Arts ConnectED First Look! pARTies are sponsored by Chick-fil-A of Camden, DE.

The art projects to be displayed from each of the four school participants are as follows:

November 2009: Holy Cross School
Art Instructor: Sharon Benini
Op Art created with colored pencil in the style of Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley.

December 2009: William Henry Middle School
Art Instructor : Valerie Connaghan
Greeting cards decorated with collage by 5th and 6th grade students.

January 2010: Campus Community School
Art Instructor: Jennifer Boland
Recycled art, 3-dimensional gargoyles by 6th and 7th grade students and self-portrait paintings by
1st through 7th grade students.

February 2010: Ursuline Academy
Art Instructor: Erin McNichol
Sculpture along with a hands-on activity center by 7th through 12th grade students.

In addition to the school displays to be featured in Arts ConnectED, the Biggs Museum is proud to present two month-long exhibitions featuring artwork created through VSA (Very Special Arts of Delaware). VSA Arts of Delaware is a state-wide nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing children and adults with disabilities opportunities to participate and achieve in the area of performing and visual arts. This admirable organization develops programs and resources to help people with disabilities develop artistic skills and enhance confidence while promotion access, inclusion and diversity.

Celebration of Creativity,will be on display in Gallery 7 from November 6, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Celebration of Creativity showcases the visual artwork produced by participants in VSA arts of Delaware’s various artist-in-residency projects during the 2008-2009 program cycle. The second VSA exhibition, A View Through My Window, will be on display in Gallery 7 from January 8, 2010 to February 28, 2010. A View Through My Window features a selection of works created through a domestic violence art project that served nearly 75 adults and children in the state of Delaware. This exhibit features canvas windows representing the messages of individuals who have experienced domestic violence first hand. Artwork included in this exhibit was created in shelters & support groups in all three counties of Delaware and poignant works of art by children who have been affected by domestic violence will also be on display. The messages conveyed by the participants make this a powerful and moving experience.

Fusion: American Classics Meet Latin American Art

Open September 15, 2009 – November 15, 2009

In a partnership with the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA), the Biggs Museum will exhibit the works of contemporary Hispanic artists living or working in the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. This exhibition will commemorate the declaration of the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation at the Museum on September 15, 2009. The exhibition will be strategically placed throughout Galleries Two through Seven and the Old Stair Hall Gallery alongside the Museum’s permanent collection of fine and decorative arts of the 18th and early 19th centuries that were made and used within the State of Delaware. The contemporary Hispanic works displayed will symbolically represent the parallel currents of Early-American/Spanish culture alongside the development of the American mainstream. The exhibition will highlight contrasts and continuity between the influences of contemporary Hispanic and early-American fine and decorative arts.

The following artists will be featured in Fusion: American Classics Meets Latin American Art:
Leonor Brazão: Chantilly, VA
Pablo Caviedes: New York, NY
David Camero: Washington, DC
Felisa Federman: Potomac, MD
Iliana Garcia: Brooklyn, NY
Magaly Garza: Fairfax, VA
Magda Korn: Hockessin, DE
Ruben Lopez: Wilmington, DE
Maria Morales: Paoli, PA
Carlos Nuñez: Philadelphia, PA
Mara Odette: Bethesda, MD
Jorge Posada: New York, NY
Gustavo Rojas: Teaneck, NJ
Jeannette Sababa: New York, NY
Luz Salas: Philadelphia, PA
Marta Sanchez: Philadelphia, PA
Nikki Schiro: New York, NY
Nicolas Shi: Washington, DC
Miguel Tio: New York, NY

* Some portions of the Fusion exhibition, contain nudity and are of mature theme and may not be suitable for children.

Please use discretion. If you have further questions, please contact the Administrative Offices or see a Museum Interpreter when visiting the Biggs Museum.

Award Winners

Open July 3, 2009 – October 25, 2009

Award Winners features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). These artists: painters, photographers, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites the Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene.
The Biggs Museum congratulates the 2009 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Fellows:
2009 Masters Fellow
Christiaan Taggart: Music, Solo Recital

Established
Ronald Brignac: Visual Arts, Photography
Nancy Carol Willis: Visual Arts, Works on Paper
Robert Davis: Literature, Creative Nonfiction
Elizabeth Dolan: Literature, Poetry
Eileen Grycky: Music, Solo Recital
Ramona Long: Literature, Fiction
Ronald Longsdorf: Visual Arts, Sculpture

Emerging
Abby Millager: Literature, Poetry
Stephen Ruszkowski: Visual Arts, Painting

Ellen’s Wacky Chair Contest

Open August 5, 2009 – August 31, 2009
The Biggs Museum is proud to serve as a partner alongside the Delaware State Fair, the Boys & Girls Club, WMDT and the Ellen Degeneres Show in the 2009 Ellen’s Wacky Chair Contest. In July 2009, local artists partnered with all ten Delaware Boys and Girls clubs to design and create a “wacky chair” for an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show in September 2009. One Adirondack chair was created by a local artist for each Boys and Girls Club that incorporated the children’s ideas. All ten chairs were on display at the 2009 Delaware State Fair from July 23rd until August 1st. The chairs will be on display throughout the Permanent Collection at the Biggs Museum during the remainder of the month of August. The public is invited to vote for their favorite chair on the Boys & Girls Club web-site (www.bgclubs.org) from July 23rd until August 28th. All voters are encouraged to make a $1 donation on the web-site that will directly benefit Boy and Girls Clubs of Delaware and Maryland and the Biggs Museum. On Monday, August 31st, the winning chair will be announced. The winning artist, and Director of the winning Boys and Girls Club will attend an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show when Ellen will sit in the “Wacky Chair.” One random voter will also be drawn to win two tickets to the Ellen Degeneres Show along with airfare and hotel accommodations.

Wish for the World

Open August, 8, 2009 – August 31, 2009
As we look around our world today, filled with conflicts, environment destruction and human suffering, we all wish for a more peaceful, healthier and happier world. Every member of the community is invited to participate in the Wish for the World exhibition, by visiting the Museum and interpreting his or her wish for the world through art. The creation of the Wish for the World exhibition will take place at the August 2009 First Friday program. Wishes will be hung on trees and displayed during August 2009 inspiring others to think about their wish for the world.

The Sculpture of Light: Volterra, Italy in Delaware

Open April 4, 2009 – June 21, 2009
In a partnership with the Appoquinimink School District and the Volterra, Italy delegation, the Museum is pleased to present The Sculpture of Light: Volterra, Italy in Delaware: an exhibition celebrating the international artist-in-residency program with the Appoquinimink School District as well as the continuing, rich Volterran tradition of alabaster sculptures in Delaware. In early spring 2009, the Appoquinimink School District will host an artist-in-residency program with Volterra, Italy, brining Roberto Chiti, an alabaster sculptor, to teach students in grades 6-12 traditional sculpture techniques. The Sculpture of Light features over 200 works of the program’s participants as well as the work of Roberto Chiti and a selection of historic sculpture recently featured in Volterran exhibition, Scultura Di Luceoneto.

Biggs Shot 2009

March 4, 2009 – June 28, 2009

Biggs Shot 2009 is the second juried photography competition and exhibition featuring the work of new and emerging photographers, working and/or living in the Mid-Atlantic region. The inaugural Biggs Shot competition in 2005 attracted over 130 applicants within the region. Sally Packard and Dinah Reath, owner of the Packard Reath Gallery, Ryan Grover, Biggs Museum Curator, and Catherine Ware, Curator of Photographs from the Philadelphia Museum of Art selected 40 photographs, which were exhibited at the Biggs Museum November 2008 through February 2006. The Biggs Shot 2009: Competition drew 500 works from over 150 individual applicants. Stephen Perloff, editor of The Photo Review and The Photograph Collector, served as the juror of the Biggs Shot 2009 Competition. Perloff selected 80 photographs to be displayed in the Biggs Shot 2009 Exhibition held this spring. The Biggs Shot 2009 Exhibition offers visitors a wide range of local photographers’ works and their perspectives: a glimpse of the creativity and innovation occurring in our region by photographers of all skill levels. Biggs Shot 2009 images are displayed side-by-side, inviting open discussion and comparison. Biggs Shot 2009 supports the Museum’s mission in tracing the evolution of the local scene through exhibition and documentation of works created today. Biggs Shot 2009 marks the first on-line exhibition hosted by the Biggs Museum on its web-site. Biggs Shot 2009: On-Line creates a virtual exhibition experience for members of the public who are unable to visit the Museum during the exhibition. All 80 selected images are available for view in Biggs Shot 2009: On-Line in addition to Q&A sessions with the photographers.

On a Smaller Scale: Dollhouses

Open November 5, 2008 – February 22, 2009

On a Smaller Scale features the recent acquisition of three exceptional dollhouses from the now closed Delaware Toy and Miniature Museum (DTMM), created by Dover resident, Barbara Merrell. These homes were commended by DTMM for their high degree of naturalistic detail within the incredibly small scale of one-half inch to one foot. Ms. Merrell’s homes are half the size of the industry standard for most doll houses at one inch to a foot but Ms. Merrell’s works are literally half the size. In addition, nearly every object furnishing these mini homes: the furniture, the textiles, the household items, were all made from Ms. Merrell’s hands.

Forgotten Dreams:The Paintings of Edward Grant

November 5, 2008 – February 22, 2009

Rehoboth Artist, Edward Grant

The first retrospective of this artist’s work and his incredibly long and distinguished life within the region, both as a prolific painter as well as a successful graphic artist for one of Wilmington’s best-known companies. Edward Grant’s artistic career spanned an astounding seven decades. While so many of his contemporaries moved to the ideal rural setting of the Delmarva Peninsula, Grant grew up, was trained, and practiced his craft within the region. His dedication to the development of the local art scene gave him, in our opinion, a unique perspective on the spaces, customs, and values he observed throughout his entire life. His earliest works exhibit the social realism of the late 20s and 30s, while his war-period works experimented with the contemporary trends of Cubism and Abstraction. He also was a successful graphic artist for one of Wilmington’s best-known and most successful companies, as well as a prolific painter. His later works, after 1968, are among his most highly regarded for their distinctive interpretations of life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Grant’s artistic associations throughout the Delmarva Peninsula were extremely wide; he learned from some of Delaware’s greatest artists, was active in nearly every major arts organization within the state before 1970, was at the center of the Delaware arts communities, and was a life-long art instructor to hundreds of students. Forgotten Dreams will encompass an exhibition of works from the Biggs Museum, the artist’s own collection, and private collections throughout the region, accompanied by the first-ever retrospective publication of this important Delaware artist, which will review Grant’s large body of work in relation to his biography and significant historic moments that impacted the populations of the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Biggs Museum of American Art would like to congratulate the 2008 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellows.

Alida Fish, Seahorse, from the Cabinet of Curiosities series, tintype, 10” x 8”, 2007

Visual Arts
Alida Fish
Robert Bickey
Nancy Breslin
Lori Crawford
Karin Snoots
Chad States
Andrew Wapinski

Literature
Piotr Florczyk
Marry Kennedy
Annette Opalczynski
C. Delia Scarpitti

Music
Mark Hagerty

Media Arts
Paul Hiuchan

*Some portions of the current exhibition, Award Winners VIII, contain nudity and are of mature theme and may not be suitable for children.
Please use discretion. If you have further questions, please contact the Administrative Offices prior to your visit.

