No matter who walks through the doors of Jerry’s Artarama in Newark – whether he or she is a youngster accompanied by parents to gather materials for a school project or a weekend watercolorist searching for a canvas or an established artist searching for the perfect color – they are given the permission to enter the five-aisle store and commune with artisan paints and illustration boards and paint brushes and open-back frames and dyes of a hundred colors – the tools that shape their creative journey.

Jerry’s Artarama, one of 18 family-owned stores nationwide, is an incubator of ideas that comes accompanied by its friendly and knowledgeable staff: store manager Dave Bart, Talisa Baptiste, Bryan DeProspero, Connor McDaniel, Joanne Moyer, Jacob O’Neal and James Stokes.

As a graduate student in fine art at the University of Delaware, DeProspero splits his time between teaching as an adjunct professor and assisting customers at Jerry’s Artarama.

“The magic of Jerry’s Artarama is best seen in the way we all exude a sense of welcomeness to everyone who walks in,” he said. “This feeling allows me to develop a more fluid relationship with our customers and spend the time to know them and understand what their personal needs are. As an educator, I am interested in what people are trying to achieve and how I can help them get there. I am always trying to figure out what someone’s vision is, and how it intersects with the materials they are using and how I can get them to a desired outcome.”

“Primarily, we work with people who really just want to freewheel with art,” Bart said. “We partner with several art guilds and schools in the area, but we also work with parents who pick up a pencil and a free sketch book here for their child just to keep them occupied -- and realize that their child is a legitimate artist. We help those parents find the tools their child needs as they encourage them to pursue that creative path.

“We want people to be unafraid to come into the art world.”

Jerry’s Artarama is located at 269 South Main Street in Newark. To learn more, visit www.store.delaware-jerrys.com.