Cornish Colony Museum Winter Exhibit
Illustrating the Imagination:
Celebrating Children's Illustrators From the Cornish Colony and Today
Tomie dePaola, Why are you here so early?
From Country Angel Christmas.
Coll. of Tomie dePaola
Why children's illustrators?
The Cornish Colony Museum is dedicated to celebrating and preserving the heritage of the Cornish Colony and its many members. However, the Museum is also committed to continuing the creative traditions of the Colony in the community today. The Cornish Colony Museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational institution: our primary purpose is to educate visitors and to provide an educational resource for the community.
We interpret this mission to say that the Cornish Colony Museum is here, first and foremost, to support and benefit the community. Each museum exhibit is designed to teach out-of-town visitors about the rich heritage of this area, to educate members of the community about our shared history, and to surprise and delight all of visitors with the new and unexpected. In the 2009 summer exhibit, many visitors were pleasantly surprised to learn that the famous dancer, Isadora Duncan, was a member of the Cornish Colony. We hope to always be able to delight museum visitors with such information.
Illustrating the Imagination is an exhibit dedicated to educating museum visitors about the history of the area - in this case, the greater northeast. Our part of the world is full of remarkable and memorable children's illustrators, from Maxfield Parrish at the turn of the 20th century, to Tomie dePaola at the turn of the 21st. These artists are continuing the tradition and the spirit of the Cornish Colony: an artistic legacy and spirit of friendship and community. What better way to celebrate the endurance of the Colony in today's world?
Illustrators have long been associated with the Cornish Colony. Maxfield Parrish is probably the best-known of Cornish's illustrators, well loved for his representations in Arabian Nights, The Knave of Hearts, Colliers and Harpers magazines, and a variety of other works. Less well known, but equally influential within the Colony, were Everett Shinn, Florence Scovel Shinn, William Henry Hyde, William Ladd Taylor, and Frederic Remington (better known for his paintings and sculpture). Illustrators across the last century, from Norman Rockwell to K.Y. Craft, have repeatedly noted the influence of these artists. It is therefore high time to celebrate their continuing legacy with the illustrators featured in Illustrating the Imagination.
Spencer Baird Nichols, Florentine Fête, after Maxfield Parrish
Coll. of Juniper Hill Inn
The theme of Illustrating the Imagination is, of course, the imagination, but it is also the many different ways of understanding and representing the imagination. The diversity within children's illustration is remarkable, as this exhibit demonstrates. From technique to subject matter to influence, the artists of the region often have little in common beyond their audience.
This audience is not always children, however. Even as we move from childhood into the responsibilities and realities of the world, children's illustrations retain their charm and attraction. They remain a comfort, a doorway into an idyllic time: reading by a fire on a cold winter night, or under a blossoming tree, or by the light of the flashlight hidden beneath a sheet. Childhood is rarely as idyllic as we remember it to be, but the illustrations we enjoyed somehow capture the best moments and preserve them, only to be fondly remembered by turning the pages of a book.
Children's books and illustrations are one of the few tangible representations of childhood, and it is rare to find an adult who does not remember their favorite author or illustrator from their early years. In planning this exhibit, I asked a number of my friends and colleagues to name their favorite children's illustrators. They almost invariably rattled off a list without hesitation, and it was apparent that these artists were very influential in the lives of these people.
Clement Hurd, Runaway Bunny
Coll. of Thacher Hurd
Reading a favorite or even a brand-new children's book is like stepping into a protective bubble: all the troubles and stresses of the day-to-day world disappear, if only for a few minutes. Such escape is always necessary, but I feel it is especially needed this year. Economic issues are of top concern; violence in our world is as prevalent as ever; conflict is raging throughout our country and its government; even our natural resources are threatened. Many of our traditional escapes — travel, nature, friendship — are more reminders of our problematic world than a trip away from it all.
Children's illustrations, however, are always an escape — whether into a world of talking animals, Greek mythology, a familiar fairy tale, or someone else's ordinary or extraordinary challenges. What better escape is there than into another's imagination — and into our own?
While you are admiring the talent and imagination of the artists from this region, I hope you will also find yourself transported, if only for a short while, into a world familiar but unknown, different yet comfortable, unexpected yet still welcome.
The exhibition runs through Sunday, March 28th 2010.
Located in the historic Old Windsor Fire Station
147 Main St., Windsor, VT.
(802) 674-6008
Winter Hours:
Thursday - Sunday
10:00am to 4:00pm
Monday - Wednesday by appointment only