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.
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.
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.
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 of the continent using unexpected materials.
Check back frequently – exhibition and event details are updated often!