DeWitt Godfrey Installed

DeWitt Godfrey’s newest piece ‘Paviljoen’ was successfully installed over a three-day period in the third week of July in 2023. It consists of a circle of ascending bands of rolled Corten steel that gather as an assemblage to celebrate the meeting place or “Paviljoen” from our early Dutch Settlers. It could not have happened without assistance from the Lewes Board of Public works and their generosity of staff and equipment at the install. It also could not have happened without the assistance of the Delaware Division of the Arts their grant and the kindness and confidence of Kristin Pleasanton their deputy director.

Paviljoen will evolve over the seasons as the patina of rusting Corten steel takes over the marks left where the welds holding some braces in place were cut off.  The piece seems paradoxically lighthearted (especially since its all steel). I seem to relate more to its open circles that its rings, but the connectedness of this poetic structure is where the rhythm comes from and what makes it work so well. It dances to a different tune each time the light changes.  When visiting, go not forget to walk inside as instead of bringing things together this central area seems to isolate certain views as you gaze out through the hoops, like the eyeball of a fly, you are the center of various windows. A dozen different vignettes.  Since the piece is constructed of open bands of steel it is very difficult to get a good feeling for if from photos as the bulk of it is open space. I highly recommend you visit it in person to form your own opinions.

The project has been under consideration by the City Arts committee for three years.  Its original budget of $15,000 skyrocketed because of the failure of the City to secure an adequate pad and having the first one ripped up and redone. This also required the artist to take the work back to New York and make a return trip, with crew, costing an additional $4000. The City reported that is spent $8,200 on two concrete projects but this is unclear as the Friends of Canalfront park received a bill for this work also.  So, we have a whopping $27,000 art project on or hands. This was well within our budget when you consider the $5000 grant for the State and the $12,000 dollars the committee had raised privately for just such expenditures.

I urge you to go see it and express your opinions good or bad. That’s the reason we did this.

Dewitt Godfrey ARRIVES. - Installing today at Canalfront Park

And Stalls - Installation of Dewitt Godfrey’s sculpture, slated to take place May 25, has been postponed. Lewes Public Arts Committee officials said the artists’ specifications for the concrete pad were not followed by the contractor and as a result the cement cracked during installation.  

In order to make sure the sculpture is installed safely for visitors and the sculpture itself, PAC officials have postponed the installation date until the defective pad can be replaced.  Installation is now expected by midsummer. The sculpture will remain in Canalfront Park for an extended run.

Additionally, the earlier-reported title “Gathering” is incorrect.  According to the artist, the correct title is “Paviljoen,” which is the Dutch word for pavilion (a nod to Lewes history) and pronounced pa-fo-yoon.  The committee is grateful to the artist and his crew for their willingness to do a take two.

Thanks to the Artists below for a great 2022 season

Vivien Collens

After decades of painting, I began making sculpture in 2015. My three-dimensional work thus far is additive, informed by the ideas of Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of kindergarten. Making sculpture recalls the most joyful parts of my childhood:  creating erector set structures with my father, and floral centerpieces for my mother's parties

I learned to weld in 2017 at a residency at Salem Art Works . Now I work primarily in welded aluminum, which is brushed, painted or powder coated.

     I attempt to imbue my work with the energy which inspires it. In my work I often try to unify my  predilections for the structural geometric and the organic, which I see as a metaphor for  human interaction with the natural world.

The Squirt series sculptures have looped strips of metal (mostly curved elliptically per their natural tendency) projecting fluidly from the hollow square tubes which I have shaped to contain them. Their exuberant trajectory into space reminds me of a geyser or fountain, but also a tree or flower.

By placing my sculpture in the landscape I attempt to punctuate, activate and compliment the space which frames it.

Rose DeSiano

The obelisk, grand, powerful and African in its origin is adorned with regional archival photos, bringing to the surface and celebrating decades of lost histories of the Lewes peoples.

Armillary Empowerment Spheres (in the park Corner)

A monument honoring the many unsung women of Lewes and their contributions, where luminous, reflective, moveable orbit rings represent an evolving narrative rather than a static historical record.

Note The Lewes African American Heritage Commission collaborated to bring the memories of the African American Community back to Lewes.

