Two Organizations to Call The Grand Home This Season

This post content courtesy of a press release from The Grand Opera House...

 In front of The Grand. Pictured clockwise, top left:
Melissa Bernard, actor & Fearless Improv member;
Grace Tarves, actor; Jana Savini, Fearless Improv Director;
Kerry Kristine McElrone, CTC Interim Artistic Director;
Joe Trainor, CTC Music Director. Photo by Joe del Tufo.

Mark Fields, Executive Director of The Grand, is pleased to announce the addition of two new resident companies to The Grand’s roster of artistic partners in the building. Effective immediately, City Theater Company (CTC) and The Rock Orchestra (TRO) will perform their mainstage seasons at The Grand at 818 North Market Street.

“The non-profit Grand Opera House is a shared asset that we manage on behalf of the residents and citizens that we serve,” says Fields. “Having The Grand now be the artistic home for these organizations gives us the opportunity to more fully connect to the community and share the joy of the performing arts with more members of that community.”

"The Grand Opera House has been the heart of the performing arts scene in Wilmington for as long as I can remember," says The Rock Orchestra co-founder, Matt Urban, "Having TRO present our shows in partnership with this treasured community organization is an incredible opportunity." Co-founder Joe Trainor concurs, "Not only is it an honor to perform in these spaces, but it allows us the flexibility to develop our productions into 'must-see' events and make them available to a wider audience."

"As we head into our 25th year of programming, and my first as Interim Artistic Director, I am excited for the possibilities ahead for City Theater Company as we move to a resident space within The Grand,” says Kerry Kristine McElrone, CTC’s Interim Artistic Director. “The Grand is a community built on relationships, and I'm thrilled to be renewing ours so that our patrons can continue to remain an integral part of the art we do. Our brand of up-close-and-personal theater will be well-served in Studio One, where we can create worlds that immerse our audiences in the emotion and the action right alongside our actors.”

Resident companies are local or regional performing arts groups that make The Grand their primary artistic home, sharing their art on The Grand’s stages and collaborating on marketing initiatives and other projects. City Theater Company and The Rock Orchestra join the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, First State Ballet Theatre, and Opera Delaware are all resident companies of The Grand.

“The Grand is all about partnerships,” says Fields. “We partner intensely throughout each season with numerous arts organizations, individual artists, and other types of business to advance our own mission and benefit the entire community. Our resident companies are even more in-depth partners since we share these stages and this wonderful building.”

Patrons can purchase tickets to upcoming performances of The Rock Orchestra, City Theater Company, First State Ballet Theatre and The Grand’s own music, variety, comedy and Broadway seasons:

Online at TheGrandWilmington.org • 302.652.5577 • 818 North Market Street, Wilmington.

DCAD Launching Dual-Enrollment Program at Cab Calloway

DCAD instructor Aki Torii Sare will teach
the first dual-credit courses DCAD is offering
at Cab Calloway School of the Arts this fall.

Entering college with a few credits already earned is a big advantage for today’s students, saving them money on higher education expenses and helping them graduate with their associate’s or bachelor’s degrees on time or even early. Opportunities for students to bank credits often come through dual-enrollment agreements between their high schools and local colleges and focus on basic courses that serve as the foundation of their degree programs.

Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) and Cab Calloway School of the Arts are teaming up with instructor Aki Torii Sare to provide Cab’s visual arts students with an early start on their art and design degrees. Beginning this fall, DCAD will send instructors and curricula to Cab to offer “Figure Drawing” and “Animation I” that will count toward both a high school diploma and a college degree. Students also will produce relevant drawings and animations for their college application portfolios and have the opportunity to be mentored by a college instructor.

Cab Calloway is a public middle and high school for students in the performing and visual arts that boasts a graduation rate of 100%. Also located in Wilmington, the Red Clay Consolidated School District magnet school combines traditional academics with concentrations in dance, digital media and communication arts, instrumental music, piano, strings, technical theatre, theatre arts, visual arts and vocal music to lead to a State of Delaware High School Diploma.