Award Winners VIII

July 9, 2008 – October 26, 2008
This exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). These artists: painters, photographers, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees.  In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites the Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. In conjunction with this exhibition The Biggs Museum is pleased to hold the 2008 Summer Art Series: a series of workshops led by a selection of the 2008 fellows. Please see upcoming events for information on these workshops.

Award Winners VII

For seven years the Biggs Museum has offered its galleries for the presentation of some of Delaware’s finest visual artists, craftspeople, writers and musicians with the Award Winners series of exhibitions.  The summer celebration offers a home each year for a new group of winners of the prestigious Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships.  Monetary prizes are awarded to Delaware artists in all media whose work demonstrates an excellence above their competitors.  This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene.

Young at Art

Open September 20, 2008 – October 19, 2008

In partnership with the Child HELP Foundation, the Biggs Museum is proud to host Young at Art, an exhibition featuring artwork created by children in Delaware who are supported by the Child HELP Foundation and VSA Arts of Delaware. Child HELP Foundation is a nonprofit charitable community organization created to promote extended health care, special education and social programs to enhance the quality of life, develop and fulfill the potential of children with disabilities. VSA Arts of Delaware is an organization dedicated to providing children and adults with disabilities opportunities to participate and achieve in the area of performing and visual arts.

From Four Studios: First State Modernism

From Four Studios: First State Modernism is the first major exhibition of the State’s Modernist art collection.  The show presents key examples of works by four seminal figures in early 20th – century painting of Delaware: Jack Lewis (b. 1912), Howard Schroeder (1910-1995), Orville Peets (1881-1968) and Ethel Peets (1886-1978).  Over the last ten years, the private studio collections and an assortment of personal possessions of these four professional artists have been gifted to the State’s collection. Each of these artists was professionally trained painters and art instructors in Delaware during the adventurous introduction of European Modernism into the American art scene.   The extensive holdings of each of the four collections include large caches of the artists’ works, works by their artistic contemporaries, art supplies and studio tools, as well as extensive archival materials on the artists’ careers and lives.

The exhibition introduces the work of these four artists, as represented by the State’s extensive collections, within the historical context of the introduction of European Modernism.  These artists’ careers are presented in light of the direct influence of the new ideas of Cubism, Social Realism, and Abstraction on the American art scene.  We will elicit common threads between each of these artists that connected them to exciting external influences of the art centers of New York and Paris during the first half of the 20th century.  This exhibition positions Delaware as a regional recipient of this groundbreaking influence.

Greetings from Delaware

Greetings from Delaware and Other Artist Communities, features over 250 hand-made greeting cards, the majority of the Jann Haynes Gilmore and B. Joyce Puckett collection, by both regional and national professional artists.  The exhibition will be filled with artful greetings manufactured and sent by artists such as, Rockwell Kent, N.C. Wyeth, Blanche Lazell, Ethel Leach, Frank Schoonover and John Sloan.  The display of these cards will be highlighted by many full-scale paintings and fine-art prints by several of the featured artists.

As objects designed and often printed by professional artists, the cards of this collection display poignant and timeless visual messages through expert craftsmanship.  At the same time, these artist-generated cards from Delaware, the mid-Atlantic region and throughout the country offered their admirers a unique view into little-known regions of the American art scene of the first half of the twentieth century.  In a period full of changing social values and economic hardships, the cards of the Gilmore/Puckett collection demonstrate the versatility and perseverance of American artists under tremendous adversity.  Perhaps more importantly, these images supplied novel interpretations of universally cherished notions of community, family, beauty, and hope at a time when Americans often needed them most, during the holidays.

Delaware Silver

Featuring
The Col. Kenneth P. & Regina I. Brown Collection
and loan exhibition
Masters in Our Midst

March 5 – June 29, 2008

The Biggs Museum is proud to celebrate Delaware Silver featuring the permanent installation of the Col. Kenneth P. & Regina I. Brown Collection in the State’s first Delaware Silver Study Center and an exciting masterpiece exhibition, Masters in Our Midst.

The Brown Collection at the Biggs Museum represents over 50 years of collecting and includes nearly 750 pieces of silver made and retailed in the State of Delaware during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Featuring silver costume objects, militaria, table wares, commemorative wares, and tea and coffee services; the Brown Collection is among the finest known for studying Delaware silversmiths.  This Brown Collection is also featured in a fully illustrated catalog.

In addition, the loan exhibition, Masters in Our Midst, brings together some of the most exceptional silver by Delaware smiths from private and public collections across the country.  Masters in Our Midst offers family-friendly interactive displays on important stories about Delaware Silver.

Expressions of Time: Photographing a Solution

April 18, 2008 through June 1, 2008
This exhibition features over two-dozen works of art by nine photographers that describes their interpretations of the passage of time. The participating photographers are members of Art Lane PCG, a small group of area photographers who improve their professional skills by critiquing each other’s work. Their work displayed in this exhibition is unified by answering a single question, “How do you represent the passage of time in a photograph?”
Participating Artists in Expressions of Time:

Stephen Althouse: Relics

Extended through July 14, 2020

After receiving a Fulbright Grant to participate in an artist-in-residency program in Belgium, sculptor and photographer Stephen Althouse began exhibiting his uniquely constructed photographs in museums and galleries internationally. Featuring enormous images captured between 2003 and 2017, this exhibition elevates and transforms antique tools and decorative arts into universal symbols. The monumental scale and spiritualizing compositions of these artworks reference artifacts of the past to illuminate a collective human experience that transcends time.

Lessons: an Exhibition by Billy Colbert

February 7 – March 29, 2020

The Biggs Museum has partnered with University of Delaware Professor of Africana Studies Tiffany Barber to curate an exhibition of recent works by Billy Colbert of the Delaware State University Fine Art Department in conjunction with Dover’s Citywide Black History Celebration.

Colbert’s works are drawn from the theme of this year’s celebration “African American Education Under Segregation.” His exhibition incorporates rare historic video and photographs of black life in the U.S. in the early 20th century alongside artifacts of the separate and unequal educational system on loan from the African American community of Kent County. The artist and museum staff will collect oral histories on this topic during the exhibition to create an original documentary sharing memories of local segregated schools.

Check back frequently – exhibition and event details are updated often!

Emma Plowman’s Moment Becomes Memory

Ripped From the Headlines: Photojournalism in Delaware

November 1, 2019 – January 19, 2020

News publishers are among the nation’s oldest and most revered image makers. The art of photojournalism, especially in local newspapers, is under appreciated in American art museums even though they tell the stories that unify communities. The Biggs Museum is proud to partner with nearly every major news and magazine platform within Delaware to select highlights in local photojournalism form the past 20 years in one group exhibition. In addition, select photos will also be on view from some of Delaware’s premier photojournalists like Gary Emeigh and Kevin Fleming.

Detail of Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural

Lenape Tribe of Delaware Healing Arts Mural

November 1, 2019 – January 19, 2020

A mural-arts project highlighting the Past, Present and Future of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware. This public art project was created through a partnership between Cheyney University professor and painter Marietta Dantonio-Madsen, Cheyney art students and the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware.

Biggs Body: A Juried Competition of Figural Art

September 6 – November 17, 2019

The Biggs Museum is proud to introduce a new juried competition and exhibition concept of art forms featuring human and animal figures. This exhibition showcases 60 exceptional artworks selected from nearly 400 competition submissions in all visual art media including, but not limited to: painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, fiber, installation and video. Selected artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region most successfully interpreted, evoked and responded to the body.

Rebecca Raubacher: Drawings and Paintings

August 2 – October 20, 2019

Rebecca Raubacher’s depictions of human and animal figures emerge over time from a few simple marks layered onto a piece of paper. Without any specific person in mind, she carefully, but almost hypnotically, builds her faces and bodies with cross-hatched lines of a wide range of artistic media. At times, her characters reveal themselves fully formed from within a simple line drawing. At other times, and often much after she started a specific composition, complex personalities appear through veiled skins of layered drawings and paint to demonstrate psychological tensions and universal narratives.

Practically born with a pencil in her hand, Raubacher’s career in art began early with gallery representation in New York but her local celebrity grew as a Kent County gallery owner and advocate of regional talent. She then ran a successful design business developing products with her unique horse portraits for racing fans across the country. Relocating to Lewes, the artist has reinvested herself in painting full-time developing an enormous body of work that radiates the joy of her good fortune and personal accomplishments.

Drawings and Paintings is the first one-woman show of this artist at the Biggs Museum of American Art and is first and foremost a love letter to Raubacher’s unique drawing style. The exhibition and catalog then trace the evolution of the artist’s artistic technique with a deep dive into her recent work.

Detail of Paulo Machado’s Thirteen Sick Snails

Delaware Art Educators Association Exhibition in the Child HELP Gallery

September 6 – October 20, 2019

Featuring artworks created by members of the Delaware Art Educators Association-an affiliate of the National Association serving art teachers across the country.

Spirit Revealed: New Works by Aaron Paskins

May 3 – July 21, 2019

Aaron Paskins is a Dover sculptor who has been building a national and local reputation for imaginative, inspiring African figures and imagery using unexpected materials. The essence of Paskins’ sculptures capture the complexity of various indigenous tribes, executed with imagination and a touch of fantasy. 

ArtLane: Visualizing the Museum

May 3 – July 21, 2019

The Biggs invited the artist critique group exhibition club, ArtLane, to study the museum as a subject of their photographic art works and to each create a distinct series of images that reflect their own artistic points of view. Featured artists include: Elisabeth Bard, Pat Field, Karl Leck, Ray Magnani, Dain Simons, Heather Siple, Beth Trepper, and Rob Tuttle.

Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Award Winners XIX

June 7 – July 21, 2019

Each year, the Biggs Museum of American Art hosts the winning artists of Delaware’s most prestigious fellowship competition in one group exhibition. The Delaware State Arts Council, in cooperation with the Delaware Division of the Arts, selects these fellowship winners from a pool of hundreds of literary, visual and performing artists at all professional levels. They are awarded cash grants, exhibition and performance opportunities and yearlong recognition. The Biggs Museum has partnered with CAMP Rehoboth and Cab Calloway School of the Arts to feature this exhibition in Sussex and New Castle Counties.

Caesar Rodney School District Art Show

May 4 – May 31, 2019

This annual exhibition celebrates the success of student artists in the Caesar Rodney School District. Open to all age levels, skill sets, and media, this show is an exemplary display of the diversity of perspective, experience, and personalities found in the Caesar Rodney community.

Rooted, Revived and Reinvented: Basketry in America

February 1 – April 28, 2019

Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America chronicles a history of American basketry from its origins in Native American, immigrant, and slave communities to its presence within the contemporary fine art world. Baskets convey meaning through the artists’ selection of materials; the techniques they use; and the colors, designs, patterns, and textures they employ. Historical baskets were rooted in local landscapes and shaped by cultural traditions. The rise of the industrial revolution and mass production at the end of the nineteenth century led basket makers to create works for new audiences and markets, including tourists, collectors and fine art museums. Today the story continues. Some contemporary artists seek to maintain and revive traditions practiced for centuries. Others combine age-old techniques with nontraditional materials to generate cultural commentary. Still others challenge viewers’ expectations by experimenting with form, materials, and scale. This exhibition is divided into 5 sections: Cultural Origins, New Basketry, Living Traditions, Basket as Vessel, and Beyond the Basket.

