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We don’t normally run event promotions in this space but Wednesday’s Downtown Wilmington  Meet and Greet caught our eye.

On hand will be Mayor Mike Purzycki, Downtown Visions executive director Martin Hageman; Wilmington Police Chief Robert J. Tracy; and incoming Delaware College of Art and Design President Jean Dahlgren.

The event will be held at the Delaware College of Art and Design at 600  Market Street.

As some might remember, work in getting the college off the ground was one of the early victories in the long-running effort to revive downtown under Wilmington 2000, later known as Wilmington Renaissance.

But the college, a venture of Pratt Institute and the Corcoran College of Art and Design, seemed to lose momentum over the years in terms of economic impact and overall profile in the community.

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More recently Wilmington adman and AB+C founder  John Hawkins stepped in as interim president and presided over a  search for a new college chief.

We also saw a bit of a setback with the pending departure of an art supply store from the area to Newark.

Investments in downtown have surged in the form of apartments, restaurants and the revival of The Queen Theater. This is beginning to relieve the burden of the college being a lonely pioneer in efforts to stop the 5 p.m. exodus out of the area.

All of this is good news for the college and it will be interesting to see what  Dahlgren has to say about her vision for the future.

The Meet and Greet will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Click here  to let organizers know you’re coming. Sponsors are the Kenny Family Foundation, N.K.S. Distributors and Downtown Visions. The  College of Art and Design is serving as host.

Enjoy your day. The newsletter returns tomorrow. – Doug and Sharon Rainey.

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