Shakira Hunt: An Artist’s Journey

Written by Live Love Delaware on June 20, 2022. Posted in Working in Delaware.

Shakira Hunt: An Artist’s Journey

The Artist’s Way

Delaware artist Shakira Hunt has found a way to turn creativity into a career in her home state.

As a child, Shakira Hunt didn’t waiver when someone asked her what she wanted for Christmas. “I was always asking for art supply kits,” she recalls. “I wanted to be expressive in some creative form.

The budding artist longed to put her indelible imprint on a project, and change was welcomed, not feared. Perhaps that is because she watched her mother continually rearrange household items and furniture to improve a room’s aesthetic. “It rubbed off on me, and I grew more curious as I got older, which led me to explore design on a professional level,” Hunt says.

Today, she owns Shakira Hunt Creative Studio, which offers digital imagery, videography and creative direction — as well as interior design. Her specialty is branding for Black women entrepreneurs, but she also pursues personal projects, such as the series “Give Me My Flowers,” which examines masculinity.

In many respects, the exhibition is the sum of her creative experiences. Hunt’s path to entrepreneurism is part planning, part talent and part serendipity.

Following the Muse

Hunt spent most of her childhood in the city of Wilmington but moved to Newark in middle school. She studied technical drawing at Delcastle Technical High School in Wilmington, which was as close as she could get to a design curriculum. At Delaware Technical and Community College, she took more architectural and civil engineering classes.

While watching a TV show about a Pratt Institute student, Hunt realized that art school was a possibility. She wasted no time learning more. “I Googled art schools near me, and the first one that came up was the Delaware College of Art and Design,” she says. “It was within reach; it was easy to get to, and it was small enough that I could explore art deeply.”

After graduating from the two-year program, she continued her education at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia. A three-month internship turned into a year with the promise of a job. When the position fell through, Hunt was back in Delaware.

Back in her home state, she secured a position with an architectural firm. The only female designer, she participated in the company’s rebranding, before moving into health care work, which wasn’t a good fit.

“I had to go back to childhood again and ask myself what excited me,” she says. “It was art. It was creativity.”

Behind the Lens

Hunt began exploring photography while listening to podcasts about people with the courage to leave 9-to-5 jobs to pursue a passion. She wanted to use photography to illustrate a brand and a culture. Webinars and YouTube provided an education, and she studied the work of other creatives and photographers.

With Shakira Hunt Creative Studio, Hunt found the happy intersection of design and photography. “I love both. There’s so much of a crossover,” she says. For her photographs, she often creates sets, which is exemplified by the “Give Me My Flowers” series.

She started the project in the early days of the pandemic when she longed to go outside. “It turned into an entire body of work, and I was granted an exhibition to support that work,” she says.

The series explores the juxtaposition of masculine and feminine energy in Black men. For her first shot, she recreated a set on a basketball court with crushed paper and household items. Her subject was a masculine man who was comfortable showing vulnerability. It made her realize that she’d had relationships with men who were the opposite; they were emotionally unavailable.

Two subjects photographed in London are LGTBQ men from the Caribbean, where there is a stigma about being gay, particularly if you are Black. Most of the models were open to direction, but she met resistance when she photographed her “hyper-masculine” family members.

The solo exhibit at The Delaware Contemporary is an example of collaboration in the art community. A creative with a streak of common sense, Hunt quickly learned who was who in Delaware’s art-and-design space, which is easy to do given the state’s size. “I want to expand and be better, and I want someone to learn and benefit from my skill and experience,” she concludes.

Delaware’s location has let her easily travel to different environs for work and inspiration. But, says Hunt, “I’m grateful that I can do that and come back to the place that I know and feel close and connected to.”

Raye Jones Avery: Vocalist, Educator and Arts Advocate

Written by Live Love Delaware on June 15, 2022. Posted in Delaware Ambassadors, Working in Delaware.

EducationAn Advocate for the Arts

Wilmington resident Raye Jones Avery is a dynamic creator who sparks change.

