Distinguished Educators in the Arts, 2006
Harvey Dunn is best remembered as a brilliant illustrator, one of America's greatest, whose career spanned four decades beginning in the 1910s. Around this time illustrators were in great demand; many were celebrities, caught up in a nation's insatiable appetite for information and entertainment through magazines. This was illustration’s “Golden Age”. Almost forgotten is that Harvey Dunn was a great teacher who, with unbound love and enthusiasm, ardently committed himself to sharing his knowlege for over three decades. Dunn's innate artistic talent realized its full potential after practically applying the ideas and ideals taught him by Howard Pyle—ideas and ideals that subsisted as the bedrock of Dunn's own teachings. It is said that Dunn's own personal mesmerism even surpassed Howard Pyle's. Like Pyle, Dunn taught a philosophy of life more than he taught art and from his imposing frame his knack for saying what a person needed to hear was legend. His words made irrefutable by his existence. He taught as his credo that the student must understand that to make a picture useful it must have as its motive some feeling that is universal in the hearts of men who are all brothers in that they go through life with the same hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows. No other art school of Dunn's era has had a greater influence on American illustration and what more can anyone say upon reviewing the fruits of his tutelage: Dean Cornwell, Arthur Fuller, Frank Street, Grant Reynard, Clark Fay, Mead Schaeffer, Amos Sewell, Albin Henning, J.E. Allen, Lyman Anderson, Steven Kidd, Lealand Gustavson, Mario Cooper, Harold Von Schmidt, and Saul Tepper, to name a few. George Fernandez, Professor, SUNY–Farmingdale |
Alice “Bunny” Carter It comes as no surprise that Alice A. “Bunny” Carter has risen to the highest levels of accomplishment as an award winning illustrator, an award winning writer, and a very dedicated award winning educator. Simply put, it’s in her DNA. The daughter of Ben Eisenstat, and Jane Sperry Eisenstat, Bunny was exposed to all of these creative disciplines from childhood. Her father Ben was a beloved teacher who taught at the Philadelphia College of Art for forty years. He was also a noted illustrator, painter, and a frequently published writer. Ben was awarded the Distinguished Educator Award posthumously in 2003. Her mother Jane is a highly respected educator who also taught at the Philadelphia College of Art and Glassboro College in New Jersey. Jane is a water colorist of extraordinary ability and is also a published author. As I said, it’s in the DNA. At the present time, Bunny is the Acting Director and Professor of Art in the School of Art & Design at San Jose State University in California. Just a few of the many awards Bunny has received in her long and distinguished teaching career are; The San Jose State University teachers Scholar, the San Jose State College of Humanities & the Arts teaching innovation award, and the San Jose State University Teacher, Scholar award. On numerous occasions, when I have visited San Jose State, I have been consistently impressed by the obvious affection and respect shown by her students as well as the dedication Bunny has for every student in her department. Many of her students have gone on to successful careers at Walt Disney Animation, DreamWorks, Pixar, and Industrial Light & Magic among dozens of other places. All of this while writing books, curating exhibitions, acting as a consultant on various arts related projects and continuing her illustration career. I know of no one who can balance all of these activities as gracefully as Alice A. Carter and I can think of no one more deserving of this prestigious award. Murray Tinkelman, Director MSA Program, University of Hartford |
