The Big Picture

‘The Carle’ Balances Exhibition, Education, and Celebration of Artwork

Now a decade old, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, or ‘the Carle,’ as it’s known to many, is drawing visitors from across the region and around the world. They are treated to much more than collections of picture-book art, say those who manage the facility. Instead, they find an experience that is both educational and inspiring.

Alexandra Kennedy says that the most-commonly heard exclamations from first-time patrons to the Eric Carle, Museum of Picture Book Art are ‘I can’t believe this’ and ‘I had no idea…’
“They didn’t imagine something as vast and with as serious a purpose as what we’re doing here,” she explained with a sweep of the hand at the expansive great hall behind her.
Kennedy is the second director of the Amherst-based attraction, and as children galloped around the surrounding apple orchard or strolled through the soaring spaces with parents in tow, she and her colleagues told BusinessWest that, while the museum sits squarely in the cultural landscape of other exhibition halls of the Pioneer Valley, ‘the Carle,’ as it’s called, has a purpose and a presence far beyond the foothills of the Holyoke Range.
Nick Clark is the curator of the museum collections and exhibitions, and was the initial director of the museum that he helped to create with Eric and Barbara Carle. As he stood in one of the three elegant gallery spaces, he told how the initial idea for the Carle was a storefront-style operation in downtown Northampton, “not much bigger than the space we’re in right now,” he said.
While the foundation of the collection is Carle’s archive, Clark said it has always been the dream to encompass much more than that. “So instead of the Eric Carle Museum, it would become ‘the Carle.’ As the collection grows, people will realize that we are much more than just his works.”
And, indeed, the museum is much more than just a repository of picture-book art.
As director of education at the museum, Rosemary Agoglia explained three key aspects of the Carle: the galleries, a reading library, and an art studio open to all visitors at all times. But, she said, even within that framework, an important concept arises that all facets of the museum support.
“The intent is to raise a generation of museum-goers who are interested in being in a museum because they are interested in engaging their heart and mind,” she said. “In many museums, the typical visitor is engaged intellectually, but are they connected to it? This museum underscores the personal connection at its foundation.”
From educational concepts that Eric Carle was exposed to in Italy, where early-learning goals and techniques are addressed differently from testing and a formulaic, results-oriented approach, the museum that bears his name also maintains a similar philosophy.
But at the Carle’s core is that great, colorful palette of his artwork that is known to children of all ages — the Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Brown Bear, and the Mixed-Up Chameleon. Many of these originals, composed of torn tissue paper, are incredibly fragile, but the museum always has their namesake artist’s work on exhibit. And though you might not recognize some additional friends and characters on display from other artists, chances are that your children will.
And chances are that, after a visit to this museum, you might very well exclaim once again, “I had no idea…”

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Traveling in Europe and Asia, the Carles saw a variety of illustration museums, celebrating the art form in a way that they had not seen stateside. Kennedy explained that the distinction was that these museums, particularly in Japan, were preserving, promoting, and sharing picture-book art specifically.
She said that Carle has long felt himself an incredibly fortunate individual. “His fans and publishers have been great to him, and he has made incredible friends throughout the art community,” she said. “This museum was his idea to help give back.”
That original idea of a small, downtown space was scratched, however, because in a visionary fashion his scope grew as he recognized a need and a demand. In order to treat the artwork with respect, Kennedy said, the building would need to reflect that. He needed a place that was worthy of fine art.
Working with the firm Juster Pope Frazier in Northampton, Carle found architects that met his grand plans for the space. Earl Pope was the principal on that job, and the artist and draftsperson created an edifice that sits within the landscape harmoniously, complementing Carle’s commitment to nature, but also containing first-rate exhibition space.
Norton Juster, another member of that firm, contributed to the design process in more ways than one: architect by day, now retired, he is also an award-winning children’s book author perhaps most famous for The Phantom Tollbooth.
The philosophy of artwork and education was a primary goal for the museum’s design. Kennedy said that a great amount of thought went into the three gallery spaces, but added, “of equal importance is that the art is at the center of what we do, and also is a catalyst for programming. It’s a museum where people can bring children and experience picture-book art in a number of ways.”
To achieve that, an auditorium, handsomely trimmed in pale woods, offers year-round events. From authors’ readings to children’s theater and performances — through a partnership with the Northampton Community Music Center — to programming for adults within the purview of the picture book, the space is big enough to draw in the brightest lights of the industry.
At a recent opening for the Austrian artist Lisbeth Zwerger, whose jewel-like illustrations are currently on display, the museum was packed. Kennedy said that visitors came from as far away as California and London specifically for the event, underscoring the wide appeal of both the medium and the museum itself.
In the reading library, a comfortable nook with books organized by artist, Agoglia said that the function of this space is to bring the art seen out on the walls back to its original intent — “to rejoin the words and images,” she added.
Boston’s Simmons College has a renowned Library Science program, and it has partnered with the Carle, most notably in the utilization of the museum’s library. Graduate students share the space with youngsters, each finding something different in the colorful volumes.
The library is envisioned as the ‘living room’ of the museum, a place where families can gather, with parents reading to children and vice versa. But it is also home to serious scholarship in the nature of the published text.
The ‘whole-book’ concept was pioneered at the Carle library, said Agoglia, explaining how the process looks at the layout, artwork, and story as individual elements. “This technique has opened the eyes of librarians around the globe,” she said. “The book has greater potential than just the sum of its parts. The more you look, the more you see.”

