'RETROspective': NCCIL's 25th anniversary show also spotlights Black artists

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Editor's Note: The new "RETROspective" exhibit at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature features pieces by several noted Black author-illustrators. Among those is Bryan Collier. The exhibit opens during Black History Month.

The National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature is celebrating its 25th year with a retrospective show titled ... "RETROspective." It opens Thursday.
The National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature is celebrating its 25th year with a retrospective show titled ... "RETROspective." It opens Thursday.

The silver anniversary of the National Center for Children's Illustrate Literature continues.

A new exhibit is up at the former auto garage that has become one of the best known sites to celebrate the writing and illustrations for books for youngsters.

"RETROspective" celebrates, in chronological order, the NCCIL's history. It leads to April 15, when a documentary about the center by Rob Westman will be shown for the first time at the Paramount Theatre. Westman has recorded NCCIL events and, according to his recollection, interviewed almost all the artists throughout the NCCIL's history.

Among the artists exhibited is Bryan Collier, who was in Abilene last year when the NCCIL's 25th anniversary was celebrated in October. One of seven Black author-illustrators who have been in solo and group exhibits at the NCCIL over the years, he has two pieces in the new show - "If I'm Here, I'll Be There," from the Rosa Parks book, and a work from the picture book "I, Too, Am America." The latter was exhibited in 2012 in the ground-breaking "One Voice" show that showcased those honored with annual Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards.

Author-illustrator Bryan Collier
Author-illustrator Bryan Collier

There are 65 pieces in the new exhibit, drawn from the NCCIL's traveling exhibits and from its permanent collection. At any given time, seven or eight exhibitions curated by NCCIL staff and previously on display in Abilene are being shown elsewhere in the United States, said Kayla Young, development director.

The NCCIL actually started before moving in 2000 to its current location at the corner of North First and Cedar streets.

Focusing on the artists

The NCCIL, too, is celebrating Black History Month during its Family Fun Saturdays - this weekend and Feb. 18 and 25. Black illustrators, such as Collier, will be featured.

Others who have exhibited at the NCCIL are James Ransome, Christian Robinson, Gregory Christie, E.B. Lewis, Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney.

A collection of works by Black author-illustrators is on display and for sale at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, which is celebrating 25 years and Black History Month with a new exhibit. It features seven Black artists who have exhibited here in solo or group shows
A collection of works by Black author-illustrators is on display and for sale at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, which is celebrating 25 years and Black History Month with a new exhibit. It features seven Black artists who have exhibited here in solo or group shows

Sixty-three illustrators or groups of illustrators have been featured at the NCCIL over the years.

Last year was the anniversary year, with a gala held in October. The February celebration didn't happen because of weather.

"RETROspective" will be on display into May, when gallery space is turned over to the work of this year's featured artist for the Children's Art & Literacy Festival, Brian Lies.

"It really will be like a timeline," Young said. "Anyone who has come to the NCCIL before, I think they're going to have something that hits them differently than someone else. If they remember coming on a field trip in 2001, they can go to that part of the exhibit and have those memories come flooding back to them."

Young joined the staff in 2018, so that year is special to her, she said.

A 3D tiger, created by Matthew Reinhart, leaps from a display of art at the NCCIL. Reinhart's work was exhibited in 2009, and he will be back in Abilene in April for the premiere of a documentary on the 25-year-old art center
A 3D tiger, created by Matthew Reinhart, leaps from a display of art at the NCCIL. Reinhart's work was exhibited in 2009, and he will be back in Abilene in April for the premiere of a documentary on the 25-year-old art center

"Adults will see pieces they remember," she said. Maybe as kids who came on field trips back in the day. "And kids will see pieces they remember, these back pieces that are more recent ones. they may remember coming to see Sophie (Blackall) at CALF or Matthew Cordell most recently."

Her favorite piece is "Lights in the Sky," from the 2003 picture book "Creation" by Gerald McDermott. In fact, it was the artwork selection for postcards mailed to announce the new show.

"It is so colorful," she said.

"This is not just the NCCIL's history but Abilene's history," she continued. "In these 25 years, how many things have happened downtown because the NCCIL is here. Because we are sharing our mission."

The NCCIL brought Collier to Texas

As an illustrator, Collier has won a Coretta Scott King Award and his first book, "Uptown," won the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award. He is a four-time Caldecott Honor winner.

He first exhibited at the NCCIL in 2006.

"That was my first introduction to the NCCIL," he said by phone last week from Marlboro, New York, just north of New York City, where the former Marylander now lives. " I had heard good things about it from other illustrators, and I knew it was a great landing place. And lo and behold, they asked to exhibit my work.

"I was totally floored."

Bryan Collier illustrated the award-winning book "Rosa."
Bryan Collier illustrated the award-winning book "Rosa."

