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In The East Gallery
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
February 7 - June 10, 2012
"We are the ship; all else the sea."
Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League
On view in the museum’s East Gallery from February 7 until June 10, 2012 will be thirty-three paintings, thirteen sketches and educational materials from the book, WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball, by Kadir Nelson, award-winning artist and author. Nelson spent seven years researching, writing, and creating handsome paintings to be included in the brilliantly illustrated book, WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball, which is dedicated to the preservation of the history of Negro Leagues. During the process of creating the paintings and the book, Nelson interviewed former Negro League players, traveled to museums around the country, pored over old photographs, firsthand testimonies and documentaries, collected baseball memorabilia, sports equipment and uniforms, then posed and photographed himself in them, all with the intention of putting himself in the shoes of a former Negro League player to recreate an authentic depiction of life in the Negro Leagues. This exhibition is the story of the Negro Leagues—the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the twentieth century. But most of all, the story of the Negro Leagues is about hundreds of unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and low pay to do the one thing they loved more than anything else in the world: play ball.
The New York Times named WE ARE THE SHIP one of the Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2008, and Kadir was honored with the 2009 Coretta Scott King Book Award for this work.
On April 1, 2012, the museum will host a conversation with Sharon Robinson, Kadir Nelson, and NPR’s Scott Simon, who has written a biography of Jackie Robinson.
Support for We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball has been generously provided by Disney Publishing Worldwide.
Exhibition-related programming
Interview with Kadir Nelson
www.kadirnelson.com
To preview this exhibition visit
Smith Kramer Traveling Exhibitions
In The West Gallery
The Art of Eric Carle: The Birth of a Book and a Museum
April 3 - September 2, 2012
2012 will mark two ten-year anniversaries for Eric Carle—the opening of the Museum and the publication of “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” said the Sloth. To mark these events, the Museum will put art from the sloth book on view from April 3 until September 2, 2012.
For Eric Carle many of the ideas that he shapes into books come from his own experience. It was his involvement in the creation of this Museum that actually led him to create a book about a sloth. In 2000-2001, weeks and months of thinking, planning, meetings, and decision-making had him going at a hectic pace. Finally, he said, “Enough!” In his studio, with a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, he decided to seek out something completely opposite from the frantic life he had been living. It was there he discovered the sloth. The slow pace of this animal’s existence sent a powerful message to Eric: we need to slow our lives down.
The story began to emerge slowly, slowly, slowly. He began by investigating the habitat of the sloth and learned about the animals that lived around this lethargic creature. Through the process of creating mock-up books, or “dummies” as they are called, he continually revised the story. On view is only a small selection of these working drafts. In addition, he revised the actual art several times. Also on exhibit are some of his designs for the dust jacket as well as a selection of earlier versions of some of the book’s pages.