Traveling Africa: Citywide Black History Festival

February 1 – March 24, 2019

As part of Dover’s annual Citywide Black History Celebration, the Biggs Museum will examine the ways that Americans record and relate to Africa through tourism. This group exhibition includes travel photography of memorable moments on the continent, as well as the material culture that tourists in Kent County have collected to commemorate their adventures abroad.

From Nature: The Children’s Book Illustrations of Nancy Carol Willis

October 5, 2018 – January 27, 2019

Like John J. Audubon, Nancy Carol Willis demonstrates a deep feeling for nature based upon a lifetime of close observation, sketching, and painting. From October-January, the Schoonover Illustration Gallery will host 18 illustrations from three of Willis’s award-winning natural science children’s picture books. The books depict North American species in their natural habitats.

An Artist’s Education: William H. McDaniel

December 6, 2018 – January 19, 2019

Delaware is known for producing a great number of successful artists. Exceptional art schools in the area have produced luminaries of American illustration and fine arts. William H. McDaniel demonstrated great promise attending the Wilmington Academy of Art in the late 1920s, but the Great Depression ended his hopes of an art career. Despite his turn in fortunes, his family saved the bulk of his art school projects for nearly 100 years and is sharing this archival look into his early art education for the first time to rediscover this talent that was never fully realized.

Biggs Shot 2018

December 7, 2018 – January 27, 2019

The Biggs Museum of American Art presents Biggs Shot 2018, the fifth juried photography competition and exhibition featuring the work of professional and emerging photographers, working and/or living in the Mid-Atlantic region. The theme for Biggs Shot 2018 is open, and any photographic medium can be submitted for consideration, including film, video and digital formats. Click here for a list photographers and works in the exhibition.

Audubon, Then and Now

August 3 – November 25, 2018

In 1826 at the age of 41, encouraged by his wife, Audubon took his portfolio of 300+ works to England. Today, more than ever his work endures and segments of his work are right here at the Biggs in Dover. This exhibition examines the importance of the artist and naturalist, John James Audubon, through a large exhibition of his earliest works from both the Birds of America and Viviparous Quadropeds publications. This historical analysis will be coupled with the works of contemporary artists influenced by early naturalists and recorded in an exhibition catalog with color reproductions and essays by leading scholars.

Modern opinions of Audubon’s legacy will also be explored with displays of artworks by living artists influenced by this paragon of 19th century naturalist art. Learn More

Rembrandt Etchings: States, Fakes and Restrikes

May 12-July 8, 2018

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-69) was one of the most influential printmakers in the history of art. But how can one be sure that a Rembrandt is truly or wholly by THE Rembrandt? This exhibition examines the problem of authenticating this artist’ etchings. The exhibition includes first state pulls of etchings made during the artist’s lifetime as well as restrike prints made after his death and well into the 20^th century.

Body from Egg, Michael Galmer, Silver and Gold

Monumental: Michael Izrael Galmer, Silversmith

April 6-May 20, 2018

The Biggs Museum of American Art is grateful to highlight its 25th Anniversary Celebration with an exhibition on the famed American silversmith, Michael Izrael Galmer. Born to a Jewish family in Soviet Russia, he immigrated with his wife Galina to New York in 1981. Galmer combined his advanced degrees in engineering with a deep-rooted need to express himself artistically to develop a unique process of molding silver. While Galmer is extremely well known for his commercial products of jewelry, accessories and most notably table wares – some produced for the leading American manufacturers of silver today – this exhibition honors a new and more uniquely expressive direction for the artist. At the same time, this fresh body of works explores the emotional impact and, frankly, surprise of immense scale upon admirers of silver objects.

Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850

May 19 – July 22, 2018

The Biggs Museum will honor the upcoming publication of Delaware Discoveries: Girlhood Embroidery, 1750-1850, the definitive study of Delaware girlhood samplers of the 18th and 19th centuries, with an exhibition of historic needlework. The exhibition will feature approximately 80 antique samplers and other forms of embroidery from all three counties of the state with a special emphasis on debuting the work of little-known schools of needlework instruction; It will also be accompanied by a symposium and catalog.

Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Award Winners XVIII

June 1 – July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 5-7 p.m.

For the past 18 years, the Biggs Museum of American Art has hosted the DDOA Award Winners exhibition. This annual group show features artworks, literature and performances of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows-among the state’s most prestigious honors for artists. The winning Fellows are chosen by the Delaware State Arts Council from well over a hundred competitors. They are awarded cash grants, exhibition opportunities and year-long public recognition. This year, the Biggs Museum is partnering with CAMP Rehoboth and Cab Calloway School of the Arts to also showcase the Award Winners in Sussex and New Castle Counties.

The winning artists featured this year can be found here: https://arts.delaware.gov/iafrecipients/2018_iafs/

This exhibition is 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 Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.

Milton Downing: Moral Assembly

June 1 – July 22, 2018
Opening Reception: Friday, June 1st from 5-7 p.m.

Milton Downing insists he is not an activist, but perhaps a moralist. This assemblage artist gathers pieces of discarded clothing and other found objects into painted compositions that reveal a wide range of human experiences. His subjects, regardless of their backgrounds, are elevated through an expressive use of color and enlivened through the artist’s gestural use of paint. The emotional content of the people depicted are channeled through the forms emerging from the artist’s incorporated materials: a piece of denim influences a posture that dictates the narrative of his figure. From dejected and harassed people on the fringes of society to sports stars at the center of attention, Downing’s images act as a tribute to emotional and physical endurance. His subjects shed light on challenges facing many Americans with depictions of archetypes within its communities.

Monumental: Michael Izrael Galmer, Silversmith

April 6 – May 20, 2018

Opening Reception on Friday, April 6th from 5-7 p.m.

Based in New York, the silversmith Michael Galmer has succeeded in becoming one of the country’s leading craftsmen having designed for Tiffany and Co., Lenox, Gorham and Kirk Stieff. With a unique technique, the artist has developed a wide variety of repousse-decorated jewelry and vessels as well as the renowned Preakness trophy, commemorative silver forms and contemporary sculptures for such distinguished collections as the Jewish Museum of New York.

Tony Burton, Garden of Eden, Acrylic on Canvas

African American History Live

February 2 – April 29, 2018
Opening reception on February 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.
Meet-the-Artist Reception on Thursday, February 15, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

The Biggs Museum will present its first group exhibition of works created by African American artists of Greater Dover and Kent County. Entitled African American History Live, the exhibition is a focal point of the Dover Citywide Black History Celebration taking place in several locations throughout the city during the month of February. The show will feature approximately two dozen artists in a wide variety of media including: painting, video, photography, fiber, sculpture and works on paper. The artists also represent a diversity of professional backgrounds ranging from Delaware State University faculty, to students and from craft artists to second-career painters.

Jeffrey Rubin’s interpretation of Gerry Meekins’ photograph

Performances: the Brandywine Photo Collective

February 2 – April 22, 2018
Opening reception on Feb 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

The iconic photographer Ansel Adams described that every photograph is a “performance” in which light exposure, composition, color and any number of other tiny details can be arranged by the artist to create an original expression. In Performances, nine artist members of the Brandywine Photo Collective will interpret four photographic images through digital manipulation, post processing and creative printing. The exhibition then compares each artist’s evolution of the members’ source imagery.

Aina, Nergaard-Nammack, #1471 Meditation 5, 3 Circles, Acrylic on canvas

My Countries, My Composers: Aina Nergaard-Nammack

February 2 – March 25, 2018
Opening reception on Feb 2, 2018 from 5-7 p.m.

This is the museum’s first one-woman show of the artist Aina Nergaard-Nammack. The exhibition, entitled My Countries, My Composers, explores the artist’s interpretation of musical scores of key classical music composers of the three countries where she has lived: first Spain, then Norway and now the United States. The artist creates large abstract paintings influenced by the sounds and rhythms of her musical selections. Some of the composers she channels within this body of work include: Aaron Copland, Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados and Edward Grieg.
Image caption: Aina, Nergaard-Nammack, #1471 Meditation 5, 3 Circles, Acrylic on canvas

Delaware By Hand Juried Exhibition

November 3-January 21, 2018

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a juried competition of its Delaware By Hand artist membership in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft.

Delaware Watercolor Society Juried Exhibition

November 3-January 21, 2018

In partnership with the Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS), the Biggs Museum will again exhibit watercolor paintings by this group’s best and brightest in a juried competition. Over fifty works will be featured within the Biggs Museum, many will be for sale. The DWS aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits and other activities.

More information

Biggs Exhibition at the Winterthur Antique Show
At 25: Distinguishing the Biggs Museum of American Art

November 10 – 12, 2017

The Biggs Museum is honored to provide the showcase exhibition of the Delaware Antique Show at the Chase Center in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. This exhibition celebrates the museum’s upcoming 25-year anniversary by featuring 25 recent additions to the museum’s permanent collection that epitomize its continued strengths and new directions. The exhibition is on view for all Delaware Antique Show guests and tickets start at $15. For more information, click here.

Christo & Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden Collection

August 4-October 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, August 4 from 5-7 p.m.

This exhibition chronicles the career of husband and wife artistic team, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The exhibition is a large display of the artists’ portfolios; original drawings and sculptures developed to record the major large scale environmental installations and international projects undertaken by Christo and Jeanne-Claude for more than forty years.

More information

DDOA Award Winners XVII

August 4 – October 22, 2017
Artist Reception: August 30, 2017 from 5-7 p.m.

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows. The Fellows are recommended by out-of-state jurors based on the high quality of their artwork and receive Delaware State Arts Council approval. Each year, the Biggs Museum invites the award winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishments in visual and media arts, literature, and music.

Biggs In Bloom

Calendar of a series of weekends – Please note change in format! 

This year’s Biggs in Bloom showcase of artist floral designs influenced by highlights of the Biggs Museum’s permanent collection will be spread out over several installations to build momentum towards the grander presentation in September 2018 celebrating the museum’s 25-year anniversary. Keep up with all the displays of our floral artists within the museum’s galleries year round!

What Inspired You?: Works by Members of the Delaware Art Education Association

August 4 – September 1, 2017

Almost all artists have a vivid memory of what inspired them to pursue the arts. Through a partnership with the Delaware Art Education Association, the Biggs and DAEA have challenged Delaware art educators to create and submit works of art that explore what inspired them to become artists and teachers. The resulting exhibit will be a testament to the innovative forces behind the educators that are inspiring our state’s future creative leaders.

Ansel Adams: Early Works

May 5 – July 30, 2017

This exhibition presents the work of iconic American photographer, Ansel Adams. His work can be viewed as the end of an arc of American art concerned with capturing the “sublime” in the unspoiled Western landscape: a tradition that includes several painters on view within the Biggs Museum including Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole.

Biggs Picture 2017

June 2 – July 23, 2017

Once every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts this juried, regional competition. Artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic states are invited to compete within this unique exhibition featuring a wide variety of landscape concepts in any artistic medium: photography, sculpture, painting, video, installation, etc. The works will be available for purchase.

