Good Morning Gloucester

press release from Cape Ann Museum:

“The Little House: Her Story

Exhibition Opening & All Day Celebration

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (October 25, 2018) – The Cape Ann Museum is pleased to present a day-long celebration to mark the opening of the special exhibition, The Little House: Her Story, on Saturday, November 3, 2018 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Throughout the day, watercolor painting in the CAM Activity Center and origami daisy making in the gallery will be available for all ages. The Little House will be read by Museum staff at 10:30 a.m., 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. At 1:00 p.m. there will be a film-screening of Virginia Lee Burton: A Sense of Place with film producer Christine Lundberg. Light refreshments will be served in the gallery from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. This program is free for Museum members or with Museum admission.

The Little House: Her Story is a special exhibition featuring the work of beloved children’s book author & illustrator and founder of the Folly Cove Designers Virginia Lee Burton (1909–1968). In addition to Burton’s drawings, book illustrations and prints, an artfully-created scale model of her “Little House” will be on display in the gallery. The exhibition will remain on view through March 31, 2019.  

The “Little House” model was fabricated in Japan for a highly-anticipated exhibition held at the Takenaka Corporation Gallery A4 in Tokyo last summer in celebration of the 75^th anniversary of the publication of Burton’s famous tale, The Little House. The exhibition paid tribute to Burton’s books and her work as the founder of the Folly Cove Designers, which have garnered widespread acclaim in Japan. The Tokyo exhibit was organized by Gallery A4 curator Michiyo Okabe, using original artwork and archival materials lent by the Cape Ann Museum, the Sawyer Free Library, the University of Minnesota, and the Burton-Demetrios Family.

The exhibition celebrates the life, art, and work of Virginia Lee Burton, one of Cape Ann’s most important artists whose legacy lives on today through her books and in the lifelong memories created for so many children. Burton, who lived and worked in the Folly Cove area of Gloucester for most of her adult life, was one of the 20^th century’s most admired children’s book authors; a versatile and uniquely talented artist who enjoyed dance, design, writing, illustration and teaching. Through her children’s books – Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Katy and the Big Snow, The Little House, and Maybelle the Cable Car among many others – she achieved her widest acclaim and was awarded the coveted Caldecott Medal in 1943 for The Little House. It was her fourth book, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, and was translated into Japanese in 1954 by Momoko Ishii, later becoming an international success. In 1964, Burton traveled to Japan for two weeks, invited by the American Cultural Center in Tokyo and was hosted by Ishii.

The Little House is a timeless story of a small, simple house in the country that gradually changes as urban expansion threatens its quiet, pastoral existence. Larger buildings, traffic, and development encroach on the house as it endures unwelcome change through the seasons and neglect once its owners move out. But, the family’s descendants realize its value, load it onto a trailer, and relocate it into the country once again. The Little House is a story about honoring beauty, the past, the natural world and all of its peacefulness. It has captivated readers from all cultural backgrounds for decades.

This exhibition and related programming was made possible through the support of the Takenaka Scholarship Foundation; the Cape Ann Savings Bank; Nancy LeGendre & Walter Herlihy; Mary Craven; Margaret Pearson; Christine & Stephen Kahane; Arthur Ryan; J.J. & Jackie Bell; Gib & Sarah Carey; Paul & Christine Lundberg; and Andrew Spindler. For more information about the exhibition and related programming, please visit the Museum’s website www.capeannmuseum.org. 

Image credits: Courtesy of the Cape Ann Museum.

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