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Delaware By Hand annual art show comes to Lewes

The annual Delaware by Hand Memorial Day art show returns to Zwaanendael Park in Lewes Saturday.

More than 50 artists ranging in disciplines from pottery to fine art will offer consumers handcrafted arts and crafts.

The artisan group was formed in 2001 and for the past five years has been directed by the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover.

Its curator Ryan Grover says one reason the Biggs absorbed Delaware By Hand is because they believed the artist community would be a strong advocate for the museum.

“So we’ve geared Delaware by Hand to become sort of cultural ambassadors if it were in the retail worlds within Delaware so that individuals know about the things that are being made by hand in their own backyards.”

Since its inception, the annual Memorial Day weekend outdoor art event has come to represent the unofficial kickoff to summer in coastal Delaware.

Grover says the group got started by former Governor Ruth Ann Minner.

"It was a way to initiate and to create an identifiable community of artisans within the state of Delaware so she was really trying to push entrepreneurship,” he says.

The Delaware By Hand outdoor art show runs from 10 am to 4 pm at Zwaanendael Park in Lewes on Saturday.

This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant 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.

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