Junior Docent Exhibit

June 2 – 30, 2017

Throughout the year, students from schools and afterschool programs throughout the state participate in our Junior Docent Program. These students view and study works of art from our collection and then provide tours of the museum to their peers and families. By the conclusion of the school year, students have also created works of art inspired by the collection at the Biggs and these works are showcased in our Child HELP Foundation Gallery. This program is generously supported by the Susan K. Black Foundation, the Delaware Division of the Arts, the Kent County Fund for the Arts and the PNC Foundation.

Clark Fox: Icon Chains

Through February 5, 2017

Known throughout the contemporary art circles of New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles, Clark Fox has been critiquing modern culture with stories of iconic characters, such as George Washington, Chef from the animated South Park and The Planters Company Mr. Peanut, for over forty years. The exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art will focus on some of the enticing and charismatic formal series that Fox has utilized in his art to confront social themes such as racism and corruption.

In conjunction with the Clark Fox: Icon Chains exhibition, art professor at Delaware State University, George Lorio, will exhibit some of his recent and politically charged artworks.

George Lorio: Recent Works

October 7, 2016 – January 22,2017

In conjunction with the Biggs Museum’s exhibition entitled Clark Fox: Icon Chains, the museum has asked local sculptor and outspoken art professor at Delaware State University, George Lorio, to exhibit his some of his recent and politically charged artworks. Using playful found objects and children’s toys, George brings very serious attention to important topics such as climate change, gun violence and challenges to free speech. Lorio’s work will be on view within the museum’s entrance through the New Year.

Award Winners XVI

August 5 – October 23, 2016

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the 2016 Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Each year, the winning Fellows are chosen by the Delaware State Arts Council from over a hundred visual, literary and performing art competitors. The Fellows are awarded cash grants, exhibition opportunities and year-long public recognition. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff at the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.

Biggs Shot 2016

June 3 – September 25, 2016

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a huge competition of the finest photographers from across the Mid-Atlantic States. This year’s contest will be judged by the museum’s new Director, Charles Guerin. The winners will be featured in a group exhibition with the best of show receiving a $1500 purchase prize for the permanent collection.

Maurice Sendak: The Memorial Exhibition – 50 Years, Works, Reasons

July 30 – September 11, 2016

The Biggs Museum is proud to partner with the Dover Public Library to feature the work and biography of one of America’s most beloved children’s authors and illustrators, Maurice Sendak. Know principally for his publication and now a major motion picture, Where the Wild Things Are, this exhibition spans the career and work of this visionary artist.

© Maurice Sendak: All Rights Reserved

Barbara Warden
365: Elements in Time

May 6 – July 24, 2016

In her first one-person exhibition at the Biggs Museum, artist Barbara Warden features the finest examples of her year-long exercise of creating one drawing a day. Leaving all to chance, the artist starts her abstract compositions from a single gesture across the page that begins a unique experience in monochromatic materials.

Illuminating the Word, The Saint John’s Bible

Volume: Letters and Revelation folio: H3hV Chapter and Verse: Rev. 6: 1-17, 7: 1-7 Containing: Text, 1/2 page ill., “Four Horseman” Page: Revelation 6

December 4, 2015 – April 24, 2016

The Biggs Museum of American Art is exceptionally proud to be a rare American host of Illuminating the Word, The Saint John’s Bible. This international exhibition features 70 pages of The Saint John’s Bible, the first monumental hand-illuminated bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in over 500 years. Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, commissioned the enormous art project of an entire hand-painted bible: every word, every illustration, every image, from one of the best-known contemporary scribes and illuminators in the world, Donald Jackson. The artist’s team worked for almost fifteen years to adorn each vellum page of The Saint John’s Bible in the manner that medieval monks created bibles before the invention of the printing press: quill and ink. These inspiring accomplishments will be accompanied by a display of tools, materials and artists’ drafts used in the Bible’s creation along with other examples of historical illuminated books and manuscripts from the collection of Saint John’s University and private collectors. The exhibition will be accompanied by several educational tours, lectures and artist workshops for all skill levels honoring the ancient traditions of book arts. Learn more.

New Discoveries: Michael Robear

Snap, Michael Robear

November 6, 2015 – February 14, 2016

Often, the Biggs Museum’s staff has the good fortune to discover talented artists within this community who have not received enough critical attention. Michael Robear is undeniably one of those artists. Robear began in childhood depicting wildlife and Mid-Atlantic landscapes. From his home in nearby Cecil County, Maryland, Robear grew up admiring, even emulating the members of the illustrious Wyeth family, especially Andrew Wyeth. From high school, he was accepted to the Corcoran School of the Arts where he developed his surreal interpretation on regional landscapes and people with an adventurous application of his preferred medium, watercolor. The artist’s cavalier use of water-based paints is contrasted by the unique frames he forges from metal. A professional metalsmith, Robear has been completing his works within his own sculptural frames for several years, melding his two passions into unforgettable works of art.

Exhibition: Harmony Weavers Guild

March 4 – April 24, 2016

This bi-annual members’ exhibition of the pre-eminent regional weaving association features masterworks of fiber art. The Harmony Weavers Guild emphasizes fellowship, enthusiasm and especially education in weaving for its members. This feature exhibition will be accented with examples of looms and educational programs.

 Youth Art Month: Sculptures of Ourselves

March 4 – March 24, 2016

The Biggs Museum has challenged art educators from across the state to teach their K-12 students about the art form of self-portraiture by creating outdoor sculptures of themselves using found and recycled materials. This submitted works will be on view outside, in front of the museum’s main entrance.

DEMCO, Inc.

October 2 – November 15, 2015

The Biggs Museum is celebrating its new partnership with The Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization (DEMCO, Inc.), with an exhibition, entitled DEMCO, Inc., of student and staff artworks created during their after-school program in downtown Dover. This exhibition will be on view from October 2 – November 15, 2015 in the Child HELP Foundation Gallery on the museum’s first floor.

A portion of this current exhibition features works created within the Substance Abuse Prevention Narratives project. The DEMCO artists and instructors created this series of collages as narratives, a kind of pictorial story, of Abuse Prevention. This project challenges artists such G.L. Shamir, Desiree Wilson and Dr. Linda Hackett to channel the lessons of such noted artists as Vincent Van Gogh, Gustave Courbet, Ben Shan and Jacob Lawrence to create new works that embody the message of Prevention.

The Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization (DEMCO, Inc.) is a Dover non-profit organization offering educational support and counseling in Kent County. DEMCO, Inc. offers classes, workshops and tutoring to learners from kindergarten to adults. This organization specializes in educational topics including: Economics, Mathematics, Humanities, Science, Fine Art, Coping skills, Leadership, Languages, Substance Abuse Prevention, High School Completion, College Preparation Exams and Teacher Certification.

Small Tapestry International 4: Honoring Tradition, Inspiring Innovation

October 2 – November 22, 2015

The American Tapestry Alliance was established in 1982 to unite tapestry weavers and designers in order to promote an awareness and appreciation of contemporary hand-woven tapestries from around the world. This organization promotes speakers, hosts instructors, produces publications, disseminates information and creates juried exhibitions of the finest textiles artists’ works internationally. This year’s competition of Small Tapestry International features small-scale works by over 40 artists. Each of these works were designed and completed by hand by weaving and knotting thousands of threads on a loom to create one cohesive composition. The works were juried by Kevin Wallace, the Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, California. He is a regular contributor to numerous international publications and has guest-curated exhibitions for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Cultural Affairs Department of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles International Airport, and the San Luis Obispo Art Center.

Award Winners XV

July 3-September 27, 2015

Free Admission

Each year, through a partnership with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA), the Biggs Museum hosts the works of Delaware’s award winning Individual Artist Fellows, honoring their combined accomplishments. The Fellows are recommended by out of state jurors and receive Delaware State Arts Council approval. Fellows receive cash awards ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 to advance their artistic careers.

Sixteen Delaware Fellows were selected in 2015 for the high quality of their artwork. These artists reside throughout Delaware, including in Bethel, Dover, Lewes, New Castle, Newark, Rehoboth Beach, and Wilmington. Awards are given in three categories—Emerging Professional, Established Professional, and Masters. Listed below are the DDOA 2015 Individual Artist Fellows.

2015 INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWS
Masters Award
Kimberly Reighley, Wilmington, Music: Solo Recital – Reighley plays baroque and modern flute, is co-artistic director of Mélomanie, plays principal flute with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and OperaDelaware, and has performed with Brandywine Baroque as well as numerous ensembles in Pennsylvania and California.

Established Professional Award
Robert M. Bickey, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Sculpture
Gail Braune Comorat, Lewes, Literature: Poetry
Kevin J. Cope, Newark, Music: Composition
Christopher Nichols, Newark, Music: Solo Recital
Russell Reece, Bethel, Literature: Fiction
Jeffrey Rubin, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Photography
Billie Travalini, Wilmington, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Lance Winn, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting
Emerging Professional Award
Judy Catterton, Rehoboth Beach, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Barbara Gray, Wilmington, Literature: Fiction
Tom Newby, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting (work pictured above)
Britania Redington, Dover, Music: Solo Recital
James Ulry, Dover, Visual Arts: Crafts
Lindsey Warren, Newark, Literature: Poetry
Karoline Wileczek, Newark, Visual Arts: Works on Paper

Emerging Professional Award
Judy Catterton, Rehoboth Beach, Literature: Creative Nonfiction
Barbara Gray, Wilmington, Literature: Fiction
Tom Newby, Wilmington, Visual Arts: Painting (work pictured above)
Britania Redington, Dover, Music: Solo Recital
James Ulry, Dover, Visual Arts: Crafts
Lindsey Warren, Newark, Literature: Poetry
Karoline Wileczek, Newark, Visual Arts: Works on Paper

The Award Winners XV exhibition will be displayed on the second floor of the Biggs Museum. An Artist Award Presentation will take place at the Biggs Museum on Saturday, September 26, 2015 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. This event will be free of charge and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Delaware Watercolor Society

July 3 – September 20, 2015

Admission: $5 (Free for Members, Children Under 12, and on Sundays)

The Biggs Museum will host a juried member’s exhibition of the Delaware Watercolor Society.  As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

An Artist Reception will take place on Friday, August 7, 2015 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. At the reception, the public will have an opportunity to view over 50 Delaware Watercolor Society works, meet the artists and enjoy a concert with two ensemble members of Mélomanie. Admission will be free for the reception. 

Delaware By Hand: Masters 2015

April 3, 2015 – June 14, 2015

Every three years, the Biggs Museum hosts a juried competition of their Delaware By Hand artist membership in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft. The 2015 winning members, as well as their finest submissions, are selected by Brandi P. Clark, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Each winner is represented by at least three works of art in the Delaware By Hand Masters exhibition. These works are eligible for the coveted Museum Purchase Prize of $1500, a special winning allocation also selected by the competition juror, Ms. Clark. The exhibitors have often selected two additional works to represent the scope of their talent and abilities and their works are on view in the museum’s timeline galleries alongside examples of the historic permanent collection of fine and decorative arts.

Additionally the exhibition includes the work of Honorary Master Craftsman, James Coker to honor his lifetime achievement in hand-crafts. Never-before-seen, Mr. Coker’s unique and distinctive needlework compositions are on view in the museum’s second-floor Gallery 14. This exhibition is funded in part by the Edgar Thronson Foundation, the Donald and Martha DeWees Foundation, and the Delaware Division of the Arts.