DCAD, the Mid-Atlantic’s only two-year professional art and design college, is accredited by both the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It offers associate of fine arts degree programs in animation, fine arts, graphic design, illustration and photography on its downtown Wilmington campus.

DCAD Dean Katy Ro noted that the development of this collaboration exemplifies DCAD’s mission and commitment to cultivating partnerships with local art and design entities. She also said the program will help make students more college-minded while helping them prepare for the academic rigors of college via previously unavailable instruction and experience. Cab Calloway Dean Julie Rumschlag agreed.

“This program gives our students an opportunity for coursework that our school typically does not offer,” Rumschlag said. “Dual-enrollment will provide both breadth and depth to our arts curriculum at Cab Calloway.”

Many students who have graduated from Cab Calloway over the last 20 years have gone on to earn associate of fine arts degrees from DCAD. These include Katlyn Cofrancisco, who earned a diploma from Cab, an associate’s degree from DCAD and a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to continuing to make pottery, she also has worked as one of DCAD’s admissions counselors.

“Giving high school students access to college-level studio classes truly benefits and enriches their learning experience,” Cofrancisco said. “DCAD sees a need to encourage and provide access for students who are talented and dedicated so they may get on an accelerated path to becoming artists and designers, and I believe this program with Cab Calloway will be the beginning of what DCAD hopes to achieve with other schools in the Tri-State area.”

Cofrancisco said moving from the close-knit creative community she experienced at Cab Calloway to the atmosphere at DCAD was a comfortable progression. Both offer a similar environment of support and inspiration.

“As I look back on my transition from high school to college,” she said, “the impact of being encouraged to take risks, learn to be a creative problem-solver and encourage my peers made me a more well-rounded artist.”

See www.dcad.edu. 

DCAD & Terrance Vann Present ‘Local + Famous’ Artists

Wilmington artist Terrance Vann.

This post content courtesy of a press release from Delaware College of Art & Design...

Painter, illustrator and muralist Terrance Vann is guest-curating an exhibition of more than 50 pieces of contemporary and accessible street art by more than two dozen artists of note, both locally and beyond, for Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) in August. Local + Famous: A Celebration of Homegrown Talent will fill DCAD’s Toni & Stuart B. Young Gallery from August 3 to 19.

Vann (also known by his Instagram handle @Terranceism) will co-host the show with fellow Wilmington artist Alim Smith (known as @yesterdaynite on Instagram). Smith is best known for his iconic “Memes” exhibition, which went viral online and attracted national press attention. Together Vann and Smith are known as The Color Brothers, and the works they’re bringing to DCAD promise to be vibrant.

“This show will challenge the traditional formation of how an exhibition looks, nodding to the popular fairs produced in Miami and New York,” says DCAD gallery and events manager Kelicia Pitts. “It will showcase some of the many homegrown and hidden talents in Wilmington.”

An example of this will be Vann’s own vividly colorful work, which Pitts has long admired and says “aims to portray the surreal world of our imaginations.” Vann received a 2017 Delaware Division of the Arts Emerging Artists Fellowship and has exhibited pieces nationwide. He is thrilled to have been asked to curate such a show at DCAD.

“Talent in this area is just as powerful,” says Vann, who considers Local + Famous to be a pop-up art fair. “It deserves to be showcased in this contemporary way.”

Among the artists exhibiting alongside Vann and Smith will be Shanina Dionna, who was a winner in Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean’s international “The Dean Collection 20 St(art)ups” or TDC20 competition. Joining their work will be pieces from the area’s veterans of the art world, including Rick Rockroth, Eunice LaFate, K.O. Simms and many more. Local galleries and tattoo shops also will be represented.

Local + Famous will open with a reception from 5:00 to 10:00pm on Friday, August 3, in conjunction with Art Loop Wilmington. Van Gogh Vodka, liquor sponsor for the event, will be 10:00am to 6:00pm Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 10:00am to 7:00pm Wednesdays; and 10:00am to 4:00pm Saturdays and Sundays.

For a full list of Local + Famous artists or for other information about the exhibition, contact DCAD communications director Susan Coulby at 302.622.8000 (office), 302.983.5710 (cell) or scoulby@dcad.edu.