Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., celebrated its annual fundraiser, the 2021 Virtual Carle Honors and Art Auction, in the digital space on September 23, the second year in a row the annual gala and fundraiser has been held online during its 15-year tenure. This year’s event was the first unattended by either of the Museum’s cofounders, Eric Carle (1929–2021) and his wife Bobbie (1938–2015), as Eric Carle died in May.
The evening opened with a warm introduction and toast from historian, author, and editor Leonard S. Marcus, one of the Museum’s founding trustees. “These last 18 months have been a strange and heartrending time,” Marcus said, but “poignantly, they’ve been a time when people across the globe have found in children’s books a much-needed sense of comfort, joy, and hope for the future.”
The event proceeded with an overview of the award winners and introductory comments by Alexandra Kennedy, the Carle’s executive director. “Our Carle Honorees remind us, this year and every year, of all the ways we’re bound together by history and by the common belief that every child has the right to thrive and grow,” Kennedy began, before praising children’s literature and its role in people’s lives. Over the course of the pandemic, picture books “helped remind children—and their anxious parents—that every story has an ending. But even as we hope for an ending to the long story of the pandemic, other stories continue to unfold, like racial inequality and climate change. We need our children, more than ever, to be able to imagine a more perfect world, to commit themselves to a more just future.”
Offering a moving tribute to Eric Carle, Kennedy called the loss not just professional but “overwhelmingly personal. He was our muse, our greatest ambassador, our inspiration, and our friend. He was the person we most wanted to make proud.”
Kennedy then surveyed some of the Museum’s recent exhibitions before giving viewers a sneak peek at its latest: “[Carle] always said his art should speak for itself, so to honor him, tonight we’ll share some of it, most previously unexhibited, from our new exhibit, ‘Color, Joy, Eric Carle.’ ” The exhibit will run through March 2, 2022.
Ellen Keiter, the Museum’s chief curator, then introduced this year’s Bridge Honorees, celebrating those whose work in other fields amplify picture books’ reach: Dennis M. V. David and Justin G. Schiller, founders of Battledore Ltd., and longtime dealers in rare and collectible children’s books, and well as originators of many of the field’s major research collections.
“As every child begins collecting, whether it’s coins or stamps, I began collecting books, and eventually worked my way through college buying and selling old books,” Schiller recalled, speaking about some of his contributions and career highlights. “Picture books are not simply for children. They are illustration that in themselves are pictorial words. Maurice Sendak used to tell me the stories he used to write would multiply 10x through his pictures.” Schiller continued, “There’s no manual on how to collect; everything’s very personal, and that’s how one should respond to the material.”
David mused, “There hasn’t been a museum like Eric Carle in America; usually it’s in Japan, where they have a strong interest and appreciation. Eric Carle was pretty much the first in America to have a significant impact in creating a repository for illustration art.”
“Through books for children, the current society dictates how they want to educate and present the future,” Schiller added. “This is part of the great joy of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Books: that they provide a launching off to understand and appreciate the vehicle that children’s books provide.”
The Carle’s director of development, Rebecca Miller Goggins, who has run the gala for more than 12 years, then introduced the second awardee, the Carle’s Angel Honoree, recognizing those who provide resources for picture book-related projects, education programs, exhibits, and more. This year, the Carle honored Every Child a Reader, the charitable arm of the Children’s Book Council, represented by executive director Carl Lennertz, overseer of the organizations’ literacy tools and resources.
“The main thing that we do is provide fun, free, and diverse materials to teachers, librarians, and booksellers,” Lennertz said, before explaining Every Child a Reader’s four national programs: the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, in partnership with the Library of Congress; Children’s Book Week, now in its 102nd year; the Kids’ Book Choice Awards, relaunching this fall, the only national book awards where only kids get to vote; and the Get Caught Reading classroom poster initiative, featuring celebrities and public figures endorsing reading.
“We’re about empowering experts to do their work and giving you the tools to empower kids,” Lennertz continued. “Picture books allow a child to take control of their own world… their environment, to create this visual world of their own.”
Nick Clark, the Carle’s founding director and curator emeritus, then shared auction art by Ashley Bryan, Petra Mathers, Selina Alko, R.W. Alley, Mike Curato, Raúl Colón, Kiku Hughes, Laura Freeman, Julia Kuo, Gordon C. James, E.B. Goodale, Roxie Munro, and Amber Ren. Bids were placed at the bottom of the viewer’s screen.
Miller Goggins returned to introduce the 2021 Mentor Honoree, celebrating champions of picture books. Patricia Aldana, founder of Groundwood Books, past president of the International Board on Books for Young People, president of the IBBY Trust, and publisher of Greystone Kids imprint Aldana Libros, was this year’s selection. Born in Guatemala and currently living in Canada, she has devoted her career to finding new voices in picture books.
“That, I hope, is my legacy,” Aldana stated, “having fought for the right of these alternative voices to be, not only published, but to be able to express the way they want to express their world.”
“As a person who’s been publishing books since 1978,” she continued, “thank goodness the Carle Museum has come into being, and is such an extraordinary institution… giving honor to these artists and creators.”
Keiter next introduced the final awardee, the 2021 Artist Honoree for lifelong innovation in the field: Raúl Colón, award-winning illustrator of more than 30 children’s books.
“Picture books are very important for the simple reason that they open your mind,” Colón stated, telling the audience how he came to a career in illustration and showing his art process. “I have to say that the Museum provides education for especially—not the children, but the parents,” Colón continued. “When the parents visit the Museum with their children, they learn a lot more than the kids. Children already know what the Museum and the art is, but parents finally learn. Anything that enriches the mind when these children grow up, or for these adults who are already grown up—it’s great, it’ll lead to a better life for everybody.”
Clark then shared more auction art by Greg Pizzoli, Rosemary Wells, Lisa Brown, Dan Yaccarino, Maurice Sendak (donated by Schiller and David), Leonard Weisgard, Mo Willems, Arnold Lobel, Michaela Goade, Ed Young, Cynthia Alonso, Simms Taback, and Eric Carle.
Poet and activist Amanda Gorman subsequently read from her forthcoming debut picture book, Change Sings, illustrated by Loren Long.
The live program then commenced with auctioneer and live host Pat Tully, who reported more than 500 guests from at least 41 states and at least eight countries. Tully narrated donations live and provided updates on the online silent auction. Five raffle baskets filled with picture books from Penguin, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Disney, and Random House, respectively, sweetened the deal for donors, with the final basket qualifying late donations or bids until midnight Eastern Time.
The online silent auction, which was open from September 17–23, ended the evening, and raised $91,800 for the 26 pieces, with Carle’s selling at $13,000, and Colón’s going for $5,600.
Proceeds from the night, which came to more than $200,000, will support the Museum and its online and in-person art and literacy programs, including picture book art exhibitions, art projects, and educational resources.