The following artists will be featured in the upcoming DBH Masterworks Exhibition:

• Arden Bardol
• Peter Saenger
• Robert Schock
• Betsey VonDreele
• Catherine Walls
• Steve Rogers
• Mike Quattrociocchi
• Thomas Frey
• Louise Gatanas
• Michael Krausz
• C. Denise Bendelewski
• Dolores Michels

…and…

• James Coker

William D. White: Vision and Voice Exhibition

March 6 – June 21, 2015

William D. White: Vision and Voice is the first major exhibition and exhibition catalogue of this unique and important regional artist. This exhibition reintroduces the work of Wilmington, Delaware illustrator, muralist and painter William D. White (1896-1971). This artist’s varied and significant career spans some of the country’s most intense moments of the 20th century as well as the final days of the golden age of American illustration. The exhibition and publication will celebrate significant moments in the life of the artist through an examination of over 75 works.

This exhibition will also be accompanied by a symposium entitled William D. White: The Art of Illustration in Delaware and Beyond on March 28, 2015. To learn more about this symposium click here.

Abraham Lincoln: The WSFS Bank Collection of Frank Schoonover Illustrations

March 31, 2015 – May 3, 2015

For over 50 years, WSFS, the oldest bank and trust company headquartered in Delaware, have been the stewards of a fine collection of paintings and drawings by prized Wilmington illustrator, Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972). Many of the works in this collection were originally owned by Helen L. Card and displayed in the Latendorf Bookshop in New York City.

The bank’s images were illustrated for two stories on President Abraham Lincoln: Margarita Spaulding Gerry’s “The Toy Shop”, published in the December 1907 issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine, and Lucy Foster Madison’s Lincoln, published by the Penn Publishing Company in 1928. These ten images will be on view in the Biggs Museum’s first floor to commemorate the Old Dover Days celebration of America’s most popular president.

March for the Arts

March 6, 2015 – March 29, 2015

In support of Youth Art Month, the Museum will host an exhibition of artwork created by Delaware art educators and their students.  Schools from across the state have submitted a series of works in a variety of media.

Carson Zullinger: The Line of Beauty

November 7, 2014 – February 15, 2015

Delaware native, Carson Zullinger, has been exhibiting his figural and landscape fine-art photographs for forty years. Zullinger often subordinates his dynamic and thoroughly modern compositions to emphasize traditionally held forms of beauty. The Line of Beauty helps to trace his accomplishments in the arts while debuting new works created in response to receiving the coveted Master’s level Individual Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of Arts.

You Are the United States

December 5, 2014 – January 11, 2015

Emile Klein, a classically trained portrait painter from the San Francisco Bay area, recently biked across the country to record America from his perspective. Throughout his journey, Emile stopped at the homes of various short-term sponsor families. In exchange for hosting the artist, he would paint the host’s portrait.

The artist’s process of exchanging his art for room and board parallels the early American art scene of ‘limners’ who made their living traveling from town to town. While Emile painted, he also recorded the conversations he had with his subjects creating a powerful and intimate record of his hosts. These recordings and portraits made up the narratives fueling Emile’s not-for-profit organization, You’re U.S., to create a representation of modern Americans by highlighting people’s singular characteristics while searching for the qualities that tie together a nation. Many of the portraits and biographies compiled for You’re U.S. will be on view from December 5, 2014 through January 11, 2015.

Ain’t I a Woman: Lori Crawford and The Sista’s

September 5 – October 26, 2014

Lori Crawford, Associate Professor of Art at Delaware State University, will present works from The Sista’s series on the Biggs Museum’s third floor. Crawford’s series of digital drawings challenges notions of traditional female beauty. Prints of her figural works will be juxtaposed against the museum’s own collection of 19th-century academic artists and early Impressionist painters within the permanent collection galleries 20 and 21.

Award Winners XIV

August 1 – October 19, 2014

For fourteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual exhibition. The exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the DDOA. Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity and provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community.

R³ Factory Exhibition

May 17 – July 20, 2014

With support from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the Biggs Museum is proud to present a series of educational programs that provide valuable information as well as art-related experiences that focus on the importance of recycling. From May 17 through July 20, the Child HELP Foundation Gallery will be transformed into the R³ Factory providing a designated space for recycling-related activities. The R³ Factory will provide visitors with the opportunity to view recycling-themed art installations, participate in a variety of hands-on activities using recycled materials, and view an award winning documentary about a contemporary artist whose art is inspired by the world’s largest landfill. Four artist installations will provide visitors with the opportunity to view four different interpretations of recycling and art and participate in their completion by adding materials available in the R³ Factory. By providing visitors with the opportunity to engage with the installations, we hope to leave a lasting impression about how each individual can make a significant impact on the amount of waste that is disposed of each year. The four artists are:

• Jennifer Boland, Art Educator at Campus Community School
• Lori Crawford, Professor at Delaware State University
• Heidi Lowe, Professional Jewelry Artist
• Mary Pauer, 2014 Delaware Division of the Arts Established Literary Fellow

Visitors to the R³ Factory will be encouraged to vote on the installation that most inspires them to get involved in recycling. Votes will be accepted at the museum, on the Biggs Museum website and on the Biggs Museum’s Facebook page from May 17 to July 20. The winning artist and their installation will be announced on our website and Facebook page on August 1 and featured in the fall Museletter.

We need your help! Please assist us as we gather recyclable materials for use in the R³ Factory. Donations are being accepted at the front desk of the museum to the attention of Beccy Cooper. Please contact Beccy at 674-2111 ext. 101 or bcooper@biggsmuseum.org with any questions. The artists have requested the following materials:

• aluminum soda cans
• six pack soda rings (yoke)
• small water bottles
• egg cartons
• paper towel rolls
• aluminum foil
• fabric scraps
• use light bulbs
• old books (preferably ledger sized)
• magazines

Biggs Picture Exhibition

May 17 – July 20, 2014

The Biggs Museum of American art is proud to again host the third installment of The Biggs Picture, a landscape competition. This exhibition will present art works from all media; such as, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, craft, and video; of competition winners that most successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape”. Depending on size, the exhibition will display between 40 and 60 works. Each work must fit within at least one of these sub-themes:

Perceived Landscape: interpretations of actual spaces at particular times.
Imagined Landscapes: interpretations of spaces from the past, memory, make-believe, and/or the future.
Landscapes of the Mind: interpreting psychological states of being through creations of space.

This exhibition will be supported by a number of educational programs including, but not limited to: curator led tours of the Biggs Museum’s landscape paintings, juror talks, workshops in the Museum’s galleries, “Paint Outs” in Dover’s historic areas, and Biggs Kids programming.Click here to view a full list of artists

Refining the Region: the Landscapes of Bayard T. Berndt

November 1, 2013 – February 23, 2014
Bayard Taylor Berndt was a 20th century Brandywine Valley artist who studied under such recognizable figures as Frank Schoonover, N.C. Wyeth and Gayle Hoskins. Refining the Region: the Landscapes of Bayard T. Berndt is an exhibition of paintings produced over the course of a sixty-year career. American and local history was a passion and often was a subject of his paintings. He was especially enamored with the beauty and heritage of the Brandywine Valley and often focused on his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Some of his most recognizable scenes highlight commerce on the local waterways, industrialization, urban street views and covered bridges.

Celebration of Creativity

November 1 – December 31, 2013
VSA of Delaware provides children and adults with disabilities opportunities to achieve in the performing and visual arts. VSA of Delaware is a unique organization within the state with a sole mission devoted to enhancing the capabilities, confidence and quality of life for individuals with disabilities by providing life-long learning opportunities in the arts. VSA’s artist-in-residence program pairs professional teaching artist with creative individuals with disabilities across the State of Delaware to explore and develop artistic skills in the areas of visual arts, dance, drama and music. The exhibition currently on view at the Biggs Museum, Celebration of Creativity, highlights art produced by the Artist-in-Residence 2012-2013 program cycle.

Delaware Watercolor Society

September 6 – October 27, 2013
The Biggs Museum will host a juried member’s exhibition of the Delaware Watercolor Society. As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

Award Winners XIII

August 2 – October 13, 2013
For thirteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition.

The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.

The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community.

Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.

The Legacy of Currier & Ives: Shaping the American Spirit

July 4 – October 27, 2013
When Nathanial Currier, a young businessman in New York City, published a lithograph in 1835 showing Planters Hotel in New Orleans after a fire, it ushered in a new era of pictorial journalism. The print established the firm which was to achieve its greatest fame as “Currier & Ives” after 1857 when James Merritt Ives became a partner.

Over the next seven decades, the firm consistently provided the public with images that recorded the breaking news of the day. However, as the demand for decorative lithographs increased, Currier & Ives also published prints depicting almost every aspect of American life. Through an ever-expanding repertoire of images, the prints of Currier & Ives celebrated the activities, events and everyday life of nineteenth century Americans. Images included domestic life, historical events, city and country views, religious scenes, scenic wonders, westward expansion, trains, ships, winter scenes and hunting and fishing. Each print was titled and most were hand-colored by women who worked for the firm.

The prints were sold in the New York City shop, distributed through mail-order, and were offered by peddlers and by agents working throughout the United States and Europe. Working with speed and efficiency, Currier & Ives printed two to three images every week for 64 years, and the firm is believed to have produced more than 8,000 different titled lithographic prints.

Many of the images serve to document a wide variety of social trends and attitudes that reflect American culture during the nineteenth century. The Legacy of Currier & Ives allows visitors to experience American history and society through the extraordinary images produced by the legendary firm who called themselves “Printmakers to the People.”

 The Projectionist

March 1 – June 23, 2013

The Projectionist is a documentary, book and multi-media exhibition that explores one man’s lifelong fascination with the golden ago of film and, in particular, the grand movie palace. The exhibition features a fully operational 1920s style movie theater that was created in the basement of Middletown native, Gordon Brinckle. A documentary, created by Kendall Messick, provides a penetrating gaze into the life of this self-taught artist. The narrative follows the course of Brinckle’s life, revealing the profound desire, frustration and motivation that propelled him to create such a distinctive outsider art environment. Original works on paper by Brinkle such as blueprints and floor plans and fine art photographs by Messick of Brinkle operating the theater will also be on view.

The Projectionist press coverage

The News Journal

Article and video: Delaware man’s handcrafted theater returns home for display through June

The Dover Post
Article: ‘The Projectionist’ highlights artistic vision of basement obsession

WDEL
Article and video: Delaware’s last movie palace on display at the Biggs

A Moment in Time: Artist Exchange

January 4, 2013 – February 24, 2013
In conjunction with the museum’s signature Biggs Shot photographyc ompetition, the museum has invited a local artist association to create works based on the photographic notion of capturing a “moment in time.” Artists who specialize in such varied media as ceramics, abstract painting, watercolors, printmaking and textiles will be evaluated for their successful record of an identifiable time period in a group critique that will be filmed, as a documentary and projected during the exhibition.

For a sneak peak view of this exhibition please click here.

Biggs Shot 2012

November 2, 2012 – February 17, 2013
Biggs Shot 2012 will feature submissions to the third juried photography competition of artists living and working in the Greater Delmarva Peninsula. The competition, hosted by the Biggs Museum and juried by Sarah Stolfa, Director of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, is open to all photographers-both amateur and professional. This exhibition will offer visitors a wide view of local talent as well as local artistic perspectives – a showcase on the ways local photographers view this region. The competition is open to artists working in film, digital, and video formats.