As a child, Raye Jones Avery was interested in the arts. And no wonder. Avery was one of six children, and her mother, an educator, encouraged them to amuse themselves with creative play. “We did a lot of singing and came up with our own choreography,” recalls Avery, whose family moved from Philadelphia to Wilmington when she was 6.

Today, the arts are a career and a passion for Avery, who still lives in the city. Her business,
High Intensity Productions, focuses on content for cultural programming. She does not lack experience. For nearly 30 years, Avery was the executive director of the Christina Cultural Arts Center in Wilmington. She’s been a curator, educator, activist and mentor. She’s also a recording artist.

And she’s seen the arts flourish in her hometown.

An Artist with a Cause

Avery’s family moved to Delaware for work. Her father, Valley Rice, spent the bulk of his career teaching mathematics at Bancroft Junior High School. Her mother, Lillian, an early educator, also worked in city schools.

Between teaching and tending to the family, the couple was busy. What’s more, two of Avery’s siblings were born with a genetic disorder. “They were severely ill, and I became a caretaker at a very young age,” says Avery, the second-oldest child.

The family lived in an East Wilmington community full of residents with an entrepreneurial spirit. Her father, for one, took plumbing and furnace jobs on the side. But he always found time for books. “He was a voracious reader,” Avery says. “I got my appetite for literature from him.”

Indeed, the book buff studied English literature at the University of Delaware and earned an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree in English and sociology. She began her career in education advocacy at the Parent Resource Center led by Councilman Jea P. Street, Sr.

She also worked for Planned Parenthood and earned a master’s in health services administration from West Chester University. Working at the United Way of Delaware offered a broader perspective of the area’s nonprofit world for Avery, who led the first statewide needs assessment.

However, she never lost her love for the arts. The mother of two took dance and music classes at the Christina Cultural Arts Center. When a leadership position opened, she expressed her interest.

A Collaborative Community

Avery was with the nonprofit cultural arts organization for so long that many people think she founded it. But, in fact, the Women’s Club of Trinity Episcopal Church started the group in 1945 to provide activities for immigrant Polish and Swedish families.

In 1969, led by visual artist educator Percy Ricks, CCAC became a community-based arts center emphasizing African American cultural heritage. The organization purchased and renovated a Market Street building in 1993, and today, thousands benefit from CCAC’s services each year.

In 2001, Avery helped start the Kuumba Academy Charter School, which serves children from kindergarten through eighth grade. The school, created through a partnership with CCAC, unites the arts, academics, technology and families. The academy has received national acclaim, including a congratulatory 20th-anniversary message from Raymond Lewis, a former NFL player with the Baltimore Ravens.

Programs at CCAC, Kuumba Academy and other organizations have helped boost the arts in Wilmington, Avery says. “We have some great arts organizations — when people come here from other places; they say it’s remarkable.”

Artists are storytellers, she says. They build social cohesion and are economic drivers in a community. She’s encouraged by the support for local artists from larger entities, such as the Delaware Art Museum, The Delaware Contemporary and City Theater Company. In addition, Avery encourages more support for The Creative Vision Factory, a drop-in center for residents with behavioral health needs.

In 2021, the Delaware Art Museum commissioned Dara Stevens Meredith to choreograph “a bold new work,” “The Bridge of our Roots,” which explores the lived conditions of African American women, Avery says.

The film presentation was recorded in front of “Southern Souvenir No. II,” a powerful painting by Eldzier Cortor.

“Supporters encouraged a live presentation of the moving dance suite,” says Avery, who handled audience development and fundraising for the project. The dancers performed in front of sold-out crowds at the Delaware Theatre Company and the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia.

Next, Avery hopes to raise funds so Meredith and multigenerational dancers can tour Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). But first, Avery says, she will join Meredith for her 40th birthday in Egypt this summer, a gift from Kuumba Academy founders.

Catalyst for Change

From Avery’s Quaker Hill neighborhood, she can walk to many arts venues, including the Delaware Contemporary and the Delaware Theatre Company on the Wilmington Riverfront.

She currently volunteers on year-round programming related to one of the city’s most popular events, the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival. The annual concert series honors the virtuoso Wilmington-born jazz trumpeter who died at age 25 in a car accident. The recent year-round concerts have been in-person and virtual.

