What To Do: The spookiest weekend of the year

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times  Halloween events have been taking place for more than a month – all leading to this weekend…and beyond. Not all of the spirits that came back for Halloween have gone back to their homes in the netherworld. There is still a reason to hang around for a little longer. November 1 is a special day in Mexico and in Mexican American communities throughout...

What To do: Valentine’s is over, but wine and chocolate are forever

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times  This is always the deadest time of year for activities and special events. Winter arrived in December. Now, all the holidays — Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, Dia de los Reyes, Valentine’s Day, Carnival and Mardi Gras — are in the rear-view mirror. And winter, which is bleaker this year than most, is still here. Fortunately,...

What To Do: Museums among a few options reopening

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times The Barnes Foundation COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed and area attractions are beginning to re-open. If there are attractions that you wish to visit, it would be a wise move to do it as soon as possible. Other areas of the country are seeing spikes in reported cases of the coronavirus – mainly because ignorant people have been refusing to...

What To Do: As area opens, a few more options for outings

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times Car Concert: The Big Takeover As we head into July, many of the restrictions caused by COVID-19 have been removed or at least relaxed – just as the pandemic’s numbers are starting to surge in the wrong direction. Still, you people who have been waiting to get out for months can now get out. You can break the chains and finally get “out and go.” You...

Mixed Media: A loss in the local arts world

By Caroline Roosevelt, Columnist, The Times This weeks’ column starts on a more somber note. Fred Carspecken, co-founder and owner of Carspecken-Scott Gallery in Wilmington, passed suddenly in his home last week after struggling with an illness over the last few years. Carspecken held a reputation as a successful art dealer – expanding on his early talents and marketing art to the professional...

Mixed Media: A trifecta of Civil Rights art shows

By Caroline Roosevelt, Columnist, The Times Black Survival Guide Last week, I went on a field trip to the Delaware Art Museum for their beautiful trifecta show on Civil Rights. The shows, Black Survival Guide: Or How To Live Through A Police Riot, Danny Lyon: Memories of The Southern Civil Rights Movement, and The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Drawings by Harvey Dinnerstein and Burton Silverman, are an important...

Mixed Media: Summer winds down with a handful of local visual arts events

By Caroline Roosevelt, Columnist, The Times Summer is coming to a close, Labor Day is upon us, and soon enough we’ll have to ban white from our wardrobe as we prepare for fall. Is that a thing? It was a sort of seasonal etiquette that I grew up hearing and now choose to completely ignore. As we near the end of August, a few shows have opened this week. Delaware Art Museum has debuted the next in...

Mixed Media: A lot to look forward to in June

By Caroline Roosevelt, Columnist, The Times I hope everyone enjoyed the Chester County Open Studio Tour last weekend. It’s so fun to see artists and art appreciators alike come together in the more intimate studio setting; for artists to have the opportunity to showcase their process, and for art appreciators to take in the unique headspace and physical work space of their favorite local artists....

Art Watch: Start your holidays at the Brandywine River Museum

By Lele Galer, Columnist, The Times The best place to start this holiday season is at The Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford. The whole museum is tastefully decorated for the holidays with fresh wreaths and a holiday train that runs throughout the museum on 2000 feet of track. Thursdays are particularly enchanting during the Winter, with the museum and café open until 9pm, one can experience...

Art Watch: Creating a real ‘Rubber Soul’

Local artist repurposes old rubber tires into beautiful sculpture By Lele Galer, Columnist, The Times After viewing the stunning show “Reconstructed Elements” at The Delaware Art Museum, I was fascinated to learn more about the local sculptor Helen Mason, who created the fluid, beautiful, black rubber abstract sculptures for this show. Each of the artists in “Reconstructed Elements”...