Milton Arts Guild celebrates Sue Dutton
Milton Arts Guild honored its former President Sue Dutton by naming a scholarship for a Cape Henlopen High School student in her honor.
The arts guild annually gives scholarships to local high school students to pursue education in the arts, but this year’s fundraising event at Irish Eyes in Milton was special because guild members threw a surprise celebration for Dutton, whose presidency ended in December when her term expired.
“I’m not usually speechless, but I am,” Dutton said. “I’m just so honored. I had no clue this was going to happen.”
Dutton’s successor as president, Lynda Rae Gannon, said, “We’d been planning it for a couple months. The fact that she cried, I knew we got her!”
The transition from Dutton to Gannon comes amidst a time of change for the arts guild, as it has a new board and has opened a new education center on Park Street, near Milton Elementary School.
“We’ve grown by threefold the number of members. When I started out, we had one class a month. Now we have a slew of classes every month,” Dutton said.
One of Dutton’s biggest accomplishments during her time leading the guild was during the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, the guild didn’t know what it was going to do, as it still had to pay rent on its facility on Walnut Street, but without any in-person classes. The guild then shifted to holding virtual classes, and as a result, its membership actually expanded and diversified, with members not just in Delaware, but also as far away as Indiana and Florida.
Dutton credited that expansion to the team of volunteers at the guild.
“The board has done the work,” she said. “It’s nice when you can rely on people and do the job. They just pick it up and run with it. It’s a good group to work with.”
Dutton originally joined the guild as part of the watercolor group, but as a former educator and Girl Scout leader, leadership came naturally to her and she ended up joining the board.
Despite not being president, Dutton is not going away. She will continue on as a board member, with a focus on updating the guild’s website and other bits of tech work.
“I’m going to relax and do some art for a change,” Dutton said.
Ryan Mavity covers Milton and the court system. He is married to Rachel Swick Mavity and has two kids, Alex and Jane. Ryan started with the Cape Gazette all the way back in February 2007, previously covering the City of Rehoboth Beach. A native of Easton, Md. and graduate of Towson University, Ryan enjoys watching the Baltimore Ravens, Washington Capitals and Baltimore Orioles in his spare time.