Featuring Miss Mary Holmes Jones 5th grade teacher Mr. Fred Thomas Educator and Principal, Miss Julia Davis 1st grade teacher all educators who taught during segregation and influence the paths of many in Lewes. Also Mrs Angelia Mumford.aka Angie Ward is featured to represent one of the first students who integrated Lewes Schools. Please stop by the park to see the others monuments and those who are featured! Miss Angie retuned to her roots to check them out !

Angelia Mumford.

The Lewes Black School House is featured

Kitty Perry —- Miss Elizabeth Lib Stewart is featured

Janet Maull-Martin — Daddy Percy Maull is featured

Robert Wingo — Miss Elsie Wingo is featured as well

Trina Brown-Hicks — Beatrice William aka Sugar Bea and Robinson’s Colliseum…aka Happy Day Club featured

Miss Pearl Maull is featured

The Fish Factory is featured

Miss Thelma Morris is featured

The Lewes Nassau Mens Chorus is featured

St. George AME, St Paul UAME, Friendship Baptist, Ushers of St. George.

We had so many pics we probably could fill the entire park if we could, but could select but a few, we are very pleased with impact of this public art exhibit! …….. Trina Brown-Hicks

Letha Wilson

Letha Wilson’s practice is rooted in material experimentation. She is known for her synthesis of mediums, expanding the visual and physical dimensions of photography and sculpture. 

By combining industrial materials such as Corten steel, aluminum, and vinyl with photography, Wilson has developed unique fabrication processes. She prints images depicting the beauty of natural landscapes onto her sculptures, embeds them in the surface of her works, and manipulates them in various unexpected compostions. The sweeping expanse of a desert sunset, grooved rock formations, and verdant palm trees are among images Wilson has taken while travelling in Hawaii, the American West, and Iceland. The natural world is both the subject and content of her work; a metaphor for the role of the landscape in myths of renewal, and possibility. 

Wilson’s site-specific works and public projects convey her ideas on a monumental scale, altering the space around them and offering moments of respite in the urban landscape. The outdoor sculptures engage directly with the elements and nature; as patinas form over time due to weather conditions, the natural world will act as a co-creative force on the appearance of these artworks.

The Lewes Public Arts Commission

Our Mission Statement 

The mission of the Lewes Committee for Public Art is to integrate a wide range of quality art with public spaces in and around the City of Lewes. The Committee shall strive to elevate a sense of energy in the City by encouraging work offered to challenge and stimulate local dialogue.  The committee shall promote visual arts to celebrate and/or frame spaces that are uniquely Lewes. Our mission shall be to raise the profile of Lewes as an arts destination.  The committee sees our responsibility to be to ensure quality in our projects and that nothing offensive becomes part of the City arts landscape. In the future we hope to commission a major piece of art, or perhaps a sculpture garden, that will contribute to Lewes becoming a desirable arts destination.

Our Pledge

For the next five years, the Committee for Public Arts in Lewes will focus on three broad categories of projects that will help ensure that public art plays a visible, leadership role in shaping the city’s future. 

We plan to commission projects of the highest possible artistic merit with support from our communities and city leadership.

To achieve our goals we must focus on education for ourselves, and the community.

We will provide opportunities for us all all the community to learn about the qualities of public art that make it stimulating and effective in creating dialog in the community.

LONG RANGE PLANNING

We will be searching for locations and vistas available now and in the future to weave Art into the daily passages of out population.

PUBLIC COMISSIONS

We will be revising proposals from the public for art projects on City land. We may in the future also search out artists to fulfill certain commissions for the town.

We believe Public Art shall reflect the City’s efforts to build a green, sustainable future.

We believe Public Art shall celebrate the City as a “creative destination.” 

We believe Public Art shall be woven into the City’s civic and community fabric to support our core values.

We believe Public Art shall help build the City’s identity

Our History

We really formed in 2019 with a commitment to educating ourselves and our community. Our meetings all have an educational segment when we actually talk about he merits of certain pieces or experiences we have encountered in the world of public art.

In the Spring of 2019 we went to Philadelphia with a guide from the Philadelphia Art Museum who spoke about Sculptures we encountered on her tour.

In the Fall of 2019 we produced a seminar on Public Art with the aid of artist, Robin Rose and Kristen Pleasanton from the State of Delaware Division of the Arts.

Adapting to Covid, we made history in 2020 with a New Mural Competition won by Kyle Confehr. It is now located along the bike path.

For 2021 we sponsered an installation by Rachel Mica Weiss of Unbounded II in Canalfront Park.