How so?

"They built a replica of Rosa Parks' bus and featured my work around it," he said. "And on monitors in the bus. It was a total shock and pleasant surprise to see the work and the presentation. They do amazing work."

Collier had illustrated the Caldecott Medal-winning picture book "Rosa" by Nikki Giovanni. It was done in celebration of the 50th anniversary of her refusal to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.

Even the setting was perfect.

While driving from the airport to downtown, two tumbleweeds were blown by the wind across the road.

A Jerry Pinkney illustration from the Valerie Flournoy book "The Patchwork Quilt." The late author-illustrator's work was among the first seen at the NCCIL at its then new location on Cedar Street in 2000.
A Jerry Pinkney illustration from the Valerie Flournoy book "The Patchwork Quilt." The late author-illustrator's work was among the first seen at the NCCIL at its then new location on Cedar Street in 2000.

"I didn't believe that was a real thing. I thought that was for the Roadrunner and the coyote, you know," he said, laughing. "I said, 'Are we on a movie set? What's going on here?'"

Welcome to Abilene, pod'nah.

"I was stunned from Day 1," he said, still laughing.

His visit to Abilene last fall was his first trip back.

"It was so great to see some familiar faces and some new faces, too," he said. "It was great to visit that museum and all of the memories I made there."

He brought prints of his work, which were sold at the anniversary event, with the NCCIL getting half the purchase price.

"Funny Farm" by Mark Teague, seen in 2009 at the NCCIL.
"Funny Farm" by Mark Teague, seen in 2009 at the NCCIL.

Nowhere but Abilene

It's not lost on Collier that art and words created for children have found a home in the middle of West Texas.

"What I was enamored about is, I live in New York, and New York City wouldn't honor the work like that,: he said. "Because of the space and the expense. You would think it's so metropolitan and sophisticated that they would think of that."

Having children come to the NCCIL in February and on into spring to see art, especially by Black author-illustrators, is important, he said.

An E.B. Lewis work from his book "The Bat Boy and His Violin." It was exhibited in 2018 during the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards show at the NCCIL.
An E.B. Lewis work from his book "The Bat Boy and His Violin." It was exhibited in 2018 during the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards show at the NCCIL.

"I think it's absolutely wonderful that the kids come in. Kids of all races come in to see the work that's being done out there," Collier said. "And to know that it's possible.

"It jars me back to my childhood. We didn't see anything like that. It didn't feel like it was a possibility to have a dream like that."

But, "lo and behold, there it is in Abilene. It's a spot on the planet. It only happens there. That is what is critical and people need to understand. This does not happen in most places around the world. It happens in one spot, and that's in Abilene.

Here, he said, children can view the best work being done by men and women of all life experiences, styles and goals

"That's the charge you have," he said.

It's important to bring past Black leaders before all children

Recalling the exhibit that centered on Rosa Parks, Collier said he just finished another work with a historical focus.

Titled "Love Is Loud," it's about Diane Nash, who was a leader during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

"She walked arm in arm and shoulder to shoulder with Dr. King but nobody talks about what she has done," Collier said.

Nash also walked with the late John Lewis, who became the acclaimed, longtime congressman from Georgia.

Bryan Collier's latest illustration project is the book "Love Is Loud," about civil rights leader Diane Nash.
Bryan Collier's latest illustration project is the book "Love Is Loud," about civil rights leader Diane Nash.

Living in Nashville and attending Fisk University, a historically Black college there, she worked to desegregate lunch counters, he said.

"She organized and did freedom rides down South," he said.

President John F. Kennedy warned her, Collier said, "that there was trouble ahead but she said, 'We're going anyway. We're ready to go.

"She forged on. What a freedom fighter she is."

He used the present tense because Nash now is 84 and lives in Chicago.

This is the first picture book about her.

"I hope the children get to read about her and celebrate her work," Collier said.

"It's wide open and there are so many stories," he said of bringing Black figures of note to more public awareness.

He has another project in mind, this one set in the barbershop where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had his hair cut. He came across this part of history while doing his Parks research in 2006.

From "The Patchwork Quilt" by the late Jerry Pinkney, displayed the NCCIL in 2000. Pinkney's son, Brian, also is a NCCIL alum.
From "The Patchwork Quilt" by the late Jerry Pinkney, displayed the NCCIL in 2000. Pinkney's son, Brian, also is a NCCIL alum.

"Imagine the stories that happened in that barbershop," he said. "That chair where a King sat. It's no longer a chair but a throne."

Now, the children and grandchildren of the kids who grew up during this pivotal era of American history can better experience what happened because of these books.

"I am looking forward to talking to them as well," Collier said.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: 'RETROspective': 25th anniversary show also spotlights Black artist