WILMINGTON, Del.— The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts has an active programming schedule that includes partnerships with area schools and non-profit organizations.  Over the years the DCCA has partnered on many different projects with over 60 organizations.  These projects range from placing artists in the schools or in community centers to assisting with murals and other public arts projects.  In light of DCCA’s commitment to community, curator J. Susan Isaacs organized the exhibition, Expanding Circles that focuses on issues of family and community. The exhibition is scheduled for November 2, 2007 through February 10, 2008.
 
Isaacs comments that, “it takes a village to raise a child” is an often-heard phrase. This exhibition examines the many layers of relationships that make up our world, from immediate family members to the larger community. All of the artists in some way depict a family. This family may be composed of blood relatives, new family identities, the neighborhood, a larger constructed community, or the global village, thus the title of the exhibition, Expanding Circles. Viewers are asked to consider the many expanding circles of their own world and to reflect on the social constructs of contemporary society. There is no single approach, point of view, nor style of art in the exhibition. Instead, the work in the show links together through this overarching theme of the relationship of individuals to each other and to their communities.
 
The exhibition was organized around a theme and not around gender.  In fact, Isaacs was surprised to realize that all of the artists she selected for Expanding Circles were women. Domestic subjects were among the first available to female artists; it is interesting that a concern with family and community still informs the work of women artists in the 21st century.

The public can meet the artists during Art on the Town, Friday, December 7.
 
Artists in the exhibition:
Salma Arastu
Rosalind Bloom
Peggy Seeney Caranda
Yolanda Chetwynd
Jessica C. Damen
Judeth Pekala Hawkins
Randi Reiss-McCormack
Carol Taylor-Kearney
Carla Tudor