Delaware Arts Festival 51st Annual 2026

The Delaware Arts Festival Association is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that uses proceeds from this annual two-day event to provide $25,000 in funding for three Visual Arts Scholarships to promising High School Seniors and $12,000 in funding for Art related Grants at all school levels. The 51st Festival Year features high quality Arts/Crafts exhibited in the heart of Historic Downtown Delaware, Ohio, adjacent to Ohio Wesleyan University, coinciding with the annual OWU Alumni reunion.

Applicants are grouped and juried by eight different panels with a maximum of one category per application and two categories per space. Categories include: Art (Oil/Acrylic/Chalk/Pencil/Digital), Fiber/Fabric/Leather, Jewelry, Photography/Paper/Nature/Caricature/Collage/Body Art, Pottery/Ceramic/Glass, Sculpture/Metal Craft, Wood, and X Marketplace/Other for home crafted items. All work must be original and created by the exhibiting artist, with no AI-generated work permitted. Applications require four digital images: three representing current work and one showing overall display.

The festival runs Saturday 11 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., with Saturday setup from 6 a.m. - 11 a.m. Single spaces (10' x 10') cost $250, double spaces $500, with a $35 non-refundable jury fee per category. Exhibitors are eligible for cash awards and ribbons, with Best of Show receiving a free exhibit space for 2027. Insurance coverage of $1,000,000 naming Delaware Arts Festival Association as additional insured is required. No electricity is available, generators are not permitted, and proper tent weighting (40 pounds per leg) is mandatory.