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Schwartz Center for the Arts launches "rebirth"

Delaware Public Media

Dover’s Schwartz Center for the Arts is pledging to bring more national acts and community involvement to its downtown Dover performance space.

The 600-person theater will host a 7-show concert series to launch what Schwartz Executive Director Sydney Artz says is a new beginning or “rebirth” of the former Opera House.Grammy winners The Rebirth Brass Band kicks off the series Thursday night.  The New Orleans institution evolved from playing in the streets of the French Quarter to headlining festivals and appearing on the HBO series, Treme.

Arzt says the Schwartz needs to be recognized as a cultural anchor in downtown Dover and to that end, the center’s rebirth initiative will start with a free New Orleans inspired parade.

“We have some of the brass from the Del State band, the drumline from Del Tech and of course Rebirth themselves but joining that are people; just people who know how to celebrate, dance, wear their beads and have one joyful celebration.”

The Rebirth Brass Band plays the Schwartz Center for the Arts tomorrow night (Thursday). The parade steps off in front of the theatre at 5pm.

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.