Why Should Delaware Care?
The Freeman Arts Pavilion has built a name for itself over the last two decades as a prominent arts venue and economic driver for the Sussex County area. With director Patti Grimes’ upcoming departure, the arts organization’s leadership and future direction remains to be seen.
Patti Grimes, the long-serving – and influential – executive director of Selbyville’s Freeman Arts Pavilion, announced last week that she will exit her role later this summer.
Considered to be among the biggest names in the southern Delaware arts and culture scene, Grimes has carried the Freeman Arts organization through a period of exponential growth and expanded reach throughout Sussex County and the broader Delmarva Peninsula since 2007.
She is set to step down after the organization unveils its long-awaited new stage in July.
The Freeman Arts Pavilion – an outdoor performance venue in Selbyville, a small town off Route 113 on the Delaware-Maryland border – has grown under Grimes’ leadership to serve more than 130,000 people per year.
The organization has courted a mix of high-profile performers, like Diana Ross and Jerry Seinfeld, and local, homegrown talent. Freeman Arts also functions as a nonprofit, with an initiative of bringing arts experiences to schools across Sussex County and nearby Worcester and Wicomico counties in Maryland.
The organization made headlines in January when a James Taylor concert scheduled for September sold out the 4,000-seat venue in 16 minutes.
Grimes’ departure will force the Freeman Arts Pavilion – and its parent organization the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation – to reckon with whether another leader will be able to carry on the legacy and programming that Grimes has spent the past 19 years building.
But Grimes told Spotlight Delaware she is not concerned about the transition plan to a new leader of the arts organization. She has worked with the organization’s board of directors to develop a succession plan, she said, and she will still be present to help with the transition process.
“I felt like it was the right time with this brand new venue to deliver that and launch into the next evolution,” she said. “It will be a great time for a new executive director to come in.”
Grimes is not retiring from all of her responsibilities with Freeman-related organizations, as she will continue serving as executive director of the Carl M. Freeman Foundation, another grant-giving organization that is named after Joshua Freeman’s father and owned by members of the same family.
As Delaware’s arts community reacted to Grimes’ announcement, many described her to Spotlight Delaware as one of the biggest names working in the First State, and someone who will leave behind enormous shoes to fill.
Neil Kirschling, executive director of the Delaware Arts Alliance, a statewide arts advocacy organization, said Grimes has been an “incredibly thoughtful partner” in inspiring a culture of excellence in the arts across the state.
Joe Gfaller, managing director of Clear Space Theatre Company in Rehoboth Beach, said Freeman Arts became a cornerstone of the Sussex County arts scene because of Grimes.
“There’s no question that the existence of the Freeman Arts has had a transformative effect on our region,” Gfaller said.
The Joshua M. Freeman Foundation announced in a press release last week that they brought in a global hiring firm, Russell Reynolds Associates, to begin the search for Grimes’ replacement this spring.
Filling a Sussex County need
When Freeman Arts began hosting performances, its set-up consisted of a small wooden stage and some lawn seating. The organization drew in a couple thousand attendees in its first year.
“We started as a social experiment,” Grimes recalled. “Is this something that is desired by the greater Sussex County community? Is this something that is wanted?”
Quickly, she found out, the answer was a resounding yes.
Now, the pavilion draws in more than 130,000 people annually for its concerts and other programs. The organization also is about to complete a 10-year-long, $40 million capital campaign to construct its new stage.
Since 2017, the organization has been using a mobile stage to host larger performers, like Darius Rucker, Grimes said.
The new permanent stage will include backstage green rooms and equipment rooms for touring artists, along with a more sleek stage look, which Grimes said she thinks will help continue to attract big name performers.
Over the years, Grimes said, she has found that the large appetite for the Freeman Arts programming has come from a lack of other arts opportunities in Sussex County, which is more rural and sprawling than the rest of Delaware. At the same time, she said, the large crowd of summer tourists that flock to Sussex County beaches want to participate in the organization’s art offerings.
The Delaware Arts Alliance conducted a study of the state’s arts economy last year.
Kirschling, the alliance’s director, said the report revealed that Sussex County has larger “art deserts” than other parts of the state, meaning people in the county often need to drive farther to participate in arts events of any kind.
By continuing to grow its events with more famous performers, while also investing in local performers and school outreach programs, Kirschling said Grimes has done a good job of building a more robust and sustainable arts community in the Sussex area.
“What’s nice is that people who live here now don’t have to drive two to three hours to see their favorite artist or to partake in the arts experience,” Grimes said.
Freeman Arts also has proven to be a catalyst for economic growth and development in the area.
Grimes said that for every $1 spent at the pavilion, $1.90 is distributed back into the local economy, from visitors eating at restaurants, staying in hotels and taking advantage of other activities in the community.
Jessica Welch, director of the Delaware Tourism Office, provided data to Spotlight Delaware showing the Freeman Arts Pavilion had a $24 million economic impact on Sussex County last year.
That economic driver is particularly valuable, Welch said, because it is not primarily going to Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, or Bethany Beach, where more tourists frequent, but rather is focused in Selbyville, which is further inland and typically gets less economic activity.
Welch said she expects to see those economic impacts continue to grow as the organization opens its new stage and is able to draw even bigger crowds.
“Building the infrastructure and setting it up for the future is key,” she said. “Patti [Grimes] should be commended for that work she has done.”
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
