A continuing education presentation about fostering art and art appreciation in a library setting through the Westerville Public Library's Picture This! programming series. Presented by Robin Gibson and Rebecca O'Neil for the Northeast and Central/Southeast chapter conferences for the Ohio Library Council (OLC).

1. Picture This!
Exploring Picture Books
Through Art Programming
Robin L. Gibson & Rebecca O’Neil
Westerville Public Library

3. Via
http://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/keeping_up_
with/visual_literacy

4. Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)

5. RIF – Artistic Adventures: How Appreciating Art Can
Promote Literacy
By encouraging children to analyze what they see, you help them develop their imagination, critical
thinking skills, and powers of observation.
Artistic Adventures Can Promote Literacy
The next time you take children on an artistic adventure, try “reading” the works of art together. You’ll
help children develop reading-related skills as they learn about the artist and the people, places, and time
period depicted in the artwork.
Talk descriptively about what the artist created.
Discuss the people, places, and things you see in the work of art.
Ask children to tell you what is happening or what is depicted in the work of art.
Learn about the artist and ask children to imagine what the artist was thinking when he or she created
the work of art.
Prompt children to discuss what they like or dislike about what they’ve seen.
Ask children to talk about how the work of art makes them feel or what it reminds them of.
Encourage children to bring a notebook and jot down their observations.
Have children write a response to a particularly memorable work of art when they get home.
Encourage children to check out books from the library on an artist or the technique in which they
demonstrated the most interest.
Like any school trip or family outing, artistic adventures can engage children in a part of the world that
they may have known little or nothing about. These experiences can inspire them to read about what
they saw so they can learn more.
http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/artistic-adventures-how-appreciating-art-can-promote-
literacy.htm

6. Picture This Program Format
- A series of programs – this allows for continuity; one week we may make
something that is to be used the next week (examples – Eric Carle paints
his paper for collages, so did we; scratchboard – you can buy it, but we
made our own the week ahead of time)
- Focus on the illustrator of picture books; we try to use the same process,
or as close to it as we can get
- First week make a portfolio – the work is kept here at the library for this
program, do get to keep it all at the end
- Next to the last week they review their portfolio and choose one or two
entries for the art show. They are the curators of the show and write an
artist’s statement to accompany their work.

8. Begin with reading a book

10. Eric Carle,
The Very
Hungry
Caterpillar
Collage –began by making our own
paper, just as he does.

12. Wanda Gag
Millions of Cats
printmaking

14. •
Ian Falconer, Olivia

15. A detail from Autumn Rhythm #30 by Jackson Pollock is
found in Olivia. The painting hangs in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, in New York.

17. Action Jackson by Jan Greenburg & Sandra
Jordan, Illustrated by Robert B. Parker

19. Action Painting

21. It Looked Like Spilt Milk
by Charles G. Shaw
Inkblot by
Margaret Peot

22. Inkblots – what do you see?

24. The House in the Night
by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by
Beth Krommes
Scratchboard

25. Making our own
scratchboards

26. The Artist’s Statement

33. What does a curator do?
Ask:
Who has ever visited an art museum?
How were things arranged?
Do you collect anything yourself?
The curator organizes the art work – decides what is
included, where it should be put, in what order, what
explanation to give.
Participants are the curators in Picture This. They have
the power of choice, to make decisions.

34. Getting ready for the art show

35. The Art Show

37. Resources
• Making Art with Children blog, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
http://carlemuseum.org/blogs/making-art
• Storybook Art: hands-on art for children in the styles of 100 great picture book
illustrators by Mary Ann Kohl. Bright Ring Publications, 2003.
• Kid Made Modern by Todd Oldham. Ammo Books, 2009.
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bkmuse/picture-this-2012/
https://www.pinterest.com/bkmuse/picture-this-2013-caldecott-edition/
https://www.pinterest.com/bkmuse/picture-this-2014-fine-art-edition/

38. 2013 Picture This:
Caldecott edition
• Jerry Pinkney, The Lion and the Mouse (watercolor)
• David Wisniewski, Golem (cut paper)
• Kevin Henkes, Kitten’s First Full Moon (pen and ink)
• Denise Fleming, In the Small, Small Pond
(papermaking/painting with paper)
• Melissa Sweet, A River of Words and A Splash of Red
(mixed media)
• David Ezra Stein, Interrupting Chicken & Because
Amelia Smiled (steinlining)

39. Denise Fleming In the Small, Small Pond,
Papermaking (Summer 2013)

41. And David Ezra Stein, Interrupting Chicken
(paint, and “Stein-lining” as in Because Amelia Smiled)

42. Picture This 2014
Fine Art Edition
• Frida by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Ana Juan
• Chuck Close Face Book By Chuck Close
Self-portraits
• Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! Written by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
• Magritte’s Marvelous Hat, Written & illustrated by D. B. Johnson
Cubism (cardboard sculptures) and surrealism (magazine collages)
• Coppernickel Goes Mondrian
Written & illustrated by Wouter van Reek
Painting in Piet Mondrian’s block style
• Henri’s Scissors Written & illustrated by Jeannette Winter
Collage (painting with scissors)
• If Rocks Could Sing
Written & illustrated by Leslie McGuirk
Nature sculpture (inspired by Andy Goldsworthy)
• Sandy’s Circus Written by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Boris Kulikov
Wire sculpture & mobiles

54. Thank you!