Avery has also been on the road. At the suggestion of friend and collaborator E. Shawn Qaissaunee, a Wilmington jazz artist, she applied for and received the Robert Johnson Endowment Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst, VA. Her project combines creative fictional writing with a companion CD.

The artist has already recorded two CDs, primarily in the jazz genre, which include rearranged standards and originals that merge the spoken word with music. Expect more. Avery is taking piano lessons at CCAC with Stacey Harcum to help her compose.

No doubt, Raye Jones Avery will achieve her goals — with a little bit of help from her creative friends and community. The best thing about Delaware, she says, is the “deep camaraderie and kinship.”

Arreon Harley-Emerson promoting Delaware arts

Harley-Emerson Furthers Equity and Justice Through Delaware Arts

Written by Live Love Delaware on March 12, 2022. Posted in Working in Delaware.

Choir School of Delaware’s Arreon Harley-Emerson Forges Strong Connections and Furthers Equity and Justice Through the Arts

Of all the things Arreon Harley-Emerson gets to do, the thing he most loves is teaching.

“It’s a relationship,” says Harley-Emerson, the director of music and operations for the Choir School of Delaware, who also serves as the Delaware Arts Alliance board secretary and chairs its Advancement Committee. “I love seeing people ‘get’ it. Witnessing it is amazing. I love breaking things down, and teaching hits all the boxes. I love teaching music because it allows me to talk about equity and justice.”

Harley-Emerson authored a newspaper column in 2020 that featured the hashtag #PhilanthropySoWhite that discussed a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in a sector dedicated to social impact.

“When I wrote it, I feel I already had the respect of my colleagues and the philanthropy sector,” he says. “It seemed to be a wake-up call for people who want to be better but don’t know how. I think it served as a reminder that you can support organizations financially, but that donors also need to be accountable to looking through the lens of equity and justice.”

Harley-Emerson says he’s known from an early age that he had the power of change.

“At Goucher College, I was part of instituting the first-ever gender-neutral housing,” he says. “What I learned is if you are credible, hard-working, intelligent and committed, you can make change and be forceful and be heard.”

Harley-Emerson considers himself “lucky” that he gets to do the things he loves.

“I am, by training, a musician and love the choral arts because it wraps up history, culture, music, poetry and all that,” he says. “I grew up a choral geek, but I also had a strong sense that you have to do what is right. People often ask that you look at justice over mercy. My view is that we could focus less on being merciful if we were more just. The freedom and liberation you get from the arts is what an equitable society should and would feel like.”

Impact of the Delaware Arts

While Harley-Emerson would love to see the state invest even more in the arts, he does give “high marks” to how supportive Secretary of State Jeff Bullock, Deputy Secretary Kristopher Knight and New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer have been of the arts sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They’re making a real effort. They truly understand the impact of the arts and the intentionality of arts education,” he says.

Enjoying the Benefits of Living in Delaware

Harley-Emerson loves Delaware because it’s small. “You can forge strong connections with each other,” he says. “It can be tough elsewhere to get meetings or make an impact.”

But he also talks about the benefits of living in downtown Wilmington, which he says has an unusually robust arts sector – with many venues and organizations located near one another. Delaware also has Winterthur and the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover.

“I go to Christ Church in Christiana Hundred for inspiration,” he says. “I love walking the labyrinth and listening to the magnificent organ – it’s a great place to get ‘unstuck.’ I got married there in 2018 and then had the reception at the Delaware Historical Society.”

In fact, Harley-Emerson says his wedding was a great opportunity to bring family and friends up from his hometown of Baltimore to see the place he had raved about for years.

A few questions with Arreon Harley-Emerson:

* What’s the pebble in your shoe – that thing that tends to derail you? There are never enough hours in the day. My brain works like an iPhone with lots of applications always open. That means I can take a lot of things in, but the downside is that you’re never really turned off so it can be difficult to get everything done.

* What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? “No” means “not yet,” from former [Delaware Supreme Court] Chief Justice Norman Veasey, when I first came to the Choir School.

* Tell me some books that you’re recommending. Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer; Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy; Simon Sinek’s Start With Why; and Management in 10 Words by Terry Leahy.

