Planning for 2011 Programs

Save the date, and please plan to come to one (or some, or all!) of our programs this year. We have collaborated with some wonderful people and organizations, on-campus and off-campus, to offer these great programs in 2011.
So, here is a quick run-down of all the programs and exhibitions that the Arne Nixon Center is planning for the first half of this year:

• February 3: Exclusive Film Screening
  Everyone is invited to see an exclusive Central Valley film screening of The Library of the Early Mind: A Grown-Up Look at the Art of Children's Literature, on Feb. 3 at the Henry Madden Library. This event is free for the public, but space is limited to the first 100 people. To see the trailer (and 'Like' it!) and get more info on the film, click here.
  
• February 10: A Child's Garden of Verses Recital
  The public is invited to a recital of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poems set to music and performed by pianist Hatem Nadim and Fresno State vocal students from the Voice Studio of Professor Emerita Helene Joseph-Weil. This event is free for the public, the recital will start at 12:30 pm at the Henry Madden Library. For more info, click here

Ashley Bryan Donates Art

     Artist/author Ashley Bryan has donated twelve pieces of original art from his famous picture books to the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, a department of the Henry Madden Library. The gift includes bright tempera paintings from The House with No Doors and The Story of the Three Kingdoms and watercolors from The Story of Lightning and Thunder and All Night, All Day. Pen and ink studies and paintings for The Dancing Granny show dancers in motion—their depiction so dynamic that they seem likely to shimmy right off the paper. The gift also includes a crayon pencil sketch from The Cat’s Purr, selected by the artist in honor of the Center’s Helen Monnette Amestoy Collection of Books on Cats.

    Ashley Bryan, who writes most of the books he illustrates, is the winner of three Coretta Scott King awards for illustration. In 2009 he won the American Library Association’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, a lifetime achievement award for substantial and lasting donations to children’s literature. In 2010 he won a Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for the best non-fiction book of the year, for his amazing and unusual picture book autobiography Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life’s Song.

Leo Politi Garden Dedication

The dedication ceremony for Leo Politi Garden were held on June 2. It was a very nice event attended by the Center's community supporters and fans of Leo Politi.

The garden honors the friendship between children's illustrator and author, Leo Politi, and his friend, the late Professor Arne Nixon. Politi, who was born in Fresno, lived most of his adult life in Los Angeles, but returned many times to speak at, and draw and paint at, workshops put on by Nixon.

The garden is funded by ANCA, the Arne Nixon Center Advocates. ANCA is the support group for the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature.

Oz: The Books Conference Round Up

Oz: The Books Conference was held on May 14-16, 2010 at Fresno State Campus, and so-sponsored by the Arne Nixon Center and the International Wizard of Oz Club.
Renowned Oz experts and speakers such as Gregory Maguire, John Fricke, Eric Shanower, and many more, shared their Ozzy experiences.
See some of the photos from the conference at Arne Nixon Center's album.
Thank you to all the speakers, performers, and everyone that helps to make the Conference a success!

Here are some of the press coverage links for the Oz Conference:

Wrap-up and Pics from 2009 ANCA Annual Meeting with Margarita Engle

The 2009 ANCA Annual Meeting was a great fun! We had about 140 people RSVPd, and perhaps a bit more attended that day.

Thank you so much for everyone that joined us last Friday for some delicious Cuban-themed food and wonderful presentation from both Margarita Engle and WILPF's Jane Addams award.

Here are some more pics, courtesy of Howard Watkins, from the event. If you missed this one -- just remember to join us next time!

Wrap-Up from ANCA event with Rip Squeak

We had good food, great speaker (Susan Yost-Filgate) and everyone looks like they had a great time. If you missed it, here's a glimpse of the event...

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