Glass Transformed

September 7 – October 28, 2012
Glass Transformed is the first museum presentation within the State of Delaware of the photographic work of Celia Pearson. Based in Annapolis, the artist has traveled as far as Italy to photograph unique sea glass collections. Spanning from still life to abstract studies, the exhibit is presented in forms that vary from framed prints to her more recent fiber installations. Pearson’s work has been published and exhibited widely.

Award Winners XII

July 6, 2012 – October 21, 2012
For twelve years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from over a hundred entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.

Picturing WWI: The American Illustration Collection of the Delaware National Guard

Friday, May 4 through Sunday, June 24
In a time before televisions or even the widespread use of radio, Americans received their news and entertainment from popular magazines and illustrations.  Among Delaware’s most famous illustrators of the early 20th century, Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972) and Gayle Porter Hoskins (1887-1962) painted hundreds of images during their careers to illuminate current articles and popular stories.

These artists were commissioned by one of America’s most popular magazines, The Ladies Home Journal, to illustrate key events and scenes from World War I for thousands of readers.  Picturing WWI features several Hoskins and Schoonover paintings, created between 1917 and 1919, of the experiences of World War I soldiers.  The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see this exceptional collection owned by the Delaware National Guard.

Arts Connect-ED: Campus Community School Exhibition

Monday, March 27 through Sunday, June 24

Celebrate youth talent in the arts by being the first to look at the installment of local school children’s artwork. The featured pieces were created by students of Campus Community School of Dover, DE. Within the exhibition there will be a focus on artwork inspired by Biggs Museum permanent collection objects.

Jewels of the Generations: The Legacy of Loockerman and Bradford Family of Dover

Friday, March 2 through Sunday, June 24

When Dover merchant, Vincent Loockerman, died in 1785 he was probably Dover’s single largest land owner and unrivaled collector of Delaware and Philadelphia-made furniture of the 18th century. For the last 200 years, Vincent’s descendants have lived with the riches of the past while adding treasures from their own times.

The museum’s founder, Sewell C. Biggs, was an avid collector and admirer of the objects accumulated by Vincent Loockerman. In tribute, the Jewels of the Generations exhibition features Loockerman’s material legacy while discussing over 200 years of art collecting by his descendants, the Bradfords.

The jewels that have left the house, and are being borrowed back for this important exhibition, include a wealth of early American clothing, fashionable Victorian jewelry, European and Asian ceramics, American and European silver, important American and European portraits, and Delaware and Philadelphia furniture.

This program is partially funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As the Poet Paints: E. Jean Lanyon

Friday, April 6 through Wednesday, May 23
As the Poet Paints features the literary and visual artworks of the 1979-2001 Delaware Poet Laureate E. Jean Lanyon:“As a Fine Artist I paint what I cannot write, and I write what I cannot paint.”The dual nature of this artist’s personal expression will take form in a comprehensive exhibition of her artistic career in Delaware.

Loving Traditions: The Ann Marcus Valentines Card Collection

Friday, February 3 through Sunday, March 25
Valentines cards have been popularly printed, mailed and received in Europe and America since the 1800s.  Printing innovations of the Industrial Revolution and the professionalization of the U.S. postal service ushered in a large number of card manufacturers.  The design of early Valentines cards drew from popular art forms of the day decorated with the iconic Valentine decorative motifs of flowers, hearts and cupids.Collapsible three-dimensional, or “pop-up” cards, became especially popular with the addition of delicate layers of brightly-colored tissue paper and a sculptural quality that were easily mailed.  The Biggs Museum is pleased to present a large sample of the late 19th- and early 20th-century pop-up Valentine card collection of Ann Marcus.  Mrs. Marcus has been collecting these delicate art forms for over fifteen years and has amassed a collection of hundreds of cards.

Delaware By Hand: Masterworks 2011

Through the Bright Woods, Heather Siple
November 4, 2011 to February 26, 2012
Every two years, Delaware By Hand (DBH) hosts a membership-wide juried competition in order to select individual artists that are deemed masters of their craft. The 2011 artists were selected by Bryan Young; Curator of Easton, Maryland’s Academy Art Museum; and Sally Hansen, retired owner and director of The Glass Gallery in Bethesda, MD, antiques dealer and art collector. Each winner will be represented by three works of art in the Masterworks 2011 exhibition. Their primary exhibition piece is the finest example from which they were judged – their winning artwork. The exhibitors have selected two additional works to represent the scope of their talent and abilities.

Award Winners XI:Exhibition

Open July 1 – October 23, 2011

We Are All Poets by Colette C. Gaiter

The Biggs Museum of American Art will open the summer 2011 exhibition: Award Winners XI on Friday, July 1 with a First Look pARTY from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. on the second floor of the Museum. Be one of the first to preview the works of this year’s Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist fellows. An Awards Ceremony will be held on Saturday, July 9 from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. The public is invited to attend this free program to enjoy refreshments and celebrate the best of Delaware’s art sceneAward Winners XI features the talent of the current Individual Artist fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, writers, sculptors, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff at the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners XI exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene. This annual exhibition is an important project for the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the Museum and art to the community.The Biggs Museum is pleased to once again feature the media and skills of all winning artists. Their work lies in the areas of folk art, musical, literary, visual, and sculptural arts. The following artists are the 2011 DDOA fellowship recipients to be featured in the Award Winners XI exhibition:

Award Winners XI will be on view through October 23, 2011. Along with this exhibition the Biggs Museum will be offering a variety of summer art workshops and demonstrations for adults, some of which are led by the 2011 individual artist fellows. These classes bring professional artists to the Museum to teach about the visual and literary arts.

The Award Winners XI exhibition is partially funded by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts and the Kent County Fund for the Arts.

The Biggs Picture: the 2011 Landscape Competition and Exhibition

March 4 – June 19, 2011

The Biggs Picture exhibition features paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, craft, video and any artistic medium by regional landscape artists. This juried competition asks artist contestants to interpret the theme of “Landscape.” Chosen works successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape” with the finest examples of their media and fit within one of three, landscape sub-themes.

Landscapes of the Mind: Interpreting psychological states of being through creations of space, such as abstraction, installation art and landscape representations with expressionistic and often non-representational compositions.
Constructed Landscapes:Interpretations of spaces from the past, memory, make-believe, and/or the future, such as studio production and interpretations of spaces from past, memory, imagination and for the future.
Perceived Landscape: Interpretations of actual spaces at particular times, such as plein air and landscape representations of actual spaces at particular times.

Types of media that will be represented include painting, video, drawing, sculpture, photography, and craft. The Biggs Picture 2011 competition drew nearly 300 entries from over 100 individual applicants. The 2011 jurors Robert Koenke, Editor-in-Chief of Wildlife Art Magazine and Catherine Drabkin, Delaware College of Art and Design Founding Faculty Member, selected 73 works to be displayed in the exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art. These works successfully interpret the theme of “Landscape” with the finest examples of their media. The Biggs Museum is pleased to announce the winners of the competition.

2011 Biggs Picture Exhibition Artists

2011 Biggs Picture Exhibition Winners

Click on a thumbnail above to enlarge the image.

Campus Community School: Junior Docent Art Exhibition

May 6 – May 29, 2011
Junior Docents from Dover’s Campus Community School will be featured as the final celebration of this year’s program. The Junior Docent program, which was developed to conform to Delaware Visual and Performing Arts standards, allows the Biggs Museum to support art education by collaborating with local educators and their students. This program, offered free-of-charge, provides students with a unique opportunity to learn about the visual arts, apply their knowledge to specific works of art, and present their knowledge to their peers. Over the course of the program, Junior Docents build an art vocabulary, develop communication, critical thinking and research skills, and learn about the cultural history of the Museum’s collection. The overall goal of the program is to develop a long-term relationship between the student and the Museum in an effort to instill a lifelong appreciation for the arts.

Delaware Watercolor Society: Spring Exhibition

May 6 – May 29, 2011

The Biggs Museum will host the Delaware Watercolor Society largest exhibition in 2011, the juried members exhibition. As many as 50 watercolors will be featured within the Museum’s galleries, many will be for sale. The Delaware Watercolor Society (DWS) aims to promote and encourage mutually shared interests in watercolor media among its members and the public. The Society works toward fostering high-quality, professional art and creative contributions to the Delaware community through education events, exhibits, cultural, and other activities.

Art and Poetry

April 1 – May 1, 2011
To commemorate National Poetry Month, the Biggs Museum will host a public reading of some of the region’s most influential poets on Friday, April 1. Each writer has composed an original poem inspired from collections on view within the Biggs Museum’s galleries. Printed versions of the poems will remain on view next to their inspiration artworks through the month of April. These poems will also be available online at biggsmuseum.org

Behind the Blue Doors: Famous Creations from the Rehoboth Art League

November 5, 2010 – February 20, 2011
Behind the Blue Doors: Famous Works from the Rehoboth Art League Collection is the first critical examination of the rarely-seen permanent collection of the Rehoboth Art League (RAL). Founded in the early 1930s, the RAL quickly became a regional hot bed of artistic production and has collected hundreds of art works from area artist masters for the past eighty years. Without a comprehensive catalogue of its important collection or large-scale galleries to display these works, the Rehoboth Art League is partnering with the Biggs Museum to debut its important collection of regional modernism to the public.

The exhibition will feature approximately 60 memorable art works from the RAL permanent collection featuring nearly 50 noted artists. Of special interest are artworks made in the first 40 years of the RAL’s history, a time when Rehoboth Art League instructors like Jack Lewis, Ethel Leach, Orville Peets and Howard Schroeder were coming into local prominence. Behind the Blue Doors will also explore controversies surrounding its long-range plans for growth and for the care of the permanent collection. In a story remarkably similar to Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation, the RAL’s need to conserve and utilize the historic structures on its campus, to expand visitation and to care for its growing permanent collection, is conflicting with zoning regulations of the town that has grown up around the Art League, Henlopen Acres.

“Behind the Blue Doors is a unique collaboration between two arts organizations, each with separate missions and audiences, working towards an achievement of an even greater and universal mission which is to educate and develop awareness of the arts,” states Biggs Museum Director Linda Danko. “It is partnerships like this that will enable arts and culture to grow in Delaware, especially in Kent and Sussex County.”

The Rehoboth Art League, founded by Louise C. Corkran, is a nationally important center of 20th century artistic production within the historic art colony of Rehoboth Beach. Since the late 19th century, artists throughout the eastern seaboard have frequented Rehoboth Beach as an established artist retreat. Other artists’ retreats of national significance include North Carolina’s Penland School; New Hope, Pennsylvania; Provincetown, Massachusetts; Monhegan Island, Maine; and Old Lyme, Connecticut. Like these art destinations, Rehoboth Beach has been a site of artistic instruction for over a hundred years with classes hosted by art groups based throughout the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. Since its opening in the 1930s, the RAL has been a focal point for a community of hundreds artists centered in Sussex County and the State of Delaware.