* What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? Let the little things go. Don’t get fixated on the things that don’t matter.

* Do you have a favorite failure? I have not had a major professional failure, but I have learned from the small ones. You really don’t have to touch the stove to know that it’s hot. I’ve had many, many small failures. If you follow up on those and ask why you won’t have huge monumental ones.

* When you feel overwhelmed, get distracted or lose your focus, what do you do? I get cranky if I don’t do my morning workouts. My husband is such a clear, rational thinker, and I tend to be bold and want to push the envelope. When I stress about how to get to that big goal, he’s amazing at breaking things down and telling me it’s going to be OK.”

Dennis Beach

Written by Live Love Delaware on October 30, 2021. Posted in Delaware Ambassadors.

Visual Artist

Dennis Beach loves Delaware

Dennis Beach

Dennis Beach is a man who balances intention with flow.

A respected visual artist, usually combining sculpture and painting — Beach is influenced by simplicity and essence. “My work involves processes that transform materials, quite often plywood and paint, into objects that combine the beauty and order that I mine from our natural world.”

Even if you don’t may not recognize his name, you’ve likely noticed some of Beach’s work. He has a permanent piece in the Delaware Art Museum called “Drift #19,” a rippling yellow and orange wooden piece that hangs just outside the gift shop. The new Comcast building in Philadelphia is also a permanent home for Beach’s “Curve #10,” a substantial series of wooden parentheses that evokes a tropical forest.

Beach was born in the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but moved a lot, with his father working for the government when he was a kid. It’s not hard to see the influence of his time in the Eastern Shore in the wavelike twists often found in his work. Beach later moved to Baltimore for his BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art and created a studio there. “I didn’t realize until I was about 30 that I was capable of doing things artistically and wanted to do things artistically,” Beach says. “I rented a two-car garage where I set up a studio. I think that’s the key for a large number of artists, having a space of their own to work in,” Beach said.

It was at an art show in Baltimore in 2002 where Beach met Delaware artist Toni Vandegrift. The two hit it off and Beach ended up moving to Delaware. “Sometimes you just have to listen to the signs. I kept my Baltimore job for the first sixth months, just taking Amtrak back and forth. I was doing metal and woodworking in a fabrication shop in Baltimore called Gutierrez Studios, which is still there.” Beach considers his time there to have been an integral part of his education.

The move to Delaware created a clear path forward for Beach. After arriving, he found studio space at dramatically more affordable rates than the larger cities. He received his MFA from the University of Delaware in 2005, and quickly thereafter began to craft a style that would become the seed for the work he is doing today.

Early on, Beach was influenced by the work of Anna Truitt, a minimalist artist who combined wood-working with painting in a very elemental way. “My early sculptures were clearly influenced by Anna. She also lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for some time. Originally I was drawn to the artwork, and then I realized there was a connection. Sometimes I think that maybe everything I do is an Ann Truitt sculpture or some variation.”

In developing his own organic and balanced style, Beach was intentional. “If you keep working, and are true to yourself, ‘you’ will come out.” By building upon each piece and questioning how it could be done better, he has refined his style into something that uniquely combines beauty and order. “I am often accused of using a lot of math, but I don’t. The repetition makes it look more formulaic. A lot of my work is just a series of circles. It’s not really a lot of math.”

Recently Beach has been working on some projects out of NextFab (a popular maker’s space) in Wilmington, using techniques he learned taking an Adobe Illustrator course at Delaware College of Art and Design.

The balance of running a studio and working on multiple projects at once had its challenges. Beach finds that sometimes the work dictates itself as it evolves and shifts as it’s being created. He tries to create a daily routine for each day, “Ideas often come to me in the shower. I am not a morning person so I typically get into the studio around 11 a.m. and then work until nine or so. But nothing comes with directions.”

Beach has expanded his Newport-based studio twice since taking it over. “I have a number of assistants who help with what we do here. We call this artwork but the stress can often be on the ‘work’ part of that. There is lots of sanding, shaping and cutting. There are a lot of bases and shapes that can often require having to make 120 [versions] of something. That is where having assistants is very helpful.”

