May
- June 2004
The second annual New York Showcase Art Exhibition and Auction was a rousing success. With over 125 participants and more than 700 attendees, the evening was quite festive. This year, we previewed the art for the New York publishing community. Editors and art directors from the following houses are among those who attended: HarperCollins; Harcourt; Penguin Putnam; Scholastic; Aladdin; Atheneum; Hyperion; Little, Brown; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Henry Holt; and Simon & Schuster.
Many agents and art reps also previewed the art. Chris Tugeau, a well known artists’ rep commented, “The NYC mid-winter art show is a joy to view! Editors and ADs and reps like me DO make the trip on a Saturday to view the talent on display... and yes, I did pick up a new artist for my group there this year!”
Several art directors say that it gives them the opportunity to see new talent from across the country. Many members have been discovered at the art show. In fact, one of our runners up, Kyra Teis, had her piece purchased by Bonnie Bader, an Editor at Penguin Putnam.
Rosanne Guararra, Art Director at Penguin Putman, believes this art show/auction can help our illustrators, “It’s so important for EXPOSURE. Sometimes professionals who can’t make the whole conference will show up for the auction as I did myself. So it’s important to get your work out there in any way, shape, or form!”
The art show was juried by five professionals in the children’s book community where two runners up and a Grand Jury winner were chosen. The judges had a tough time narrowing down the competition. All were impressed by the quality of work and felt it was an ideal opportunity for members to showcase their work. The runners up were Kyra Teis and Ruben de Jesus, who each won $250. The Grand Jury winner was John Rocco who won a full page ad in Picture Book ($1800 value). The auction averaged about $550 per piece that was sold.
This year we instituted a silent auction of sorts. Each piece of art had a comment sheet next to it where interested buyers could leave their information for the artist. Once the auction was complete there were over twenty more pieces sold. In fact, a few people had bidding wars for their pieces.
The turnout by New York Publishing was the largest ever with nearly all of the publishing houses and agencies represented.
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