all rights reserved
413-586-2046
Celebrate Bugs with Artists and Authors at The Carle’s 10th Annual Children’s Book Festival
Amherst, MA (June 1, 2015) The Very Hungry Caterpillar will have plenty of company when The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art hosts its 10th Annual Children’s Book Festival: Bees, Butterflies and Other Bugs on Saturday, June 6th from 10 am to 4 pm. Branches throughout the Museum’s apple orchard will be filled with hand-woven spider webs, part of a public art program (guests are encouraged to add their own handmade bugs!). Illustrators from The Western Massachusetts Illustrators’ Guild will feature their bug books through story times, art presentations, and a temporary exhibition. Special guests Tony and Angela DiTerlizzi will share stories from their books (respectively) The Spider and the Fly and Some Bugs!
Inspired by The Carle’s current exhibition, The Art of Eric Carle: Bees, Butterflies, and Other Bugs, families are invited to celebrate these small creatures throughout the day. Activities include creating fabric bugs and bug collages to joining a bug dance workshop and learning about live butterflies. All activities are free with museum admission. Creative bug costumes are welcome!
The festival kicks off with artist and author Tony DiTerlizzi as he reads his book The Spider and the Fly outside immersed in The Carle’s community art installation of hand-made fabric bugs. Some Bugs! author Angela DiTerlizzi and illustrator Brendan Wenzel will talk about their collaboration and present a lively story and art program. Several members of The Western Massachusetts Illustrators’ Guild will showcase their art and will present special story times and art workshops. Illustrators include Robin Brickman, Diane deGroat, Linda Graves, Gary Lippincott, Jeff Mack, Bob Marstall, Ralph Masiello, Shelley Rotner, Greg Ruth, and Sean Wang.
Guests will also have the chance to see and learn about live bugs when Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory and Gardens brings live butterflies to share in a workshop called Beautiful Butterflies! The Luminarium Dance Company of Boston will welcome guests to come wriggle, wiggle, and crawl in their DANCE + Bugs workshop, which merges creative movement with the world of insects.
“We are so excited to celebrate this theme for the 10th anniversary of this festival. Guests will enjoy seeing some of their favorite Eric Carle bugs in our galleries and can celebrate the wings, stings, and crawling things that have appeared in Carle’s art throughout his career,” said Courtney Waring, director of education.
Enjoy the extra buzz with all day activities including: story times, films, face painting, and art projects. Food from Foley’s Franks will be available. Visit www.carlemuseum.org for a complete schedule. Don’t miss The Carle’s all-day transformation into a busy beehive!
PUBLIC ART EXHIBITION – CALL FOR ENTRIES
The Carle invites the public to participate in Colorful Bugs: A Community Art Project. Visitors young and old are asked to make small fiber art bugs to populate the decorative webs that will be woven among trees in the Museum’s apple orchard this summer. Artist Suzi Ballenger of RealFibers Handwoven will crochet hand-dyed monofilament webs for this community art installation.
Bugs will be collected from now until August 1, 2015. They will be on view in The Carle’s apple orchard from June 6 through August 30, 2015. Fiber art bugs can be dropped off at The Carle’s Front Desk or mailed to: Community Art Project c/o The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 West Bay Road, Amherst, MA 01002.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM
The mission of The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, a non-profit organization in Amherst, MA, is to inspire a love of art and reading through picture books. The only full-scale museum of its kind in the United States, The Carle collects, preserves, presents, and celebrates picture books and picture book illustrations from around the world. In addition to underscoring the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of picture books and their art form, The Carle offers educational programs that provide a foundation for arts integration and literacy. Eric and Barbara Carle founded the Museum in November 2002. Eric Carle is the renowned author and illustrator of more than 70 books, including the 1969 classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Since opening, the 40,000-square foot facility has served more than half a million visitors, including 30,000 schoolchildren. The Carle houses more than 13,000 objects, including 6,600 permanent collection illustrations. The Carle has three art galleries, an art studio, a theater, picture book and scholarly libraries, and educational programs for families, scholars, educators, and schoolchildren. Educational offerings include professional training for educators around the country and Master’s degree programs in children’s literature with Simmons College. Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 12 noon to 5 p.m. Open Mondays in July and August and during MA school vacation weeks. Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for children under 18, and $22.50 for a family of four. For further information and directions, call 413-658-1100 or visit the Museum’s website at www.carlemuseum.org
IMAGES ARE AVAILABLE FOR REPRODUCTION For additional press information and/or images, please contact Sandy Soderberg, Marketing Manager (413) 658–1105 / sandys@carlemuseum.org
###