Milton Arts Guild prepares for 20th anniversary celebration

Milton Arts Guild is set to celebrate 20 years of making art and memories with a special fundraiser to be held at Camp Arrowhead Saturday, April 5. 

The celebration, titled Palette of Possibilities, will be held from 6 to 10 p.m., and will serve as a fundraiser for the guild, including a performance by Hot Sauce Band, as well as food, drinks and a silent auction. MAG President Sue Dutton said the event will also feature a s’mores pit and caricature drawing. 

The guild started with 10 members in 2005, but now boasts 230, Dutton said. 

“It started with a single show,” she said. “Now we do multiple shows; we’re out in the community.”

Among the guild’s community activities are the student show, in which local students submit and display their works; a scholarship for students at Cape Henlopen and Sussex Tech high schools; and participating in local Milton events such as the Holiday House Tour and Zombie Fest. Dutton said the guild has begun going to Pallet Village in Georgetown to conduct classes with people there.                                                                                                            

While the arts guild is in good hands now, Dutton did admit the future is a little bit more murky. 

“Right now, the building where we have our classes on Walnut Street is being sold,” she said. “So we don’t know what we’re going to do about that. Our ultimate goal is to find a permanent home, one that will give us classroom space, outdoor space, gallery space and gift shop space. Just be a central location for what we do.”

Of course, the guild is no stranger to moving around. Dutton said it started with a single outdoor art show, and classes were held in locations all around Milton, including at Dogfish Head and the Milton Historical Society.

Perhaps the biggest program the arts guild has done is Doodle, a twice-per-week online art class. Dutton said Doodle started during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and continues to thrive five years later.

“Because of that, we have members in Indiana, Florida, Jamaica, New York, New Jersey, Maryland; we have members from beyond Milton,” Dutton said. “We actually grew during the pandemic because we pivoted and went online. Instead of having art hanging in a gallery, we had an online show. We had the most sales in that online show than we’d had any time prior to. We learned Zoom really well.”

A retired schoolteacher, Dutton is an example of the type of person who joins the guild.

“I needed something to do before I retired, so I saw an advertisement for a watercolor class. I said, ‘Watercolor can’t be too hard. Little kids have watercolor sets,’ not knowing that watercolor is one of the hardest things you can do,” she said.

From there, Dutton said, she met some people from the guild who encouraged her to join, and she grew to love the classes and members. Dutton and Communications Director Joyce Radnor said one of the appeals of the arts guild is that it doesn’t do juried shows, and encourages a welcoming and fun atmosphere.

“We don’t exclude people because it’s not art. We try to be as inclusive as we can, no matter what your ability is. We’re not highfalutin,” Dutton said. “We try to address the needs and desires of the members of our community. We think art is very important to the community. It just makes you feel happy.”

Tickets for the anniversary celebration can be purchased at miltonartsguild.org. Those who register before the end of February will get a $25 off early-bird special.