Division helped create exhibit on African American faith experiences in Delaware
EXHIBIT CLOSED on June 14, 2014
From Sept. 27, 2013 to June 14, 2014, the exhibit “Forging Faith, Building Freedom: African American Faith Experiences in Delaware, 1800-1980” was on display at the Delaware History Museum in Wilmington. The exhibit honored the faith experiences of Delaware’s Black community and its contributions to the development of religion in the United States including a commemoration of the bicentennial of the African Union Methodist tradition and the August Quarterly, the nation’s oldest African-American religious festival.
“Forging Faith, Building Freedom: African American Faith Experiences in Delaware, 1800-1980” was created through a partnership between the curatorial staff of the Delaware Historical Society, which researched and wrote the exhibit narrative and organized loans of exhibited objects; and the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs’ Collections, Affiliates, Research and Exhibits (CARE) Team which designed, fabricated and installed the exhibit.
The partnership with the Delaware Historical Society is one of several in which the division has participated in recent years. These partnerships have had great success in creating new opportunities for the agency to serve the public in communities where it has not previously had a presence. Partnerships help fulfill the division’s mission by shining a spotlight on Delaware history, enhancing leisure and educational opportunities for the state’s residents, stimulating tourist visitation leading to economic growth and job creation and expanding public awareness of the importance of preserving and protecting Delaware’s historical and cultural legacy.
Recent division partnerships have resulted in exhibits and displays at the Bethel, Laurel and Seaford historical societies; the Lewes and New Castle historical societies, the Rehoboth Art League and Dover’s Schwartz Center for the Arts, the Rehoboth Beach Museum and the Smyrna Rest Stop and Delaware Welcome Center Travel Plaza.