Music has always been an important influence and can always be heard in his studio. For fun, Beach likes to enjoy live concerts in Wilmington, usually at the Queen, 1984, or Oddity Bar.

“Music is also an influence, it’s important to all humans. Live music in particular. What I am striving for in my artwork is a feeling, not just a visual appearance. It was something I would get at a live concert — that collection of sound, lights, emotion affecting you in different ways. I strive to create visual excitement that can be calm or kinetic. But obviously less immediate.”

Recently Beach has been using techniques he learned taking an Adobe Illustrator course at Delaware College of Art and Design. “These techniques are a fairly recent addition for me, specifically the laser and the shopbot to help create my art. But it has really helped my process.”

Looking forward, Beach hopes to attract new collectors and have even more permanent installations. He has more projects in his mind than time to complete them.

“I don’t see artist’s block happening to me in my lifetime. I will die with things that I want to do.”

Country Star Jimmie Allen Says His Success Is Delaware Made

Written by Live Love Delaware on September 27, 2021. Posted in Delaware Ambassadors, Working in Delaware.

Country Music Star Jimmie Allen Says His Success Is Delaware Made

September 27, 2021 –

While many small businesses closed their doors in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, country music star and Delaware native Jimmie Allen was opening doors and contributing to the First State’s economy.

During his keynote speech at the 2021 Millennial Summit, Allen explained how he employed more than 50 people by delving into the transportation business.

“I know nothing about dump trucks,” Allen admitted. “But we got six dump trucks and hired people that drive them.”

Allen’s companies Sussex Septic, Role On Transportation, and Del Made gave people jobs when there were few to be found. The multi-platinum performer said these new investments are part of his plan to build an “empire.”

“The empire I’m trying to create isn’t just for me,” Allen said. “It’s to create jobs for family, for friends, and for other people.”

Allen, who grew up in Milton, Del., broke into the country music scene in 2018. That year, his singles “Best Shot” and “Make Me Want To” both hit #1 on the Billboard Country Music Airplay chart and went platinum. Since then, his duet “This Is Us” with Noah Cyrus has gone gold and he’s released “Freedom Was a Highway” with Brad Paisley – the video for which shows Allen wearing Del Made logos.

In 2021, he won New Male Artist of the Year at the American Country Music Awards – the first Black solo performer to win this award. He also created and headlined the Bettie James Fest concert event in Milton, published a children’s book called “My Voice is a Trumpet” and joined Season 30 of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

“For me, it’s about expanding,” Allen said. “The reason why you expand is because, if your foundation is narrow, once you get to a certain height, it tips over.”

He explained that the wider the foundation, the higher up he can go.

“If you expand your foundation, you have no choice but to go up,” he said.

Allen went to Delaware State University and later the University of Delaware to get a “degree in people.”

“I knew I wanted to be an entertainer, so I needed to understand how different types of people move,” he said.

Once he got that “degree,” he told his family he was moving to Nashville.

“They said, ‘When?’ I said, ‘Tomorrow,’” Allen recalled. “So, I packed up my little Chevy Malibu and went to Walmart and bought an air mattress. I had $21 in my bank account.”

That’s when his journey began.

After stopping at random locations along the way where he could use computers to search for living quarters, he found a trailer on 18 acres he could rent, but the electricity wasn’t turned on.

“I had no money to turn it on,” he said. But he quickly realized that he didn’t need electricity because he would only be there to sleep.

After living there for a while, the owner decided to sell the trailer for $300. Unfortunately, Allen couldn’t afford to purchase it, so he moved into his car.

“The car situation really wasn’t that bad,” Allen said. “That’s just ‘right now.’ I never really worried about ‘right now.’ To me it’s all about where you want to go and the sacrifice you gotta make to get there.”

Allen was working at a gym where he could wash his clothes, exercise, and meet people.

“I worked in a snack bar, so I borrowed food to eat,” he laughed. “I started networking. I met Christian artists, country artists, and started spending time talking to them at the gym.”

He began learning the difference between business and networking, talent and drive.

“Talent is 10 percent of what you want to get out of life,” he said. “The other 90 percent is being able to withstand the word ‘no.’”

