Dickens: A Celebration of His Work in Pictures
Illustrations by the Children’s Book Illustrator
Group
Exhibit: August 25 –
October 31, 2012
Day of Dickens Event Days:
September 13 and October 13
Yonkers Riverfront Library
One Larkin Center, Yonkers
NY 10701
About the Collaborators:
The Children’s Book Illustrator Group www.cbig-nyc.com
CBIG was formed in 1987 by a group of
Brooklyn illustrators. Today our member illustrators and author/illustrators
have a wide range of experience including: graphic design, product and
surface design, animation, fine art, digital media design and publishing.
Our members’ work spans all children’s categories for
trade, editorial and educational publishing preschool through young
adult. As a small, volunteer run organization our aim is to further our
members’ careers within the children’s book industry.
EXHIBITING MEMBERS of the Children’s Book Illustrators Group: Lisa Cinelli, Deborah
Cuneo, Diana Ting Delosh, Peggy Dressel, Doris Ettlinger, Laura Goetz, Leeza
Hernandez, Mike Herrod, Sara Kahn, H. Ruth Karpes, Lisa Lavoie, Doreen Marts,
Donna Miskend, Sawaka Norii, Marilyn Papas, Clare Pernice, Roberta Rivera,
Vicky Rubin, Cheryl Taborsky, T. T. Tyler, Wallace West
The
mission of the Yonkers Riverfront Library Art Gallery is to present a diverse
and balanced schedule of exhibits of high caliber, progressive artwork and
related programs not frequently seen in Yonkers or Westchester County, with an
emphasis on educational merit. Riverfront Library is located at One Larkin
Center, across the street from the Yonkers Train Station (Metro-North Hudson
line). Parking is available in the nearby Buena Vista Parking Garage. The
library is handicapped accessible.
About the Event Guest Participants:
James Armstrong is a playwright who adapted A Christmas Carol for the Epiphany
Theater Company in Saratoga Springs, and adapted everything else Dickens ever
wrote in the play Dickens Condensed,
in which a troupe of five actors performs fourteen and a half novels in a
single hour. James is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and you
can keep up with him at http://www.armstrongplays.com/
Elizabeth Bird is the Youth Materials Specialist for the New
York Public Library system and creator of the SLJ blog A Fuse #8 Production.
She wrote the ALA Editions title Children’s Literary Gems: Choosing and
Using Them in Your Literary Career. She reviews regularly for Kirkus and
The New York Times and has a picture book out with Harper Collins in
Spring 2013 called Giant Dance Party. In Fall of 2013 she and two other
bloggers will publish a book for adults on the true stories behind their
favorite children’s books with Candlewick Press.
Carol Burrell is Editorial Director for Graphic Universe,
the graphic novel division of Lerner Publishing Group. On her own time, she
draws a webcomic called SPQR Blues and other art online under the name Klio.
Friends of Dickens, New York www.thefriendsofdickens.org
A literary, cultural and educational not-for-profit
organization devoted to activities that celebrate and disseminate the
works of English novelist Charles Dickens. They present staged dramatic
readings of the famed author’s works for libraries and service organizations.
Michael Patrick Hearn has remained one of the most respected contemporary writers
about children’s literature since the publication of The Annotated
Wizard of Oz right after college. His many other books include The
Annotated Christmas Carol, The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, The
Victorian Fairy Tale Book; Myth, Magic and Mystery; and The Porcelain
Cat, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. He has curated numerous
exhibitions including the recent Tomi Ungerer show at The Eric Carle Museum. He
has lectured on children’s books and their illustration all over the United
States and Europe. He teaches The Picture Book in the Simmons Graduate Program
in Children’s Literature. He is often interviewed by the media and most
recently by BBC4 and TCM. He is currently preparing The Annotated Edgar
Allan Poe.
Fred Kaplan, biographer and literary scholar, Fred Kaplan is
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College and the Graduate
Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Lincoln, the
Biography of a Writer (2008), The Singular Mark Twain, A Biography
(2003);Gore Vidal, A Biography (1999); Henry James, The Imagination of
Genius, A Biography (1992); and Charles Dickens, A Biography (1988).
His Thomas Carlyle, A Biography (1983), was a finalist for the National
Book Critics’ Circle Award and was a jury--‐nominated finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize. Lincoln, the Biography of a Writer was a Lincoln Prize
book. His Sacred Tears: Sentimentality in Victorian Literature (1987), Dickens
and Mesmerism: the Hidden Springs of Fiction (1975), and Miracles
of Rare Device: The Poet’s Sense of Self in Nineteenth--‐Century Poetry (1972) are contributions to the study of Romantic and
Victorian British literature and culture. He has edited Dickens’ Book of
Memoranda (1981), the Norton Critical Editions of Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1993)
and Hard Times (2001), and Traveling in Italy with Henry James (1994).
His latest book, Visionary American, A Biography of John Quincy Adams is scheduled to be published in 2014.
He has held Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships,
and been a Fellow of the National Humanities Center, the Huntington Library,
and the Rockefeller Study Center at Bellagio. He lives in Boothbay, Maine.
Doreen Marts is a children’s book illustrator living in NJ with her
husband, two- year old daughter and puggle pup Baxter Blue Cheese, some of
Doreen Marts’ clients include: Penguin, Blue Apple Books, Scholastic and
Running Press Kids. She is a member of CBIG.
Donna Miskend, CBIG president and exhibition curator, is also an
illustrator, textile designer and writer. A member of the Society of Children’s
Book Illustrators and Writers (SCBWI), she additionally contributes as a judge
for art organizations. Her artwork appears in publications and is exhibited in
museums and galleries. www.donnamiskend.com
Mike J. Quinn, actor, educator, writer and
retired parole officer living in Riverdale, NY, Mike is the founder and former
executive director of The Friends of Dickens New York chapter. Along with his
colleagues from the Friends of Dickens, Mr. Quinn frequently presents stated
dramatic readings of the famed author’s works for libraries and service
organizations.
Catherine Robson is associate professor of English at NYU, where
she specializes in nineteenth-century British cultural and literary studies; she
has been awarded Fellowships for: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Fellowship,
2008-09; Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 2004-05; National Endowment
for the Humanities Fellowship, 2003-04. Dr. Robson is also a long-time faculty member of the Dickens Project.
Author of Men in Wonderland: The
Lost Girlhood of the Victorian Gentleman (Princeton UP, 2001) and co-editor
of The Victorian Age for the Norton
Anthology of English Literature, she has just finished a book on poetry
recitation in school (Heart Beats:
Everyday Life and the Memorized Poem will be published by Princeton UP this
October)
T. T. Tyler is an aspiring children’s book
author and illustrator who enjoys using a variety of materials to create
artwork. She is a member of CBIG and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and
Illustrators (SCBWI).
Wallace West, a New York City-based freelance illustrator
and writer, Wallace’s influences span the spectrum from Quentin Blake to
Modigliani to Parisian couture. A firm believer in lighthearted living his
artwork is rooted in humor, honesty—and a touch of irreverence. Wallace studied
with The School of Visual Arts in New York City and Parsons School of Design in
Paris and is a member of SCBWI and CBIG http://wallacewest.com/home.html
________________________________________
Ages: children - adults. Free and open the
public.
This exhibition programming
is underwritten by the Yonkers Public Library Foundation.
View the schedule of events HERE and my new blog, Conversations... where I will post interviews with people in the arts. Related to this exhibit are: a conversation with the ARTISTS, Mike J. Quinn, and Fred Kaplan. 