Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
This page offers all of Delaware Public Media's ongoing coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak and how it is affecting the First State. Check here regularly for the latest new and information.

Arts Playlist: 'Seeing Essential Workers Through A New Lens'

A new exhibition telling the stories of essential workers during a pandemic is coming to the Delaware Art Museum.

 

“Seeing Essential Workers Through A New Lens” opens November 11 and focuses on essential workers in the City of Wilmington. 

 

The project was created by two Delaware Art Museum employees: Iz Balleto,an operation technician, and JaQuanne LeRoy, a teaching artist and curator in residence.

Balleto explains the exhibition’s main message.

 

“That these lives are more than essential - they’re a fabric of our community. In this time (of COVID-19), maybe we could do a little more for our essential workers too. For the fact that we kept going through the pandemic, what could we do to help them too - as much as we helped the      nurses and doctors.” 

Balleto says the initial focus was on first responders like those nurses, doctors and emergency personnel. But he says it quickly became evident that bus drivers, grocery cashiers, farmers, dry cleaners and others are also essential to supporting our communities.

 

And Balleto says as they took pictures they heard essential workers' stories.

 

“I think one of the stories that really stood out to me was the DART bus drivers," said Balleto. "When we showed up - the bus drivers were really thrown off with the fact that we were acknowledging them as community heroes. The joy that they got, the smiles that they got - but at the same time they said thank you. They told us what it was like to pick up people that you don’t know  - strangers -  and take them upon your ride.”

 

The Delaware Art Museum is open every Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with hours extended to 8 p.m. on Thursday.

 

You can view “Seeing Essential Workers Through A New Lens” through mid-March.

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.

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.