WILMINGTON, DE.- The Delaware Art Museum is pleased to announce the 24th Annual Holiday House Tour, featuring a self-guided tour of Wilmington homes and artist studios decorated for the holidays, on Saturday, December 13, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $25 and are available for purchase at the Museum, including the day of the tour, and online at www.delart.org. Tickets purchased online before December 3 will be mailed to the buyer’s house; after that date, the tickets must be picked up at the Museum on the day of the tour. Call 302-571-9590 for more information.

Private homes on this year’s tour include a house styled after a grand European manor; a stylish contemporary home whose walls reflect an interest in African American art; a Georgian-style house built in 1914 featuring a view onto a boxwood garden; a 1919 stately brick colonial whose dining room, set for Christmas dinner, has a door leading to the original butler’s pantry; an 1865 townhouse with antique dry sink and artwork depicting Delaware scenes; and an 85-year-old Pennsylvania-stone house boasting a year’s thoughtful renovation, including a Jacuzzi with a view.

The Delaware Art Museum is one of the stops on the tour, and visitors can explore current exhibitions and the permanent collection. Exhibitions include:

Frank E. Schoonover: An Artist for All Seasons—Over 25 works by this prolific and beloved artist, some never exhibited before in public;

Masterpieces in Miniature—Nine miniature versions of masterpieces by luminaries such as Frederic Remington, Howard Pyle, and Fernando Botero;

Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks—73 photographs chosen by Gordon Parks as examples of his most potent imagery;

There will be a guided tour of Highlights from the Permanent Collection at 11:00 a.m. and the Bare Witness exhibition at noon. The Museum also offers a chance to meet with local artisans, purchase their art as holiday gifts, and hear live holiday music. Raffle tickets are available for a jewelry-decorated table-top tree and a striking grapevine wreath. The raffle will be held at 3:00 p.m. and the winner does not need to be present to win. The Museum Store Holiday Sale will be ongoing, offering 10% off all merchandise from November 28 through December 31 (and 20% off for Museum Members).

The Schoonover Studios, Howard Pyle Studio, and Ronald McDonald House are also opening their doors to ticket-holders. The Schoonover Studios, whose original occupants include Frank E. Schoonover and N. C. Wyeth, are displaying works by John Schoonover, Norman Tomases, and William Deering. The Howard Pyle Studio, where Pyle painted, wrote, and taught for 27 years, offers works by the Studio Group, a nonprofit organization that has owned and maintained this studio since 1938. The Ronald McDonald House is brimming with holiday cheer thanks to the members of local garden clubs of the Delaware Federation of Garden Clubs and the Brandywine Decorative Painters.