Eric Carle Museum Unveils New Art In Place Virtual Exhibit

If you haven’t visited the fantastic The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, you should add it to your post-quarantine must-visit list. The brightly colored space is a flurry of creativity and images from Eric Carle’s most famous books, but also features amazing collections of art from other beloved  children’s book creators. It also has exceptional hands-on areas where kids (and grown-ups) can create art of their own. 

In the spirit of keeping minds creative, the museum has curated a new collection of art, called Art In Place: Social Distancing in the Studio. The new exhibit, which you can visit virtually, has collected new art from 21 picture-book artists around the world that they’ve created while they’ve been socially isolated in their studios. 

Illustrators and authors like Mo Willems, Sandra Boynton and many others share images of their latest creations, and write about what has inspired their art lately, and their thoughts on the challenges they face while socially isolated. You can see the exhibit here. 

Willems, who co-curated this exhibit, saved us in the early days of quarantine with his daily doodles (which you can still do here). He has also spent this month doing Thank You Thursdays encouraging his young artists to thank people like scientists for the work they’re doing. This Sunday, May 31st at 5 pm, he’ll be doing the Yo-Yo Mo Show, which is an  evening of musical doodling and a a collaboration between Willems and famed musician Yo-Yo Ma where the two will  art and music together. Tune into that on the Kennedy Center website.