Learn by Doing
From the hushed reverence of the library, the art studio at the opposite end of the Carle offers a sun-filled hubbub of creativity. The well-stocked studio is a child’s — and adult’s — dream of a space to sit down and try out different techniques.
“It’s a very open-ended approach to making things,” said Kennedy. “There isn’t any ‘make-this’ style of interaction. This is instead very much an approach akin to the practices of Reggio Emelia.”
That technique, an educational philosophy that Eric Carle was exposed to in Italy, emphasizes the importance of many different forms of critical engagement for children’s education. At the museum studio, Kennedy said this method never instructs a ‘right way’ to creatively express oneself, instead focusing on the importance of the expression itself.
“Children have an incredibly strong sense of aesthetics,” she continued, “and they learn from using tools and materials. They love to document what they think. They understand things visually. This studio encourages children to use critical thinking in the creation and viewing of art.”
Art is an expressive language, Agoglia said, and this was an important concept Carle wished to employ in the museum.
“The art studio is a place where people can learn the expressive language. It’s more about exploring the possibilities of materials, having been inspired by what they see in the galleries, what they see out the windows,” she said, gesturing to the apple orchard and hillside just outside. “It’s not project-focused space. We present people with materials and say, ‘what can you do with these?’”
Both acknowledged the shortfalls of arts funding for public schools, and how the economic downturn has prompted schools to cut back on the number and frequency of field trips to the museum. Unswayed by such circumstances, Kennedy said that the Carle has been actively venturing out into communities for art-outreach programs, and the studio technique has been a successful export, not only for schools, but for local children’s foundations as well.
The Treehouse Foundation in Easthampton is one of those groups, she said, one that she and her colleagues find inspiring to work with. An organization started by Judy Cockerton in 2002, its mission is to help improve the lives of foster children. Kennedy said that, when the foster kids are given books, with a nameplate that they can inscribe, that’s just one example of the museum becoming an important part of the lives of children in this community.

Picture This
The Carle hopes to broaden that scope of partnerships with local institutions, said Kennedy, adding, “our point of view is that we are an international institution that wants to have very deep roots locally.
“I think that, because we are young, there are people out there who don’t understand how many people we’re bringing here,” she continued. “We have a devoted local audience, but there are so many others out there.”
The Carle draws upwards of 50,000 visitors per year, and many of those guests come from well outside the region.
“During this time of year, we are the kind of place that people will make a stop on their way elsewhere,” Kennedy said, but as a member of the constituent offerings of the region, she added, “we will tell them, ‘while you’re here, why not stop in Northampton? There are great restaurants, as well as a great collection of picture-book art at the Michelson Gallery,’ or ‘here are some hotels in the area.’ We benefit from other regional venues, but I feel that we are a wonderful magnet.”
And of course, before they are wowed by the first moment walking in the door, they have come to see the picture-book art. For the permanent collections that the Carle houses, that first impression helps secure its place as a future repository of the genre.
When artists and families of artists come here, Clark said, they see what the Carles have done for the industry, and they want their material to be housed at the museum.
Zora and Les Charles, she a former first-grade teacher and he the co-creator of the TV show Cheers, have a world-renowned collection of children’s books and original artworks. They loaned the body of work to the Carle for an exhibition, but when they first visited the museum, that all changed, and the arrangement became permanent.
“Les walked in the door here and said, ‘oh my God, I had no idea about this space,’” Clark remembered. “Zora said almost immediately, ‘this is where my collection will come.’”
Another couple, Allan and Kendra Daniels, also loaned their collection to the Carle for an exhibition, but have pledged to donate a collection of early works. Clark said such gifts are an important addition to a museum with a very limited acquisitions allotment.
Several artists have agreed to make the Carle the destination for their own archives. Since the museum’s inception, collections from Zwerger, Petra Mathers, Leo Lionni, Antonio Frasconi, and what Clark called “the big enchilada,” the picture-book art of William Steig, have been added. “In many instances,” he added, “we have some of the great titans of the 20th century.”

Back to the Books
At 10 years young, the Carle has accomplished or moved stridently toward meeting many of the goals set forth by the founding members, artists and administrators alike. But Kennedy said that much more is necessary to look ahead.
“From an abstract perspective,” she said, “literature for children is changing so rapidly. I think it’s going to be important for us to carry on a mission to underscore the importance, emotionally, of reading with your children, and the impact it has on them. As wonderful as it is for children to experience other forms of entertainment, that is by all accounts the most enriching experience a child can have.
“And that’s a message that we want to keep out there,” she added.
The Carle will always be dedicated to books on paper, she explained, but will be open to the possibilities beyond. “Because it’s not the medium,” she continued, “it’s the art and the story that will be what stays with you.
“There’s a paradigm shift in the very concept of the modern museum, and that applies to us,” she continued. “You don’t want to think of yourself as merely a destination — that you’re defined by what people see when they walk in your front door. You really want to be a center for representing your mission, which for us means the promotion, presentation, and celebration of picture-book art.”
But chances are that for many years to come, she will still hear guests exclaim upon seeing the Carle for the first time, “I had no idea!”