With pandemic restrictions lifted, venues like the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover are ramping back up. And this summer, the Biggs is offering plenty of reasons to visit.
In addition to its events and exhibits, the Biggs is working to create a more robust experience.
And in this week’s Arts Playlist, Biggs curator Ryan Grover joins Delaware Public Media’s Kelli Steele to explain their efforts and some of the summer programs they’re offering.
The Biggs Museum of American Art in downtown Dover is welcoming visitors back this summer.
In an effort to add to the vistor experience, the Biggs Museum has launched a series of QR codes designed to give additional insight into items on display.
Biggs curator Ryan Grover explains that the codes are partially a product of last year’s pandemic.
“We wanted to be able to be open and we wanted people to feel that they could come in and sort of walk around at their own pace," said Grover. "But then we also wanted them to also feel like they could have this personalized, kind of interactive experience with the museum as well - because we were working with a skeleton staff and we didn’t want to put anyone in the room with you. But we wanted the room to be there and be even more informative than it was otherwise.”
Grover says four different QR-code tours allow guests to use their smartphone to access facts, follow scavenger hunters and listen to audio recordings.
The museum is also featuring two exhibitions this summer - Winslow Homer from Poetry to Fiction. It highlights Homer’s early work produced in New York’s Hudson River Valley, and is accompanied by never-before-exhibited period photographs of his subjects.
The other exhibition is Engraved Works and Inventing Illustration: Illuminating Vintage Children’s Literature & Other Stories. It focuses on Wilmington-based artist Frank E. Schoonover, tracing his design steps from preparatory photographs, drawings and sketches for illustrations to the final paintings and book covers he created for best-selling children’s literature.
Grover says Comic Con also returns to Dover this year after the pandemic sidelined the event last summer.
“It’s going to take place August 14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s going to be right here in front of the (Biggs) Museum - sort of between the Museum and the Library, down Loockerman Street and across Federal Street again," said Grover. "It’s promising to be just as big as ever. I believe the largest crowd that we’ve attracted so far was over 10,000 people. At one point it was the largest free Comic Con in the country.”
Grover says for those not familiar, Comic Con is a celebration of all things comic related, with costumes, storylines and narrative.
The museum renews its partnership with the Dover Public Library for a series of free “Read and Make” events every Thursday until August 12 with a 'Tales and Tails' theme. Participants will gather at the Biggs for a book reading about different animals, followed by a short tour to learn about what artwork has inspired the story and a hands-on art project.
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.