Through this experience, he developed the philosophy of never staying at a job longer than six months.

“What happens is, if you’re at a job for six months and you’re financially comfortable, and you can take care of yourself and your family, you feel like that’s it, that you’ve made it,” Allen said. “To me, making it is the internal success, and internal success comes from what makes you completely happy. If you’re making $100 a month or $1 million a month, it doesn’t matter, as long as you’re happy.”

He never wanted to settle for being comfortable while chasing his dream. He wanted to reach his goals on his own terms.

“One consistent thing over my journey – and if you talk to anyone who is successful – it’s following your own path,” he said. “Do what makes you happy no matter what the circumstances.”

He focused on his goal and never gave up.

“Life has obstacles all the time,” Allen said. “But it’s not about the obstacles, it’s how you’re going to get through it, around it or over it.”

Allen auditioned for “America’s Got Talent” and appeared briefly on Season 10 of “American Idol,” but didn’t get his big breakthrough on either show. Finally, in 2016 – nearly 10 years after he arrived in Nashville – he was invited to a Writer’s Round. Allen explained there were three songwriters on the stage, and each one performed songs they had written either for themselves or someone else. Participating was an easy decision to make after hearing the perks.

“I found out they were going to pay me $200,” he said, “and I got a free meal.”

When the session concluded, Ash Bowers — co-founder of Wide Open Music — approached Allen.

“He said, ‘Who are you signed to?’” Allen recalled. “I said, ‘Nobody.’”

Bowers explained he was the owner of a small publishing company, but offered to introduce Allen to anyone in town he wanted to meet.

“I said, ‘Tell me more about you,’” Allen said. “What I liked about Ash is, he had a small company, but he believed in me, and that’s the biggest thing.”

After hearing about Ash’s publishing company, Allen signed with Bowers. And the rest is history.

“It took me 10 years to get a record deal, but I compare that to trying to be a doctor or nurse,” he said. “That takes forever, too.”

With all his success, Allen hasn’t forgotten where he came from.

“Delaware made me,” Allen said. “If I hadn’t grown up here how I grew up, I don’t think I’d be where I am.”

Michele Xiques-Arnold

Written by Live Love Delaware on December 15, 2020. Posted in Delaware Ambassadors.

Owner, First State Dance
Academy

Michele Xiques-Arnold loves Delaware

Michele Xiques-Arnold

A CNN “Great Big Story” film crew is set up inside the First State Dance Academy in Milford, Delaware. Michele Xiques-Arnold, once a professional dancer herself, marvels at the cameras rotating throughout the space she took over almost 20 years ago — and the places it has taken both herself and her students.

For Xiques-Arnold it all started as a child falling in love with ballet in South Carolina and finding out her father, who was in the Air Force at the time, had been transferred to Dover, Delaware. Her mother hunted around and discovered the Marion Tracy Dance studio, a connection that would unknowingly set the rest of her life in motion.

“I started training at Marion Tracy in Dover when I was 12,” she recalls. “Then it was on to North Carolina School of the Arts, Joffrey Ballet School in New York City and then my first professional work came in Pittsburgh at Civic Light Opera.”

She found herself working with Meredith Baxter (from the TV show “Family Ties”) and aiming toward a Broadway career. “I soon found that I would make it through the dance auditions, but once I sang, they were like, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’” Following her struggle to make it on Broadway, Xiques-Arnold then did a season at the Shea Theater for Empire State Ballet in Buffalo and was later offered a contract to dance with the Atlanta Ballet.

An ankle injury brought Xiques-Arnold back home to Delaware in 2001. A string of occupations ranging from firefighter to EMT to nursing student pushed her further and further away from the magic that had driven her since childhood.

Out of the blue, friend Maria Fry, who also danced at Marion Tracy Dance Studio, made an offer that would change her life. Fry was running a studio in Milford called A Dance Class and offered to hand it over to Xiques-Arnold, even though she had no business experience at all and was afraid to fail at something Fry had worked so hard to create. But Fry offered to mentor Xiques-Arnold for a year as well as help teach — and First State Dance Academy was born.