We added Efflorescence by Kate Dodd which was shown in George H P Smith Park all summer.

We culminated the season with a sold out workshop on public art led by Kate Dobbs and landscape designer Rodney Robinson held at the University of Delaware’s Virden Center.

We currently meet at the at the Rollins Center each month. See the Lewes City website for details. Join us or zoom in if you wish.

Rachel Mica Weiss

UNBOUNDED II

The City of Lewes, through the Lewes Public Arts Committee, is proud and pleased to announce an Art exhibition planned for Canalfront Park this summer of 2021 will be an installation of a work by Rachel Mica Weiss. The work is part of the Unbounded series - referencing both the limitlessness of the natural world and our struggle to shape or tame it. This particular iteration is titled Unbounded II.

After much deliberation, this piece was chosen from a list of many potential projects supplied by our curator in New York, Karin Bravin.  Last summer we had the very successful Kyle Confehr mural installation on the bike path which was light and fun. For 2021, we decided to switch gears and present something that is more reflective and contemplative. Our piece Unbound II is more of an introvert that calls out for a bit more meditative interface. 

 From Rachel’s website

 The large-scale site-specific and site-responsive architectural Interventions in the Unbounded series utilize hand-chiseled obsidian rock and hand-dyed rope to create bound yet flowing textile surfaces. The materials used question our assumptions about material characteristics and reference their surroundings: Unbounded echoes the industrial, seafaring history of its immediate site… 

This series highlights the forces shaping us, while simultaneously asking the viewer to question the human impact on the landscape and reconsider the stability of boundaries—whether physical, architectural, or self-created. The work asks viewers to feel a sense of vulnerability when in conversation with the over 6,000 pounds of obsidian that comprises each of these seemingly gravitationally impossible formations.

The Committee believes an object with nautical ropes and stones as found in our jetties will slip naturally into our chosen location.  The piece will appear innocently in the viewer’s landscape, who eventually realizes its quirkiness, and will hopefully want to decipher its clues to find more meanings.  Might it be that ‘Bounded’ (as a theme intended or not) relates to both our current Covid19 existence as well as our struggles to establish a unity in the current political environment. 

Tom Fruin Postponed

Target dates are June 1st through September 1st

The City of Lewes has a very special opportunity to display a sculpture by internationally acclaimed California artist Tom Fruin in our Canalfront Park in Down town Lewes. This will be a temporary exhibition for the summer of 2020.  Watertower 7 is part of Fruin’s recycled Plexiglas and Steel ICON series, which “feature scavenged reclaimed and recycled materials constructed into sculptural tributes to architectural icons around the world.” This piece sits on a pedestal and is a total of 23 feet tall and approximately 10 feet square when installed.

This is an amazing opportunity for the people of Lewes to experience art that is not only is astoundingly beautiful, but also has historical relevance since it reflects on our industrial past. The sculpture is not only the approximates the water tower we have on Schley Avenue, but it also mimics the lens of the Lightship Overfalls, which is located close to where “Watertower 7” will be installed. 

We expect Tom will come to personally supervise the install and be present for a reception at the opening. We are very grateful to our curator and consultant Karin Bravin in New York for creating this connection for us.  

Will You Help ?

This is a City of Lewes project administrated by the Lewes Public Arts Committee. While we have some funding for this project, we are reaching out to our community for financial support to realize this remarkable exhibition. We will receive in kind support from the City and the Lewes Board of Public Works and have received a partial grant from the State of Delaware. But these funds will not offset the cost of mounting the exhibition.  We still need to raise funds locally. 

May we therefore ask you to consider making a donation to this worthwhile project of public art in Lewes?  Donations are tax-deductible and checks should be made out to the City of Lewes with a designation “Public Art Fund” on your check. You can either mail or drop your donation off at City Hall 114 E Third St, Lewes, DE 19958.  You can also contact us through this web site and a member of our committee will be pleased to visit you in person and to retrieve your contribution.

2020 Exhibition Ideas

Hopefully, the Lewes Public Arts Comittee will be able to produce a temporary exhibit for the summer of 2020. Our work has begun, however it will be a race to gather support, permissions and funding in time. These are just some idea starters provided by our New York consultant Karin Bravin showing the kinds of things we might bring to add some thoughtful fun to Lewes.

For more information about Karin visit her site