The Delaware Arts Festival will be held this year on May 18-19. This is an annual family event with top-of-the-line artists selling their art, as well as lots of food and entertainment. The funds raised will provide student scholarships.
The Delaware Arts Festival Scholarship Program is open to Delaware County high school seniors studying in visual arts programs. Students use their scholarship to help pay their tuition after being accepted into a visual arts program at a college, university or technical school. All high school arts teachers in Delaware County have received information and applications for their interested students.
Scholarship applicants will provide a current scholastic transcript, a personal statement about themselves, their artwork, a resume and two letters of recommendation.
Tom Stenger, festival scholarship director, said, “We need to consider how the students developed their concepts and style, how they acquired their knowledge of art techniques and then applied them to their areas of interest.”
Judging of the applicants will include two professional artists, a former scholarship winner, the Ohio Wesleyan University chair of the Fine Arts Department and two board members. Each student’s portfolio will be submitted with 10 works of art for judging, which is photo documented for the board’s records.
This year, the Delaware Arts Festival increased the scholarship awards by $5,000 for a total of $25,000. Scholarship amounts are $10,000 for first place, $8,200 for second place and $6,800 for third place. The scholarships are payable over a four-year period with proof of enrollment.
The scholarship winners will have their awards presented at the Arts Festival, center stage in front of Delaware City Hall, by Judge David A Hejmanowski of the Delaware Probate/Juvenile Court. The winning artists’ work are then displayed at the downtown Delaware County Library.
The application deadline is Saturday, Feb. 24. Contact Tom Stenger at [email protected].
The first Delaware Arts Festival was on Mother’s Day weekend in 1973, and at that time was not a scholarship program.
According to festival committee member Linda Shearer, the first scholarship award was presented to Susan Wise in 1983 in the amount of $200. In 2014, scholarships totaled $12,500 and increased to $15,000 in 2016. In 2017, the scholarships increased to $20,000.
“I think the reason the festival has survived for 51 years is because it continues to change and evolve to meet the needs and interests of the community,” Shearer said.
Submitted by the Delaware Arts Festival.
