The Arden Craft Shop Museum is proud to celebrate Board and Museum & Archives Committee member Barbara Macklem, who is representing the museum and the Ardens as a community curator in Reflections: 25 Objects for 250 Years of Delaware History at the Biggs Museum of American Art.
This exhibition is part of the statewide Delaware250 commemorations, marking 250 years since the American Revolution and inviting reflection on what revolution has meant, and continues to mean, in Delaware’s history. The show brings together reflections from a wide ranging group of Delawareans, artists, scholars, and community leaders, each invited to select an object from the Biggs’s collection that speaks to Delaware’s evolving story.
Barbara selected a side chair made by Don Stephens for his brother’s marriage, an object rich with personal and communal meaning. The chair reflects the Ardens’ embrace of William Morris’s philosophy of the beautiful and the useful, while also expressing a quiet but persistent spirit of revolution against the industrialization of modern life. Crafted as a wedding gift, it further illustrates the Ardens’ deep commitment to craft, community, and shared responsibility to one another.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding during a time of real division and uncertainty, Reflections offers a powerful reminder that revolution is not only about rupture, but also about renewal, about choosing, again and again, how we live together in community. We are honored to see Barbara’s reflection, and Arden’s values, represented alongside other Delaware voices in this important statewide conversation.
Reflections: 25 Objects for 250 Years of Delaware History is on view at the Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal Street, Dover, Delaware, from January 2, 2026 through January 3, 2027.
Learn more about the exhibition here:
https://www.thebiggsmuseum.org/event/reflections-25-objects-for-250-years-of-delaware-history/
Many thanks to Sadie Somerville for the photos!
