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Biggs Museum presents Delaware objects to celebrate America's 250th in yearlong exhibit

Howard Pyle, In the Presence of Washington, 1897.
Biggs Museum of American Art
Howard Pyle, In the Presence of Washington, 1897.

The Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover enters 2026 with a year-long exhibition highlighting 250 years of the First State’s contributions to art and culture.

The exhibition is titled Reflections: 25 Objects for 250 Years of Delaware History, and features selected objects from the Biggs’ collection.

“The goal of the show is basically to spread Delaware-ness. So to highlight artists and makers from Delaware in our collection or who have Delaware connections," says Laura Fravel, the museum’s Sewell C. Biggs Curator of American Art.

Hear DPM's full interview with the Biggs Museum's Laura Fravel

To choose the objects, the Biggs reached out to Delawareans, including a few famous names.

“People like Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker who grew up in Delaware, Aubrey Plaza, actor, producer, writer, who grew up in Delaware and felt very strongly about a landscape from the Brandywine River Valley near where she grew up," Fravel says.

The selected pieces also include landscapes of Cape Henlopen and the Brandywine valley, art by Tom Wilson who created works in Sussex County in the 1980s and 90s.

“Reflections” is on display at the Biggs Museum starting January 2 and running through January 2027.

Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Martin Matheny comes to Delaware Public Media from WUGA in Athens, GA. Over his 12 years there, he served as a classical music host, program director, and the lead reporter on state and local government. In 2022, he took over as WUGA's local host of Morning Edition, where he discovered the joy of waking up very early in the morning.