Tag Archives: italy

Illustration Workshop with Gianni de Conno

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Gianni de Conno, one of the most eminent Italian Illustrators, proposes a workshop of illustration dedicated to poetry.  Internationally published all over the world, he received many acknowledgments: the Gold Medal of the New York Society of Illustrators, six-time Communication Arts Awards of Excellence and the Andersen Prize as year Illustrator.

The Abbadia a Rofeno is an ancient Benedictine monastery founded in 1031.  The building, restores to the ancient glory by a scrupulous conservative renovation, is located at the peak of hill near Asciano, approximately 20 km from Siena.  Around the Monastery, as far as the eye can see is an exclusive panoramic view of the “Crete”, which shows westwards thew view of the city of Siena and Val D’Oricia, southwards the prominences of Monte Amiata, eastwards Rapolano Terme and Serre di Rapolano, and northwards one after the other the hill towards Chianti.

Workshop from Saturday July 3 to Saturday July 10 (42 hours), includes residence in the Abbadia for 7 nights in a double room, with breakfast and lunch, complete cost all included: 860 Euros.

For more information, program notes, and registration, visit: www.mimasterillustratzione.com

Children’s Books for Reconstruction

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CHILDREN’S BOOKS FOR RECONSTRUCTION
Rebuilding life after the earthquakes
A project to help the central Italian region of Abruzzo

On April 6, 2009, in the middle of the night, an earthquake hit the central Italian region of Abruzzo. The majority of the damage occurred in the medieval city of L’Aquila (capital city of the Abruzzo region) and the 26 surrounding villages. L’Aquila and most of the villages were almost totally erased. In the earthquake 397 people died, including more than 20 children, and thousands were critically injured. The earthquake left more than 70,000 people without homes. Right now most of the people are being housed in temporary camps.

IBBY Italia, the Italian section of the International Board on Books for Young People, is promoting a project to help Abruzzo rebuild its life and future.

The project aims to realize two different levels of experience. The first level is organizing professional volunteers who specialize in children’s books and boardgames to hold readings, workshops, and meetings for children and families affected by the earthquake.  Following the immediate emergency, the project is collecting books from publishers in order to build a youth library in the area hit by the eartquake.  During the reconstruction IBBY is working with a local committee to promote a calendar of events, readings, and game sessions, bringing a public Bibliobus, a mobile library, to the area where people are now living in five main tent camps.

The project plans to be present in the area during the long period of reconstruction, and to organize meetings with authors, illustrators and specialists during the coming years in schools. The goal is to help the local community to rebuild its structure, energy, and hope in order to reinvent its future.  In order to make all this happen, IBBY Italia*, with the support of the Minister of Cultural and Artistic Heritage  and in collaboration with the local committee calls for the help of all of those who wants to contribute to this project.

Donations should be sent to:
Ibby Italia, purpose: Abruzzo Project – IBAN IT 46 Q 01030 02400 000004685403

Any proposal for fundraising for the Abruzzo Project would be more than welcome.

Contact: IBBY Italy National Secretariat – Marcella Terrusi
ibby@ibbyitalia.it
www.ibbyitalia.it

* Italian Publisher Association, Association of Italian Librarians, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, University of Bologna and the main associations and cultural subject active in the promotion of reading in Italy

Guest Entry: Emmanuel Tavares at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair

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Please enjoy this guest entry from Parsons Illustration senior Emmanuel Tavares, who accompanied our chair, Steven Guarnaccia to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair from March 23rd to Thursday 26th.

Man, do my feet hurt. The Bologna Children’s Book Fair did this to me. It also introduced me to a ton of publishers, directors, artists, and books that i had no idea even existed. The fair is one of the largest children‘s book fairs in the world. It has been held annually in Bologna, Italy for 46 years. After taking Pat Cummings’ Children’s Book class I thought I had an idea of what to expect, and I sort of did. There was just so much more of it. There were hundreds of booths, samples, framed pieces, and words I could not understand. Fortunately we deal with images and the amazing artwork more than bridged the language gap. There were publishers from everywhere including India, Jamaica, Portugal, New Zealand,  Israel, Sri Lanka, Finland, and Australia ( I never understood why a continent would be listed as a country). In all there were 1,300 exhibitors from 69 countries.

Prior to my trip I was put in touch with Marcella Terrusi, the moderator for the week long forum of scheduled discussions at the fair called the “Illustrator’s Café”. Between here advice and Steven’s introducing me to some of his friends in the publishing world there I was able to meet and speak with many publishers who my personal work would pair well with. This was a great opportunity to get insight on what the decision makers in the children’s book publishing world are thinking about when looking at an artist’s work.

I was also asked to speak at the Illustrator’s Café on a panel discussion about Illustrator Blogs. It was a great honor to be on a panel with illustrators Pablo Auladell and Anna Castagnoli and to represent Parsons to such a diverse group of professionals.

The fair was an amazing opportunity to make very important contacts that I was able to take advantage of. The response to my panel discussion was also very reassuring as there were even a few of the audience members from New York who later spoke with me about later contact. I look forward to maintaining contact with the people I’ve met during my trip. And so I’m off to complete a long list of e-mails!

Emmanuel

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Here is a gallery of images that Emmanuel collected during his visit.  Also make sure to pop over to his website and his blog for more about Emmanuel’s life, art, and career.

Thanks for the recap, E!