For immediate release — June 7, 2011
(DALLAS) — As an educational institution, Dallas County Community College District believes in and teaches reading and literacy. As a community partner, DCCCD regularly shares a love for learning and literacy with youngsters and their family members. This year, the district joins the Dallas Museum of Art as a program partner for DMA’s first BooksmART Festival on Saturday, June 11, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. downtown. (The museum is located at 1717 Harwood in Dallas.)
The free, family-oriented event features a celebration of literature and the arts as authors, artists and illustrators share their works and ideas with participants through workshops, story time, music and gallery tours. DCCCD will present Jerry Pinkey, whose books include “The Lion and the Mouse” (2010), “Aesop’s Fables” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” He also has illustrated “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,” “The Talking Eggs” and “Mirandy and Brother Wind,” to name only a few.
“I think the arts are, hopefully, encouraged today because not only (do they) give that child an opportunity to have another vehicle to express themselves, but also that vehicle is a bridge to understanding a bigger world,” said Pinkey, whose works have been featured in the New York Times and American Artist Magazine, as well as on “CBS Sunday Morning” and “Reading Rainbow.”
Overall, Pinkney has illustrated more than 100 titles and is the recipient of five Caldecott Honors, a Caldecott Medal, five Coretta Scott King Awards and four Coretta Scott King Honors. His books have been translated into 17 languages and have been published in 14 countries. He also was a United States nominee for the 1997 Hans Christian Anderson Illustration Medal. The Society of Illustrators in New York has presented Pinkney with four gold medals, four silver medals, the Hamilton King Award and, in 2006, its Original Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. Visit Pinkney’s website,
http://www.jerrypinkneystudio.com, for more information.
Pinkney served on the National Council of the Arts (part of the National Endowment for the Arts) from 2003 to 2009, and his art can be found in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library and many other museums and private collections.
During Pinkney’s 3 p.m. presentation in the Horchow Auditorium, Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr., DCCCD’s chancellor, will introduce the illustrator. Pinkey also will participate in a book signing at noon in the tent on Ross Plaza (where all featured guests will sign that day); story time at 2 p.m. in room C3 of the museum; and an art studio workshop at 4 p.m. titled “The Art of Animal Personification,” also in room C3.
Other noted guests include: Rick Riordan, Norton Juster, Laurie Halse Anderson, David Wiesner, Gene Luen Yang, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Duncan Tonatiuh, Antonio Sacre, Joe McDermott, Jan Bozarth and Faeren, Ann Marie Newman and John Bramblitt.
During the festival, DCCCD outreach staff members will be on site to provide information about the district’s programs and services, plus the college application process for prospective students and parents. The Essilor Foundation also will be on hand to offer free vision exams and glasses for those who qualify.
As a community partner, DCCCD supports the Dallas Museum of Arts’ Arts and Letters Live and the BooksmART Festival.
For more information, visit: http://www.dallasmuseumofart.org/Events/ArtsLettersLive/BooksmARTFestival/index.htm.
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Press contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu