In celebration of National Arts & Humanities Month, on Oct. 8, 2024, Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long’s monthly All-Hands Arts Call invited Michele Anstine, Executive Director of Delaware Humanities, to discuss the intersection of arts and humanities and highlight the work of her organization. Jessica Ball, Director of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) and Neil Kirschling and Jordan Resh of the Delaware Arts Alliance (DAA) provided additional opportunities to celebrate Arts & Humanities throughout October.  

 

Resources/Calls to Action: 

  1. Register for Spring DE Humanities Grants – Applications open until Nov. 21st
  2. Poetry Out Loud – Registration open until Oct. 20th
  3. Make a Plan to Vote! – View and share the Delaware State Voter Factsheet
  4. CREATE Plan Talking Points to Use with Elected Officials
  5. CREATE Toolkit – Social media posts, email copy, and other resources to help spread the news about CREATE.

 

More information from speakers: 

Michele Anstine, Delaware Humanities 

  • Delaware Humanities is Delaware’s state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and provides services and resources to organizations for humanities-based projects and events in Delaware. Their mission: we work to strengthen our communities by connecting Delawareans through the diversity of human experiences. 
  • “The arts are the expression of human creativity. The arts are inventive and aesthetic. The humanities are the reflection on the human experience. They contextualize and examine. The arts can be a tool in the humanities when they are used to help us understand a human experience.” 
  • DE Humanities provides funding to organizations for programming that helps Delawareans of all ages explore what it means to be human. This includes Prime-Time Family Reading, encouraging reading, discussion, and critical thinking for kids and their families and Community Conversations, an opportunity to engage with issues and listen respectfully to different viewpoints.  
    • Examples of grants also include lectures, digitization of records, symposiums, expanding conversations about local exhibits, and other projects that focus on contextualization, rather than making/performing art. 
    • Grant Manager: hsiers@dehumanities.org   
  • Connect & Converse: an annual event hosted by DE Humanities in which a speaker helps facilitate dialogue among attendees. Members of the arts community may be interested in partnering for this event.  
  • Note: DE Humanities funding is only available to non-profit organizations. For profit organizations may partner with non-profits to apply for funding, but both organizations must offer equal partnership (not just fiscal).  
  • Additional Calls to Action: 

 

Jessica Ball, Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) 

  • The Delaware Writers Retreat will take place at the Vernon Center soon and accepted applicants have an opportunity to learn from experts in prose and poetry.  
  • 2025 Individual Artists Fellows are expected to be announced in late December, noting a record number of applicants (200) in recent history.  
  • 2024 Artists Exhibition is open now through Oct. 31 at Cab Calloway School of the Arts – a showcase of 2024 Artist Fellowship winners, including visual artists, writers, musicians, and more.  
  • The Green Room, a professional development series for musicians, will have its first webinar Oct. 28. Contact Roxanne Stanulis if interested. 
  • DDOA has partnered with Southern Methodist University Data Arts to start a new data collection process with General Operating Support (GOS) grantees, which will help evaluate the overall health of the sector and allow DDOA to advocate internally to provide resources as needed/identified, as well as allowing the DAA to advocate externally. A survey will be shared around November 1st and will be completed before the March 1st grant deadline.  

 

Neil Kirschling & Jordan Resh, Delaware Arts Alliance (DAA) 

  •  Delaware State Voter Factsheet – Download the Delaware State Voter Factsheet, produced by Americans for the Arts, for information about voter eligibility, registration, and how to cast your vote.  
    • The deadline to register to vote is Sat. Oct. 12. Early voting starts Fri. Oct. 25 and continues to Sun. Nov. 3, before election day Tues. Nov. 5.  
    • You may vote in person at any early voting site in your county of residence during this 10 day early voting period. View locations and times at elections.delaware.gov 
    • Consider Early Voting to ensure your vote is counted this election cycle. To avoid unexpected delays or changes in your plan, it is important to plan early and plan to share your plan with others, to hold yourself accountable and encourage others to do so too. 
    • Help bring the importance of the creative economy to the front of the conversation with this one-pager with talking points to use with elected officials. 
    • The one-pager pairs facts from the CREATE plan with follow up questions that can encourage elected officials to discuss and consider the role of the creative economy in various sectors, such as education and tourism.  
  • CREATE Toolkit – Social media posts, email copy, and other resources to help spread the news about CREATE. DAA CREATE Plan Toolkit 
    • Help build momentum for the CREATE plan with this media toolkit. Here you will find pictures and language you can use for social media, newsletters, or other forms of engagement 
  • Everyone is encouraged to have a piece of ownership in helping bring this plan to life, and utilizing this toolkit, the talking points, and casting your vote. In doing so, you help to demonstrate the importance our community places on the arts and culture sector.   

 

The meeting ended with attendees sharing information about upcoming events for their organizations. View more information about these events, and more at DelawareScene.com!  

Categories: Advocacy, Creative Economy