Behind the Blue Doors tells the early story of the RAL while discussing its significance to America. There are few precious collections of this magnitude that feature art works by Delaware artists inspired by early notions of 20th-century modernism; this is an extremely rare opportunity to see masterpieces by some of the State’s most admired artists. The lives of the artists and their artistic production will help tell the history of the RAL and describe its importance within the cultural life of the region.

Award Winners X and Reunion

July 2 – October 24, 2010
For ten years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.In celebration of the ten anniversary of the annual Award Winners exhibition, the Biggs Museum has invited all of the past individual fellowship recipients to participate in a reunion exhibition of their works. Over thirty artists featured in the Award Winners exhibition in the past ten years will participate in the reunion exhibition alongside the 2010 individual fellows and share their recent work with the public.The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.The Biggs Museum is pleased to once again feature the media and skills of all sixteen 2010 DDOA fellowship recipients. Their work lies in the areas of visual, musical, sculptural, folk art and literary arts.

The following artists are the 2010 DDOA fellowship recipients to be featured in the Award Winners X: Reunion exhibition:Visual Arts
Allison M. Haug, Wilmington
Ashley J. Pigford, Newark
Cybele Clark-Mendes, Newark
Felise Luchansky, Wilmington
Heather Siple, Wilmington
Hunter Clark, Ardencroft
Larry Anderson, Wilmington
Michael Kalmbach, Newark
Nina Spencer, DoverLiterature
Christopher Childers, Middletown
Tery Aine Griffin, Wilmington
L.J. Sysko, Wilmington
Viet Dinh, WilmingtonMusic
Jerry “Crabmeat” Thompson, Middletown
Michael S. Smith, BearReunion Artists

Visions of Dignity

September 15 – October 15, 2010
The Biggs Museum of American Art is partnering, once again, with the Delaware State Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA) to present the exhibition Visions of Dignity, a celebration of Hispanic artists working in the Mid-Atlantic region. The exhibit features the varied artistic points of view from a vibrant local culture. At the same time, Visions of Dignity artists create windows to see into their own cultural origins. Visions of Dignity invited artists to participate who identify as Latin American or U.S. Latino, including those artists from Spanish, Portuguese, French and English speaking countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, living or working in the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. Of all the submissions, forty art works by fourteen artists were selected. The following sculptors, painters, photographers and printmakers were selected by GACHA members, Keyla Rivero-Rodriguez, Eli Ramos and Charito Calvachi-Mateyko, to participate in Visions of Dignity:

Alicia Bonilla-Puig (Landenberg, PA)
Alicia Dominguez (Wilmington, DE)
Magaly Garza (Fairfax, VA)
Masplata (Dover, DE)
Maria de los Angeles Morales (Paoli, PA)
Luis A. Morales (West Chester, PA)
Mara Odette (Buffalo, NY)
Claudia Olivos (Arlington, VA)
Sergio Olivos (Arlington, VA)
Gustavo Rojas (Teaneck, NJ)
Nikki Schiro (New York, NY)
Nicolas F. Shi (Washington, DC)
Miguel Tio (New York, NY)
Raul Villarreal (Verona, NJ)

The exhibition explores the theme of “dignity” through artistic representations of the experience of being Latino in America. The artists chosen for this exhibition have utilized symbols of Hispanic family life, traditions, geographies and other signifiers of Hispanic identity to communicate the stories of their journey through the United States.

To compliment the Visions of Dignity exhibition, GACHA organizers also plan to unveil six paintings by contemporary Hispanic artists from private collections within the State of Delaware, including the Norma Varisco de Garcia Collection as well as works from the collections of Miguel Valazquez and Eli Ramos. These collections are over thirty years in the making and have rarely been seen in public before now. These six works will be on view in the Biggs Museum’s children’s gallery, Sewell’s Studio, for the duration of the Visions of Dignity exhibition.

Please join us at the Biggs Museum of American Art as we kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with the Visions of Dignity public reception on September 15, 2010. This rare opportunity brings together the Museum’s audiences with noted Hispanic artists from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Blue Water/Still Water: American Society of Marine Artists

Open March 5, 2010 – June 20, 2010

“Artists have always found inspiration in the aquatic:
from the vastness of the open ocean,
where clear water rolls on in deep cobalt waves,
to the stillness of shallow watersheds
lit by the song of bullfrogs and Painted Buntings.

As members of the American Society of Marine Artists, we are some of the most ardent of these creative spirits who have followed our hearts and vision, creating beauty as we have seen it in an Aquarian world.

It’s not only the mission of the Society to educate the public to the inherent value of the marine world that surrounds us,
but it is also our greatest pleasure to share these, our most treasured gifts, with you.”

-Michael Killelea
Chairman of ASMA Regional Exhibitions

A must see for anyone who loves the sea. Celebrating America’s rich maritime history as a seafaring nation, this dynamic exhibition brings together over one hundred of the most talented contemporary artists in the marine art field, recognized both nationally and internationally. Quiet shorelines, harbor views, and seascapes featuring tumultuous, roaring seas are presented with luminous light and emotion. A wide array of mediums – oils, water colors, pastels, scratchboard, pencil, sculpture and scrimshaw make this a most rewarding experience for viewers and collectors alike. Founded in 1978, the American Society of Marine Artists’ purpose is to promote marine art and maritime history and to encourage cooperation among artists, historians, marine enthusiasts and others engaged in activities related to marine art and maritime history.

Arts ConnectEd

Open November 6, 2009 – February 21, 2010


Arts ConnectEd features the young talent of students in Delaware schools. The exhibition consists of four month-long installations, each featuring the artwork of a different school in the state of Delaware. Arts ConnectEd reflects the quality and diversity of art education in Delaware schools. The Biggs Museum is dedicated to promoting and supporting the role arts play in youth development. In addition to the four school installations, Arts ConnectEd will also feature Sewell’s Studio, an interactive creativity center, providing young museum visitors the opportunity to create works of art similar to those currently on display. The Biggs Museum is honored to foster this commitment to learning and community. Delaware Schools showcasing in Arts ConnectEd include, Holy Cross Elementary, Campus Community School, William Henry Middle School and Ursuline Academy. Each month-long exhibition will open on the November 2009, December 2009, January 2010, and February 2010 First Friday programs. The Arts ConnectED First Look! pARTies are sponsored by Chick-fil-A of Camden, DE.

The art projects to be displayed from each of the four school participants are as follows:

November 2009: Holy Cross School
Art Instructor: Sharon Benini
Op Art created with colored pencil in the style of Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley.

December 2009: William Henry Middle School
Art Instructor : Valerie Connaghan
Greeting cards decorated with collage by 5th and 6th grade students.

January 2010: Campus Community School
Art Instructor: Jennifer Boland
Recycled art, 3-dimensional gargoyles by 6th and 7th grade students and self-portrait paintings by
1st through 7th grade students.

February 2010: Ursuline Academy
Art Instructor: Erin McNichol
Sculpture along with a hands-on activity center by 7th through 12th grade students.

In addition to the school displays to be featured in Arts ConnectED, the Biggs Museum is proud to present two month-long exhibitions featuring artwork created through VSA (Very Special Arts of Delaware). VSA Arts of Delaware is a state-wide nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing children and adults with disabilities opportunities to participate and achieve in the area of performing and visual arts. This admirable organization develops programs and resources to help people with disabilities develop artistic skills and enhance confidence while promotion access, inclusion and diversity.

Celebration of Creativity,will be on display in Gallery 7 from November 6, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Celebration of Creativity showcases the visual artwork produced by participants in VSA arts of Delaware’s various artist-in-residency projects during the 2008-2009 program cycle. The second VSA exhibition, A View Through My Window, will be on display in Gallery 7 from January 8, 2010 to February 28, 2010. A View Through My Window features a selection of works created through a domestic violence art project that served nearly 75 adults and children in the state of Delaware. This exhibit features canvas windows representing the messages of individuals who have experienced domestic violence first hand. Artwork included in this exhibit was created in shelters & support groups in all three counties of Delaware and poignant works of art by children who have been affected by domestic violence will also be on display. The messages conveyed by the participants make this a powerful and moving experience.

Fusion: American Classics Meet Latin American Art

Open September 15, 2009 – November 15, 2009

In a partnership with the Governor’s Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA), the Biggs Museum will exhibit the works of contemporary Hispanic artists living or working in the State of Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. This exhibition will commemorate the declaration of the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation at the Museum on September 15, 2009. The exhibition will be strategically placed throughout Galleries Two through Seven and the Old Stair Hall Gallery alongside the Museum’s permanent collection of fine and decorative arts of the 18th and early 19th centuries that were made and used within the State of Delaware. The contemporary Hispanic works displayed will symbolically represent the parallel currents of Early-American/Spanish culture alongside the development of the American mainstream. The exhibition will highlight contrasts and continuity between the influences of contemporary Hispanic and early-American fine and decorative arts.

The following artists will be featured in Fusion: American Classics Meets Latin American Art:
Leonor Brazão: Chantilly, VA
Pablo Caviedes: New York, NY
David Camero: Washington, DC
Felisa Federman: Potomac, MD
Iliana Garcia: Brooklyn, NY
Magaly Garza: Fairfax, VA
Magda Korn: Hockessin, DE
Ruben Lopez: Wilmington, DE
Maria Morales: Paoli, PA
Carlos Nuñez: Philadelphia, PA
Mara Odette: Bethesda, MD
Jorge Posada: New York, NY
Gustavo Rojas: Teaneck, NJ
Jeannette Sababa: New York, NY
Luz Salas: Philadelphia, PA
Marta Sanchez: Philadelphia, PA
Nikki Schiro: New York, NY
Nicolas Shi: Washington, DC
Miguel Tio: New York, NY

* Some portions of the Fusion exhibition, contain nudity and are of mature theme and may not be suitable for children.

Please use discretion. If you have further questions, please contact the Administrative Offices or see a Museum Interpreter when visiting the Biggs Museum.

Award Winners

Open July 3, 2009 – October 25, 2009

Award Winners features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). These artists: painters, photographers, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites the Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene.
The Biggs Museum congratulates the 2009 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Fellows:
2009 Masters Fellow
Christiaan Taggart: Music, Solo Recital

Established
Ronald Brignac: Visual Arts, Photography
Nancy Carol Willis: Visual Arts, Works on Paper
Robert Davis: Literature, Creative Nonfiction
Elizabeth Dolan: Literature, Poetry
Eileen Grycky: Music, Solo Recital
Ramona Long: Literature, Fiction
Ronald Longsdorf: Visual Arts, Sculpture

Emerging
Abby Millager: Literature, Poetry
Stephen Ruszkowski: Visual Arts, Painting

Ellen’s Wacky Chair Contest

Open August 5, 2009 – August 31, 2009
The Biggs Museum is proud to serve as a partner alongside the Delaware State Fair, the Boys & Girls Club, WMDT and the Ellen Degeneres Show in the 2009 Ellen’s Wacky Chair Contest. In July 2009, local artists partnered with all ten Delaware Boys and Girls clubs to design and create a “wacky chair” for an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show in September 2009. One Adirondack chair was created by a local artist for each Boys and Girls Club that incorporated the children’s ideas. All ten chairs were on display at the 2009 Delaware State Fair from July 23rd until August 1st. The chairs will be on display throughout the Permanent Collection at the Biggs Museum during the remainder of the month of August. The public is invited to vote for their favorite chair on the Boys & Girls Club web-site (www.bgclubs.org) from July 23rd until August 28th. All voters are encouraged to make a $1 donation on the web-site that will directly benefit Boy and Girls Clubs of Delaware and Maryland and the Biggs Museum. On Monday, August 31st, the winning chair will be announced. The winning artist, and Director of the winning Boys and Girls Club will attend an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show when Ellen will sit in the “Wacky Chair.” One random voter will also be drawn to win two tickets to the Ellen Degeneres Show along with airfare and hotel accommodations.

