3 minute read
Culture in the Culinary Coast™
Southern Delaware Tourism shines a spotlight on arts and entertainment
BY TINA COLEMAN
IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE that Southern Delaware is positively steeped in the arts. For decades, our area’s scenic beauty and laid-back seaside vibe have attracted a large and talented population of artists, artisans, crafters, and performers. This ongoing attraction has ensured that visual and performing arts in Sussex County have grown, flourished, and become a vibrant and absolutely vital part of this community so much over the years that any description of Sussex County without reference to them is fundamentally incomplete.
Southern Delaware towns are brimming with large and small performance venues, from the Freeman Arts Pavilion in Selbyville—an open-air performing arts venue that offers diverse programming and national performing artists— to exceptional community theaters offering plays and performances like Clear Space Theatre in Rehoboth Beach; Possum Point Players in Georgetown; The Second Street Players at the Riverfront Theatre in Milford; Dickens Parlour Theater in Ocean View; and the beautifully renovated and always hopping Milton Theatre.
Our Culinary Coast™ restaurant and bar stages, farmers markets, wineries, town parks, and other venues present talented local and regional musicians and performers. The renowned Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival held every fall since 1990 and the fabulous True Blue Jazz Festival, now in its 11th year, share the Southern Delaware spotlight each October. Seasonal bandstand concerts in Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach captivate audiences.
Visual arts have also long been a key component of the Sussex County arts scene. In fact, the Rehoboth Art League was founded 85 years ago and is still going strong. The artists, artisans, and crafters of Southern Delaware are represented in many local art leagues, galleries and shops, and many open their studios to art-loving visitors and residents during the several studio tours taking place annually throughout the county.
In addition, the Rehoboth Beach Film Society holds multiple themed film festivals every year, culminating in The Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival each November. This year, the festival celebrates its 25th anniversary.
The Southern Delaware events calendar is full of exhibits, art festivals, and craft shows. Local art leagues and guilds and organizations like The Developing Artist Collaboration (DAC) offer visitors and residents hands-on experiences like art classes and project nights.
Visitors can cap their Southern Delaware experiences by taking home one-of-a-kind works of art by local artists who’ve captured their imaginations, or works they’ve created themselves—or both! Either way, the works become treasured visual representations of their experiences of Southern Delaware as well as reminders to return.
Southern Delaware visitors who flock to our sand and surf find themselves, to their delight, knee deep in a multitude of incredibly rich cultural offerings and experiences that make their time here that much more memorable and worthy of repeating.
Whatever your interests may be, there is something for everyone when visiting Southern Delaware.