“Next year will be my 20th year in business.” Xiques-Arnold estimates there have been around 1800 students who have spun through her studio at that time. “The opportunities we have made for the kids, and their parents— some of the kids have taken their parents to places they would never have gone, out of the country for performances or on tours. Often these are people who don’t like to leave their state or home, who have to go outside of their comfort zone to support their kids. And they were able to share something they would have never have.”

When asked about the challenge of going from dancer to instructor, Xiques-Arnold is clear. “When you are directing, and not on the other end anymore, it’s hard not to miss it. It’s almost like a drug, a healthy drug being on the stage, doing something you’ve strived for. It takes years to get over, the performance high and the rollover coaster of it. But I am really happy to have done it, and to have kids who I can work with to produce what is in my mind on a stage.”

“It’s my dream to have access to a performance arts center in or near Milford that has all that is required to put on a proper ballet.”

“Next year will be my 20th year in business,” Xiques-Arnold notes, estimating there have been around 1,800 students who have spun through her studio in the last two decades. “The opportunities we have made for the kids and their parents — some of the kids have taken their parents to places they would never have gone, out of the country for performances or on tours. Often these are people who don’t like to leave their state or home, who have to go outside of their comfort zone to support their kids. And they were able to share something they never would have.”

When asked about the challenge of going from dancer to instructor, Xiques-Arnold is clear.

“When you are directing, and not on the other end anymore, it’s hard not to miss it,” she says. “It’s almost like a drug, a healthy drug, being on the stage, doing something you’ve strived for. It takes years to get over, the performance high and the rollercoaster of it. But I am really happy to have done it and to have kids who I can work with to produce what is in my mind on a stage.”

Xiques-Arnold has many student highlights, but one of the most memorable is Anna Edmondson.

“I saw something in her and let her parents know she might want to consider going somewhere year-round,” Xiques-Arnold recalls. “She was that rare combination of the right body type for ballet and had boundless passion. Sure enough, she was accepted into the Kirov Academy of Ballet in D.C., where she studied for four years and then ended up at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was the only American at the time, and she came from Delaware!”

Another student of Xiques-Arnold’s, Jayna Ledford, is featured in the CNN “Great Big Story” documentary (https://youtu.be/fD_3lUpCTM0) recently filmed at the studio. Ledford is a transgender woman who was at Kirov Academy before coming out as female and came back to train with Xiques-Arnold afterward.

“It’s created some amazing conversations,” Xiques-Arnold says. “This a public dance school, and it’s open for anyone and everyone.”

The business challenges of running a dance studio have pushed Xiques-Arnold to innovate. She’s currently working on Wizarding World of Ballet — the first ballet built around a Harry Potter theme. This is part of a series of ballets that she has coined as Cinemaballet (https://www.facebook.com/cinemaballet/).

“I wanted to create something with a hook outside of ballet to entice people to check out a show,” she says. “I started with ‘Twilight,’ which was a huge success. Then ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ ‘Annie the Ballet,’ ‘Alice In Wonderland’ and ‘Duke Ellington’s Jazz Nutcracker’ at the Schwartz Center in Dover.

“I am always working on the business, right up until I go to sleep.”

Xiques-Arnold says the largest challenges are production costs and having to rely so much on volunteers, both things that having a proper venue locally would fix.

“It’s my dream to have access to a performance arts center in or near Milford that has all that is required to put on a proper ballet,” she says. “It would be a bigger draw for us. Something with professional lighting, sound, dressing rooms and location support.”

“It’s actually a real opportunity for a growing state, and I think it would be embraced. It would also mean is more professionals coming out of Delaware, more Delaware students getting scholarships and opportunities that they would not have otherwise. And that’s just for what we do. Imagine the ability to bring in larger music acts, comedians, etc. to the area. It would be a great draw for whatever town is able to have the vision.”

Xiques-Arnold was Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellowship winner as an Emerging Artist in 2014. She recently received a 2020 DDOA Fellowship, this time as an Established Professional.

“There have been so many challenges, and you can take that in a number of directions,” she says. “I like to think it has driven me to make this better and reinvent.”

