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Original Art

With the growing demand in children's book production came the strengthened interest in the art behind the book. Founded in 1980 by Illustrator and Art Director Dilys Evans, this annual exhibit showcases the original art from the year's best children's books. Selected by a jury of outstanding illustrators, art directors and editors, this year's show features 125 books chosen from 548 entries submitted nationwide.

Celebrating it's twenty-ninth year, the Original Art exhibit is not only an opportunity for artists to display their work, but also has become an important event in the New York publishing calendar as a place for art directors and editors seeking new talent and is a favorite destination for school visits.

Gold and silver medals are awarded to three chosen books representing a wide variety of medium and technique. This year's gold medal winner Kadir Nelson was recognized for his distinguished illustrations in Coretta Scott, published by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Silver medals were awarded to Kevin Hawkes for his book Chicken Cheeks and Brian Floca for Moonshot. Both books were published by Simon &Schuster. This year's Contemporary Lifetime Achievement Award honors Chris Van Allsburg and the Posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Dr.Seuss (Theodor Geisel).

Created in 2005, the Founder's Award celebrates the most current promising new talent. This year's recipient Lincoln Agnew will be awarded for his book Harry and Horsie along with the other medal winners during the Opening Reception on Thursday, October 22, 2009. "To have been juried into this exhibition is alone a major achievement and should be celebrated," says Dilys Evans. "To be selected by the award jury as the most promising new talent is a tremendous vote of confidence in an artist's ability and future in the field of children's book illustration."

Along with the Original Art exhibit, the Society will host a workshop on Wednesday, October 28, 2009. Illustrator couple Sean Qualls and Selina Alko will run a hands-on workshop that will focus on how to come up with good stories for children's books, building a consistent character throughout a story, working with various illustration styles for different markets and engaging a challenging audience.

About the Lifetime Achievement Awards

The Lifetime Achievement Awards were established in 2005 by past chairs of The Original Art. Nominees must be judged to have a body of work that documents an innovative and pioneering contribution to the field of children's book illustration, and final selection is made by artists whose work has been juried into the previous year's show. Two awards are given annually: one posthumously and one to a living illustrator.

Contemporary: Chris van Allsburg

past recipients:
2005 Maurice Sendak, 2006 Jerry Pinkney, 2007 Ashley Bryan, 2008 Leo and Diane Dillon

Chris Van Allsburg majored in sculpture at the University of Michigan, where he learned bronze casting, wood carving, resin molding, and other techniques. He earned an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and in 1975 set up a sculpture studio in Providence. He also married Lisa Morrison, who became an elementary school art teacher in the Providence school system.

Chris first exhibited his sculpture in New York City in 1977 at the Alan Stone Gallery. He exhibited elsewhere in New England, and though sculpture was his primary interest, he began drawing pictures as well. Lisa, who used picture books in teaching her third grade students, encouraged him to consider making illustrations for a storybook, and a friend, David Macaulay, put him in touch with Walter Lorraine at Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston. Mr. Lorraine responded positively to Chris's pictures, but rather than enlist him to illustrate someone else's text, he encouraged Chris to think about stories of his own.

Though still involved in making sculptures, Chris set aside some time and created the story and pictures that became The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, a Caldecott Honor Book and the recipient of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Since then, Chris has written and illustrated fifteen more books. Both Jumanji and The Polar Express were awarded Caldecott Medals and were made into feature length films, as was Zathura. Jumanji was also a National Book Award winner. The Polar Express and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick each received a Boston-Globe Horn Book Honor, and seven of this author-illustrator's titles have been included in The New York Times' annual "Ten Best Illustrated Books" list. In 1993, Chris was awarded the Regina Medal for lifetime achievement in children's literature. He has also illustrated three books written by Mark Helprin.

Posthumous: Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), 1904-1991

past recipients:
2005 Trina Schart Hyman, 2006 Ezra Jack Keats, 2007 Leo Lionni, 2008 WIlliam Steig

Ted Geisel grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, and attended Dartmouth College. There, he contributed to Jack-O-Lantern, the college’s humor magazine, signing his work “Seuss.” This was his first use of the pseudonym.

Following graduation, Ted went to Oxford University in England. Academic studies bored him, and he decided to tour Europe instead. But Oxford did give him the opportunity to meet a classmate, Helen Palmer, who became his wife and a children’s book author and editor. After returning to the US, Ted pursued a career as a cartoonist. He also created advertising campaigns for Standard Oil and, during WWII, developed a series of animated films for the US Army, featuring a trainee called Private Snafu.

The first children’s book that Ted both wrote and illustrated was And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. His most famous, The Cat in the Hat, was created as a children’s primer, using only 225 “new reader” vocabulary words. He went on to write and illustrate forty-two other books, including such all-time favorites such as Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who!, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The books have been translated into more than twenty languages, have sold over 200 million copies around the world, and have inspired eleven TV specials, a Broadway musical, and a couple of full-length movies. His work has also been honored by two Academy Awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.

After Ted’s first wife died in 1967, he married an old friend, Audrey Stone Geisel, who not only influenced his later books but now extends his legacy in her role as President of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.