Historic Delaware museum marks America’s 250th with contemporary art that challenges America’s past

What are journalists missing from the state of Delaware? What would you most like WHYY News to cover? Let us know.

Leer en español

If you’re looking for an unconventional way to explore America’s semiquincentennial, Rockwood Museum near Wilmington might have just the exhibit for you.

Red, white and blue bunting won’t adorn the 19th-century Gothic Revival mansion. Don’t expect a band to be playing patriotic tunes. There won’t be a barbecue or fireworks. Certainly no parade around the lush 72-acre property.

Instead, visitors to Rockwood’s “We the People” exhibit will see new and recent works from five area artists among the heirloom portraits, ornate furnishings, porcelain, photographs and memorabilia collected by the upper-crust Shipley and Bringhurst families, who lived there for nearly a century.

Through Labor Day, the contemporary works from a racially and culturally diverse group of artists have been placed “in direct conversation” with the permanent collections of the estate’s original inhabitants, museum director Ryan Grover said.

Direct conversations, indeed

Artist Alim Smith’s large painting of a Black woman and child on white canvas, which he created using a pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers from a secondhand store instead of a brush, dominates the stone wall of the vestibule.

On the grand stairwell, three wildly colorful self-portraits by Wilmington-area native Lauren Peters contrast with three traditional 19th-century portraits.

The one American flag in the exhibit appears in a painting, where its stars and stripes form a Ku Klux Klan hood that a bystander is pulling off.

And that’s how Grover wanted it, to have artists — three Black, one Chinese American and one white — present creations that stand in stark juxtaposition to the work displayed by the families who lived at Rockwood, an English-themed country estate that was built in the 1850s and is also celebrating its 50th anniversary as a museum.

Grover also wanted to showcase work that presents other views of America’s past, present and future on the nation’s 250th anniversary. He noted that the mansion had no Black, Asian or Latino residents, but that some, which the museum refers to as “servants,” worked for the owners in the kitchen, or as maids or groundskeepers.

“The contemporary artists are bridges for us new audiences, to audiences of today,” Grover told WHYY News during a tour. “But on a level beneath the cover, we’re also trying to find new ways to interpret these old materials. We want to have new stories. We’re looking for new perspectives.”

Who are the ‘people’ in ‘We the People’?

Peters, who is white, painted the three self-portraits showing her in various costumes. In one, she is wearing a tuxedo shirt and jacket with a blue wig. In another, titled “I’m Your Mutt,” she is shown wearing a blue fabric dog mask, which she also made.

“I do hope that audiences pick up on the subtlety here, of questioning who the ‘people’ are in ‘We the People,'” Peters said.

“There’s a lot of showiness to the house, ostentatious displays that reflect the owners. But I hope that the artwork speaks to the immigrants and working class that cared for the house, crafted the objects, designed the wallpapers and architecture, the people that were the labor and creatives behind it all.”

She wants visitors to alter how they view others, to try to see behind the masks that people present to the world.

“I hope that we all learn to look at each other differently and not judge each other by appearances so much,” she said.

Smith, who painted the portrait with sneakers, had his own unique perspective on the exhibit. He told WHYY News he didn’t realize it was tied to America’s birthday, because he barely read Grover’s invitation to participate.

He said he just wants more people exposed to his work, which he describes as “afro-surrealism.”

“I look at all art shows as art shows, and then I just submit art. And if they are cool with it, I’m cool with it. If not, I’ll submit some other art,” Smith said.

Smith, who grew up in Wilmington and attended Cab Calloway School of the Arts, was nominated last year for a Grammy Award for his cover design for the late rapper Mac Miller’s album “Balloonerism.”

Smith said it matters to him that Rockwood is trying to showcase voices and perspectives that haven’t been part of the mansion’s history.

“I do think it’s really cool to have some Black people in there with all that old white art,” Smith said.

Smith said he hopes some Rockwood visitors will decide to purchase his work, but he won’t be honoring the United States on the Fourth of July because of the country’s history of racism.

“I will never celebrate America,” Smith said. “Could be 250 years old, 500. It doesn’t matter how old it is, when its birthday is, I’ll never care.”

‘We tried to distinguish ourselves as something different’

Grover said he was pleased when a reporter suggested that Rockwood’s exhibit was unique, in that visitors might not even realize it commemorates America’s 250th birthday unless they knew in advance.

“It might be. I hope so,” Grover replied. “We tried to distinguish ourselves as something a little different.”

He said he didn’t want Rockwood’s celebration to have the “pomp and circumstance” of others in the state, region and nation.

Part of the reason, he said, was the opportunity to attract more visitors, now and in the future.

“For the 250th, we were really interested and we were really inspired by this idea, this notion of ‘a more perfect union,’” Grover said. “We are part of a lot of museums in America that are sort of focusing on how they remain relevant when the demographics around them are really changing very quickly.

“We needed to be able to tell stories that would attract individuals that maybe hadn’t visited here before, maybe had no reason to visit here before. We are continuously creating opportunities for them to engage if they want to.”

Rockwood gets about 50,000 visitors a year, with thousands attending its annual ice cream festival, which will be held this year on June 27.

“We the People” runs through Labor Day at the museum, located at 4651 Washington Street Extension, just north of Wilmington’s northern limits.

Admission is $8 for residents of New Castle County, which owns the museum, and $10 for other visitors.

Hours for the exhibit and the museum, which includes another unrelated gallery, are Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Rockwood is closed Monday through Wednesday.