Jonathan Whitney

Written by Live Love Delaware on December 15, 2020. Posted in Delaware Ambassadors.

Drummer and Artivist

Jonathan Whitney loves Delaware

Jonathan Whitney

When asked what he does, Jonathan Whitney describes himself as “a creative, a connector, and a composer who loves learning and problem solving.” But when asked what makes his heart sing, he responds “when I’m playing with a group of musicians and the audience gets where we’re going and we’re all going there together.”

A drummer and “artivist” (a combination of artist and activist), Whitney received his degree in music education from the University of Delaware and immediately got a job as band director at the Tatnall School for 11 years. He lived in Philadelphia for six years and earned a master’s in jazz studies but was pulled back to his native Delaware.

“I love this city; the artistic community in this city is tight,” Whitney says. “I lived in Philly until I got engaged and my wife said she wanted a driveway. In Delaware, we all talk across genres. In a given day, I can run into a painter, a spoken-word poet, a jazz musician, and a classical musician and we’re all bouncing ideas off each other. People here aren’t creating art for art’s sake; they’re creating it to improve Wilmington and tell the story of the people who live here.”

You can find Whitney’s fingerprints all over the city’s efforts to respond to the nation’s racial climate.

“I’m digesting that in many different ways,” he says. “Five pieces on my album being released in November took [inspiration from] local artist Eunice LaFate’s paintings and created music that searches for understanding and solutions. My next album is a series of arrangements of spirituals and gospel music through a jazz lens.

And then there are the murals.

On May 31, Whitney and fellow artivist Eliza Jarvis had just watched local protests sparked by George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis and they (along with photographer Joe del Tufo) decided to commission artists to paint over the plywood boards installed to cover damaged windows on downtown buildings. They connected funders to the artists, who have created three works – at Spaceboy Clothing on North Market Street, two at Blitzen on West Ninth and a fourth scheduled for late October at The Nomad Bar on North Orange Street.

The mural success led Whitney — who received a $6,000 Established Art Fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts in June 2020 — and Jarvis to form Flux Creative Consulting on Sept. 1, where they’re creating events for corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies to engage communities through the arts, with a focus on amplification of the great things that are already going on in Delaware.

“We don’t have the silos here that you often see; there are just so many ways for people to engage with the arts in Delaware.”

“We want to continue to empower our broader community to have conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. We’ve seen more conversations in the past six months than we did in the previous six, even in a pandemic.

“What I love about Delaware is that leaders in the nonprofit and for-profit worlds are willing to mentor people that they see are engaged,” he says. “Delaware is all about partnering and leveraging resources because we’re small. We don’t have the silos here that you often see; there are just so many ways for people to engage with the arts in Delaware.”

Whitney says he finds creative inspiration throughout the state, starting with Rehoboth Beach (“It’s great to walk along the beach and know that Wilmington is only 90 minutes away”) but also lists the Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, the Gibraltar Gardens on Greenhill Avenue, the sculpture garden at the Delaware Art Museum (where he previously worked as manager of performance programs and community engagement). He also mentioned the monthly First Friday Art Loop “where you can walk between the Delaware Contemporary art space and the Chris White Gallery at the Shipley Lofts.”

In terms of performing, Whitney lists the new Mid-South Audio recording studio in Milton and says that he can’t wait for Nomad to reopen for live performances.

Whitney closed the interview by answering a few quick questions:

What’s the question you wish more people would ask themselves?

How can I love more?

What’s the pebble in your shoe (that thing that tends to derail you)?

I’m always trying to figure out how to reach more people, always worrying about wasting the gifts I was given. I’m a workaholic and sometimes I can’t make myself satisfied with the work I’m doing and that takes me out of my rhythm.”

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“It’s not about forcing people to do what you want. It’s about finding a way for them to move in the direction you want on their own” from Chet Tietsworth, another legendary drummer from New Jersey.

What do you love about teaching?

Watching those light bulb moments all day long, when students say “Oh, I get it” or “Oh, I can do that.”

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Two little girls and the arts. When I open my eyes in the morning, I’m already thinking about what today brings and what I’m going to do to make the world a better place for them.

Tag: Arts & Culture