Is there a pint-sized Picasso in our midst? This month’s First Friday theme is the always-popular “March for Art.”
Artwork from all ages of students in Delaware City Schools will be on view at 25 downtown Delaware businesses from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. Those businesses will also serve as temporary galleries for the artwork until the end of the month.
Whose artwork is where? That’s the fun part — attendees can get a list of the businesses displaying the art at the Main Street Delaware office, 20 E. Winter St., but they will have to search some of the stores before discovering the masterpieces.
“It’s a little bit of a hunt for them, the method to our madness,” said Frances Jo Hamilton, executive director of Main Street Delaware, the nonprofit organization which puts on the monthly events. “This year, we have about 200 pieces of artwork. It’s a great partnership between the Delaware city school system and Main Street.”
If a student somehow can’t find his/her art, Hamilton said she’s kept a master list of where each work is displayed.
“The last thing we want is for anybody to be frustrated,” Hamilton said. “The families that really seem to enjoy it are ones that do hunt around for the artwork, and they do have the whole month to find it. On social media, I see parents posting pictures of their kids once they find the artwork, or there are merchants who take a picture and post it on their pages.”
Hamilton said this was the eighth March for Art event. The March First Friday is sponsored by Button Up.
The students will also get a button that says they are one of the artists.
“They’re so excited. They just think it’s fantastic that their artwork is downtown,” Hamilton said. “The teachers kind of make a big deal out of it, give them a letter of recognition that their artwork has been chosen to be downtown.”
Although Hamilton was happy to be distributing the art for the monthly First Friday, she said she was saddened by the death of William C. “Bill” Stroud on Feb. 27. Stroud was co-owner of the Brown Jug Restaurant from 1977 to 2008. His online obituary at www.robinsonfuneralhomeinc.com said Stroud “was a member of Celebrate Delaware and its successor Main Street Delaware, serving as its founding president.” Stroud was 72. The family requested donations be made in lieu of flowers to St. Mary School or Main Street Delaware.