Wish for the World

Open August, 8, 2009 – August 31, 2009
As we look around our world today, filled with conflicts, environment destruction and human suffering, we all wish for a more peaceful, healthier and happier world. Every member of the community is invited to participate in the Wish for the World exhibition, by visiting the Museum and interpreting his or her wish for the world through art. The creation of the Wish for the World exhibition will take place at the August 2009 First Friday program. Wishes will be hung on trees and displayed during August 2009 inspiring others to think about their wish for the world.

The Sculpture of Light: Volterra, Italy in Delaware

Open April 4, 2009 – June 21, 2009
In a partnership with the Appoquinimink School District and the Volterra, Italy delegation, the Museum is pleased to present The Sculpture of Light: Volterra, Italy in Delaware: an exhibition celebrating the international artist-in-residency program with the Appoquinimink School District as well as the continuing, rich Volterran tradition of alabaster sculptures in Delaware. In early spring 2009, the Appoquinimink School District will host an artist-in-residency program with Volterra, Italy, brining Roberto Chiti, an alabaster sculptor, to teach students in grades 6-12 traditional sculpture techniques. The Sculpture of Light features over 200 works of the program’s participants as well as the work of Roberto Chiti and a selection of historic sculpture recently featured in Volterran exhibition, Scultura Di Luceoneto.

Biggs Shot 2009

March 4, 2009 – June 28, 2009

Biggs Shot 2009 is the second juried photography competition and exhibition featuring the work of new and emerging photographers, working and/or living in the Mid-Atlantic region. The inaugural Biggs Shot competition in 2005 attracted over 130 applicants within the region. Sally Packard and Dinah Reath, owner of the Packard Reath Gallery, Ryan Grover, Biggs Museum Curator, and Catherine Ware, Curator of Photographs from the Philadelphia Museum of Art selected 40 photographs, which were exhibited at the Biggs Museum November 2008 through February 2006. The Biggs Shot 2009: Competition drew 500 works from over 150 individual applicants. Stephen Perloff, editor of The Photo Review and The Photograph Collector, served as the juror of the Biggs Shot 2009 Competition. Perloff selected 80 photographs to be displayed in the Biggs Shot 2009 Exhibition held this spring. The Biggs Shot 2009 Exhibition offers visitors a wide range of local photographers’ works and their perspectives: a glimpse of the creativity and innovation occurring in our region by photographers of all skill levels. Biggs Shot 2009 images are displayed side-by-side, inviting open discussion and comparison. Biggs Shot 2009 supports the Museum’s mission in tracing the evolution of the local scene through exhibition and documentation of works created today. Biggs Shot 2009 marks the first on-line exhibition hosted by the Biggs Museum on its web-site. Biggs Shot 2009: On-Line creates a virtual exhibition experience for members of the public who are unable to visit the Museum during the exhibition. All 80 selected images are available for view in Biggs Shot 2009: On-Line in addition to Q&A sessions with the photographers.

On a Smaller Scale: Dollhouses

Open November 5, 2008 – February 22, 2009

On a Smaller Scale features the recent acquisition of three exceptional dollhouses from the now closed Delaware Toy and Miniature Museum (DTMM), created by Dover resident, Barbara Merrell. These homes were commended by DTMM for their high degree of naturalistic detail within the incredibly small scale of one-half inch to one foot. Ms. Merrell’s homes are half the size of the industry standard for most doll houses at one inch to a foot but Ms. Merrell’s works are literally half the size. In addition, nearly every object furnishing these mini homes: the furniture, the textiles, the household items, were all made from Ms. Merrell’s hands.

Forgotten Dreams:The Paintings of Edward Grant

November 5, 2008 – February 22, 2009

Rehoboth Artist, Edward Grant

The first retrospective of this artist’s work and his incredibly long and distinguished life within the region, both as a prolific painter as well as a successful graphic artist for one of Wilmington’s best-known companies. Edward Grant’s artistic career spanned an astounding seven decades. While so many of his contemporaries moved to the ideal rural setting of the Delmarva Peninsula, Grant grew up, was trained, and practiced his craft within the region. His dedication to the development of the local art scene gave him, in our opinion, a unique perspective on the spaces, customs, and values he observed throughout his entire life. His earliest works exhibit the social realism of the late 20s and 30s, while his war-period works experimented with the contemporary trends of Cubism and Abstraction. He also was a successful graphic artist for one of Wilmington’s best-known and most successful companies, as well as a prolific painter. His later works, after 1968, are among his most highly regarded for their distinctive interpretations of life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Grant’s artistic associations throughout the Delmarva Peninsula were extremely wide; he learned from some of Delaware’s greatest artists, was active in nearly every major arts organization within the state before 1970, was at the center of the Delaware arts communities, and was a life-long art instructor to hundreds of students. Forgotten Dreams will encompass an exhibition of works from the Biggs Museum, the artist’s own collection, and private collections throughout the region, accompanied by the first-ever retrospective publication of this important Delaware artist, which will review Grant’s large body of work in relation to his biography and significant historic moments that impacted the populations of the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Biggs Museum of American Art would like to congratulate the 2008 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellows.

Alida Fish, Seahorse, from the Cabinet of Curiosities series, tintype, 10” x 8”, 2007

Visual Arts
Alida Fish
Robert Bickey
Nancy Breslin
Lori Crawford
Karin Snoots
Chad States
Andrew Wapinski

Literature
Piotr Florczyk
Marry Kennedy
Annette Opalczynski
C. Delia Scarpitti

Music
Mark Hagerty

Media Arts
Paul Hiuchan

*Some portions of the current exhibition, Award Winners VIII, contain nudity and are of mature theme and may not be suitable for children.
Please use discretion. If you have further questions, please contact the Administrative Offices prior to your visit.

Award Winners VIII

July 9, 2008 – October 26, 2008
This exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). These artists: painters, photographers, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by a committee from hundreds of entrees.  In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites the Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment. The Award Winners exhibition will feature the media of all winning artists. In conjunction with this exhibition The Biggs Museum is pleased to hold the 2008 Summer Art Series: a series of workshops led by a selection of the 2008 fellows. Please see upcoming events for information on these workshops.

Award Winners VII

For seven years the Biggs Museum has offered its galleries for the presentation of some of Delaware’s finest visual artists, craftspeople, writers and musicians with the Award Winners series of exhibitions.  The summer celebration offers a home each year for a new group of winners of the prestigious Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships.  Monetary prizes are awarded to Delaware artists in all media whose work demonstrates an excellence above their competitors.  This time-honored exhibition is among one of the best opportunities to experience the Delaware art scene.

Young at Art

Open September 20, 2008 – October 19, 2008

In partnership with the Child HELP Foundation, the Biggs Museum is proud to host Young at Art, an exhibition featuring artwork created by children in Delaware who are supported by the Child HELP Foundation and VSA Arts of Delaware. Child HELP Foundation is a nonprofit charitable community organization created to promote extended health care, special education and social programs to enhance the quality of life, develop and fulfill the potential of children with disabilities. VSA Arts of Delaware is an organization dedicated to providing children and adults with disabilities opportunities to participate and achieve in the area of performing and visual arts.

From Four Studios: First State Modernism

From Four Studios: First State Modernism is the first major exhibition of the State’s Modernist art collection.  The show presents key examples of works by four seminal figures in early 20th – century painting of Delaware: Jack Lewis (b. 1912), Howard Schroeder (1910-1995), Orville Peets (1881-1968) and Ethel Peets (1886-1978).  Over the last ten years, the private studio collections and an assortment of personal possessions of these four professional artists have been gifted to the State’s collection. Each of these artists was professionally trained painters and art instructors in Delaware during the adventurous introduction of European Modernism into the American art scene.   The extensive holdings of each of the four collections include large caches of the artists’ works, works by their artistic contemporaries, art supplies and studio tools, as well as extensive archival materials on the artists’ careers and lives.

The exhibition introduces the work of these four artists, as represented by the State’s extensive collections, within the historical context of the introduction of European Modernism.  These artists’ careers are presented in light of the direct influence of the new ideas of Cubism, Social Realism, and Abstraction on the American art scene.  We will elicit common threads between each of these artists that connected them to exciting external influences of the art centers of New York and Paris during the first half of the 20th century.  This exhibition positions Delaware as a regional recipient of this groundbreaking influence.

Greetings from Delaware

Greetings from Delaware and Other Artist Communities, features over 250 hand-made greeting cards, the majority of the Jann Haynes Gilmore and B. Joyce Puckett collection, by both regional and national professional artists.  The exhibition will be filled with artful greetings manufactured and sent by artists such as, Rockwell Kent, N.C. Wyeth, Blanche Lazell, Ethel Leach, Frank Schoonover and John Sloan.  The display of these cards will be highlighted by many full-scale paintings and fine-art prints by several of the featured artists.

As objects designed and often printed by professional artists, the cards of this collection display poignant and timeless visual messages through expert craftsmanship.  At the same time, these artist-generated cards from Delaware, the mid-Atlantic region and throughout the country offered their admirers a unique view into little-known regions of the American art scene of the first half of the twentieth century.  In a period full of changing social values and economic hardships, the cards of the Gilmore/Puckett collection demonstrate the versatility and perseverance of American artists under tremendous adversity.  Perhaps more importantly, these images supplied novel interpretations of universally cherished notions of community, family, beauty, and hope at a time when Americans often needed them most, during the holidays.

Delaware Silver

Featuring
The Col. Kenneth P. & Regina I. Brown Collection
and loan exhibition
Masters in Our Midst

March 5 – June 29, 2008

The Biggs Museum is proud to celebrate Delaware Silver featuring the permanent installation of the Col. Kenneth P. & Regina I. Brown Collection in the State’s first Delaware Silver Study Center and an exciting masterpiece exhibition, Masters in Our Midst.

The Brown Collection at the Biggs Museum represents over 50 years of collecting and includes nearly 750 pieces of silver made and retailed in the State of Delaware during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Featuring silver costume objects, militaria, table wares, commemorative wares, and tea and coffee services; the Brown Collection is among the finest known for studying Delaware silversmiths.  This Brown Collection is also featured in a fully illustrated catalog.

In addition, the loan exhibition, Masters in Our Midst, brings together some of the most exceptional silver by Delaware smiths from private and public collections across the country.  Masters in Our Midst offers family-friendly interactive displays on important stories about Delaware Silver.

Expressions of Time: Photographing a Solution

April 18, 2008 through June 1, 2008
This exhibition features over two-dozen works of art by nine photographers that describes their interpretations of the passage of time. The participating photographers are members of Art Lane PCG, a small group of area photographers who improve their professional skills by critiquing each other’s work. Their work displayed in this exhibition is unified by answering a single question, “How do you represent the passage of time in a photograph?”
Participating Artists in Expressions of Time: