Represent!
A fun-filled family program featuring the art of award-winning illustrators
Join us on Sunday, January 19 at 1:30 pm. Special art projects! Make a dragon to take home and star in your magical adventures.
At LAA, we are all about representational art – but what exactly is representational art? What does it mean to represent something or someone artistically? And whose stories and experiences are being represented?
Join us for a fun-filled exploration of fabulous artists whose diverse backgrounds and artistic styles bring stories to life!
We invite elementary-aged children and their families to participate in REPRESENT! at the Lyme Art Association. Each session will feature a different artist. We will start by reading the story and talking about the artist, their background, and their style. Then we will get creative and make a fun art project inspired by the book.
This program is designed for children ages 5 through 10, although younger and older children are very welcome! No drop-offs are allowed – parents or guardians must stay and supervise their children. Art projects will be designed for both younger and older elementary-aged children.
Featured artists and stories:
- January 19: The Truth About Dragons by Julie Leung, illustrated by Hanna Cha. Learn about Hanna Cha’s artistic style and create your very own dragon!
- December 22: Hello Star by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic & illustrated by Vashti Harrison. Learn about Vashti’s artistic style, learn about painting our night sky, and make your own starry night or Christmas tree for a beautiful holiday card!
- November 24: Tomatoes for Neela by Padma Lakshmi, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal. Learn about Juana’s artistic style, learn about shapes and food, and make your own vegetable monsters or floral borders to decorate a recipe book cover!
Learn more about each artist below!
Cost: Program is free; suggested donation per week is $10. Registration required.
More About the Artists
CURRENT
Hanna Cha is a Caldecott Honor award-winning illustrator and writer with several books under her belt. She is the creator of her first book Tiny Feet Between the Mountains and illustrated Circle Round by Anne Sibley O’Brien. She was also the recipient of the Caldecott Honor and the APALA winner for The Truth about Dragons by Julie Leung and also part of the Junior Library Gold Standard Selection for The House Before Falling Into the Sea by Ann Suk Wang.
Born in America and a vagabond she lived in tandem between Seoul, Korea, and many states in America. Since graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017, she resided in Boston with her husband, and her tiger-like cuddly cat, Hobac. When she isn’t daydreaming and capturing moments with her soft washes, she is pointing and filing away at lil’ nooks of details to later conjure them into a daydream and inevitably a story.
PREVIOUS
I’m Juana and I write and illustrate books for young readers.
Alma and How She Got Her Name (Candlewick Press) was my debut picture book as an author-illustrator, and was awarded the 2019 Caldecott Honor. I am also the illustrator of La Princesa and the Pea (written by Susan M. Elya, Putnam/Penguin), winner of the 2018 Pura Belpré Medal for Illustration, and Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story (written by Kevin Noble Maillard, Roaring Brook Press), winner of the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Medal.
I was born in the busy city of Lima, the capital of Peru. Now I live in the woods in Eastern Connecticut. Here I share a home with my husband, two sons, daughter, our two dogs, and the souls of our late cat, Kitty, and ginormous dog, Puppy.
Nací y crecí en Lima, y soy bilingüe. No duden en escribirme en español.
Vashti Harrison is the New York Times bestselling creator of Big, which was awarded the 2024 Caldecott Medal, a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Book Award Illustrator Honor, in addition to being a National Book Award finalist. Vashti is also the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, and Little Legends, and the illustrator of Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe (for which she received a Coretta Scott King Book Award Illustrator Honor), Matthew A. Cherry’s Hair Love, Andrea Beaty’s I Love You Like Yellow, and Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s Hello, Star, among others. A two-time recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children, Vashti lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Represent! is generously supported by PARJE, Public Art For Racial Justice Education.