Once Upon A Picture: The Art of Marc Brown

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The Erie Art Museum proudly presents The Art of Marc Brown: A Retrospective, an exhibition of original illustrations by beloved children’s author and illustrator, Marc Brown.  Brown is the creator of the very popular children’s books, the Arthur Adventure series, which developed into the PBS television series Arthur.  The exhibit showcases many of his delightful pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor illustrations featuring the ever-popular characters and stories he has created.  For more than three decades, Brown has been illustrating children’s books, and for more than twenty years he has been writing children’s stories both alone and with his wife, Laurie Krasny-Brown.  Brown was originally inspired by the books of Maurice Sendak to illustrate warm and humorous stories that offer realistic subject matter for children and involve family, friends, and school.

Drawn from Marc Brown’s private collection of his artwork, the exhibition includes storyboards, drawings with rubylith overlays, pen and ink and watercolor drawings, and a layout dummy.  One of the earliest works highlighted in the exhibition is Arthur’s Nose from 1976, Brown’s first solo endeavor as author and illustrator which featured Arthur the aardvark.  Roughly half of the works are from the Arthur and D.W. series.  The remainder range from pen and ink illustrations for stories based on Buddhist admonitions to marker, watercolor, and pencil drawings for pop-up books for toddlers and from endpapers for joke books to cover illustrations for stories based on African folklore.

Brown’s most loved character, Arthur, goes through experiences that are very relevant to children’s lives, as they witness Arthur grappling with issues that confront most of us in our youth, such as making friends, caring for family members, learning responsibility, and overcoming fears of public speaking.  Because many children identify with Arthur and his friends, they are generally very enthusiastic about exploring these characters through reading and other interactive learning activities.  Institutions wishing to host this exciting exhibition will find a number of supplemental children’s activities suggested by the Erie Art Museum and will also find exhaustive information sources on the World Wide Web concerning Marc Brown, Arthur, and friends.  Hosting this exhibit opens doors to collaborations with local public television stations, bookstores, libraries and literacy programs, among other possibilities, all of which the Museum strongly encourages.

Space requirements and rental fee:

The exhibition consists of 73 works in 58 frames, with one three-dimensional display case that should be mounted to a wall.  The exhibit requires 178 running feet.  Two larges character cut-outs for wall mounting (of Arthur and D.W.) are included with the exhibition, as well as wall labels and text panels.  Exhibition Rental Fee:  $9,500 + shipping & insurance, for bookings up to 12 weeks duration.  Call 814-459-5477 for availability or other questions.

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