Kentmere Parkway carries you to the Delaware Art Museum. This is a place that grew from a devotion to one of Wilmington’s most famous illustrators: founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of Howard Pyle, the museum now cares for a collection of more than 12,000 objects. Its strengths are clear when you look at the galleries: American art and illustration from the 19th through the 21st century, and a remarkable focus on the English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of the mid-19th century.
The museum’s early holdings began when over 100 paintings, drawings, and prints were purchased from Pyle’s widow, Anne, after his unexpected death in 1911 while on a trip to Italy. Pyle left students and patrons in Wilmington—names like Frank Schoonover, Stanley Arthurs, and Louisa du Pont Copeland—who helped shape the institution you see today. The building was expanded and renovated in 2005, and the site now includes a nine-acre Sculpture Park, the Helen Farr Sloan Library and Archives, studio art classes, a children’s learning area, plus a cafe and museum store.
Picture the nine-acre Sculpture Park unfolding around the museum, gallery by gallery, garden by garden.