Delaware Art Museum – Wilmington, Delaware

Delaware Art Museum – Wilmington, Delaware

The museum was begun in 1912 as a tribute to Howard Pyle, the artist that is given credit for ushering in the golden age of American Illustration.  Pyle died in 1911 leaving a legacy of great art and good, influential friends.

In 1935 the family of collector Samuel Bancroft Jr. who was a major collector of British Pre-Raphaelites art and particularly the works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, donated the entire collection of art and manuscripts to the museum.  The family also donated 11 acres of gently rolling countryside near Kentmere Parkway with the provision that a museum be built on the land to house the collection.

The actual Delaware Art Center opened its doors in June of 1938.  Then in time with the addition of generous donations from other people the museum grew as well as the collection of 19^th and 20^th century artwork.  Over 3,000 paintings, prints and drawings we well as countless manuscript material were donated to the museum by Helen Farr Sloan in 1961.

Accreditation from the American Association of Museum in 1972 prompted the change in the name to the Delaware Art Museum.

In 2005 there was another expansion of the museum to include the regions first Sculpture Garden.  The grounds hold 9 works from the Museum’s permanent collection plus on work on loan. 

Stunning the senses is the large site-specific work of art for the window facing Kentmere Parkway done in 18 blown glass forms placed on an open architectural structure by the internationally renowned artist Dale Chihuly.

The museum also has analog and digital technology for slowly changing, shimmering, colored fields of light in the Museum’s three-arched south entrance, the windows of the original 1938 building and the clerestories of the Museum’s East Wing. 

Location: 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, Delaware 19806

Phone: 302-571-9590 or toll free at 866-232-3714

Email: info@delart.org

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10 – 4, Sunday – Noon – 4 and Closed on Monday

Admission Prices: Adults $10; Senior Citizens $8; College Students (with valid ID) $5; Youth $3; Children 6 and under Free

Admission is waived every Sunday thanks to AstraZeneca

Show your Amtrak ticket stub or Amtrak Guest Rewards Card and save 50% off admission everyday.

AAA Members save $1 off your admission.

Directions: from North on I-95 traveling northbound take exit 7 (Delaware Ave.) turn left at the fourth light onto Delaware Ave.  Follow Delaware Ave. to N. Bancroft Pkway.  Turn right onto N. Bancroft, turn left onto Kentmere Pkwy.  The Museum is on the right.

Traveling southbound take exit 7B (Delaware Ave.) turn right at the first light onto Delaware Ave.  Follow Delaware Ave. to N. Bancroft Pkwy.  Turn right onto N. Bancroft, turn left onto Kentmere Pkway.  The Museum is on your right.

Directions form the north on Rte 202: exit at Augustine Cut-off (just before the I-95 exit) and follow it until it ends at Lovering Ave.  Turn right on Lovering Ave. the make a slight right from Lovering Ave onto Kentmere Parkway.  The Museum is on the right.

Directions from the DelawareMemorialBridge: Merge onto I-95 N/US-202 N via the exit on the left toward Wilmington.  Take exit 7 (Delaware Ave.) turn left at the fourth 

light onto Delaware Ave.  Follow Delaware Ave. to N. Bancroft Pkway. Turn  right onto N Bancroft.  Next, turn left onto Kentmere Pkway.  The Museum will be on your right.