Art Gallery

(Georgetown, Ky) December 22, 2022– Scott County Public Library is excited to announce the Traveling Panel Exhibition: Telling A People’s Story: African-American Children’s Illustrated Literature.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation in Cleveland, OH, the Miami University Art Museum (Oxford, OH) is pleased to circulate the content of the original, groundbreaking 2018 exhibition, Telling A People’s Story: African-American Children’s Illustrated Literature. The exhibition was designed primarily for use in elementary schools, public libraries and other educational institutions. The Traveling Panel Exhibition, featuring 12 panels with 120 reproduced illustrations, supports the introduction of educational resources and programming opportunities surrounding the contextualization of African-American children’s picture books.

For the first time, African-American children’s illustrated literature is the focus of a museum exhibition featuring art produced for book illustrations. The presentation of this genre offers a lens into the cultural, historical, and social makeup of African-American cultural identity, while also shedding light on the long neglected world of African-American authors and illustrators in the pantheon of children’s literature. Telling A People’s Story addresses:

• The presentation of African-American identity and history in a creative, educational and respectful manner.

• The raising of greater awareness for the role African-American illustrators and authors play in the development and growth of the field of children’s literature.

• The topic of social justice throughout African-American history.

• The need for awareness of the challenges African-American children’s book authors and illustrators face in a field lacking sufficient representation of minorities.

• The importance of appreciating the culture and history of a people who are deeply rooted in the American story.

This exhibition was 3 years in the making and included guidance and contributions from librarians, scholars, children’s book authors and illustrators. As Rudine Sims Bishop stated in her seminal 1990 article, Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors, “Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience.”  Until the 1960s, and mostly the 1970s, African-American children rarely saw themselves depicted in children’s books from the perspective of African-American authors and illustrators. Telling A People’s Story is a celebration of the power of illustrated children’s books that showcases their story.  

This poster exhibition will be available during the entire month of February. The Scott County Public Library hours are:
Monday-Thursday 9:00 am-8:00 pm
Friday-Saturday 9:00 am-7:00 pm
Sunday 1:00 pm-7:00 pm