State of Delaware Involves Community

More and more we are seeing a number of our venues, like the State of Delaware, taking advantage of social media to not only promote their NAP exhibitions, but to actually involve more people in the experience.  

Prior to the awards reception on March 12th, the Delaware Division of the Arts posted images of all the artwork on their Facebook page and asked the public to choose this year’s “People’s Choice” winner by liking their favorite piece.  The piece with the most likes at the end of the voting period would be announced the winner at their awards reception.  However, this was no easy task, especially with 237 wonderful pieces to choose from.  In the end, Lindsay Mical’s works on paper piece entitled “Maleficent” (pictured) was named the “People’s Choice” with an amazing 515 votes!  

Along with a strong online presence, the show also received a number of visitors to the actual exhibition.  In addition to everyday gallery attendees, several classes from the Delaware State University Art Department along with a K-12 school took tours of the show during the three weeks it was on display at the Art Center / Gallery.  It’s great to see that a NAP exhibition of employee artwork is valued enough by the community that they want to use it as an education tool.

This amazing opportunity wouldn’t even be possible without the hard work of our NAP venue coordinator Kristin Pleasanton, Deputy Director of the Arts and the Delaware Division of the Arts staff.  Organizing and displaying this many pieces from participants across the entire State of Delaware is definitely not an easy task, but Kristin does it with pure professionalism and ease making it an honor for the NAP to present her with an award to mark their fifth year with the program.