Thursday, April 18, 2013

On the Road and in the air … first stop China!

Books Illustrated has been on the road, and in the air, for the last few weeks with exhibitions and projects overseas. 

First stop was China.
In Nanjing we were hosted for a week by the very enthusiastic and generous team working at Oriental BabiesPublishing, looking at projects and possible collaborations.


Ann James working with design team at Oriental Babies Publishers. 
In Beijing, starting on Thursday March 3, we installed our ‘Hello! from Australia’ exhibition at the Capital Library and ran a planned program of workshops for children. Over the weekend workshops were attended by the general public, while during the week, they were attended by groups of school students from local and international schools.  This program was planned in conjunction with the Beijing Writer’s Week which this year had a focus on children’s books and publishing. Special guests from Australia invited to take part in the program were author illustrators Anne Spudvilas,  Ambelin Kymullina, Alison Lester and Ann James, along with Children’s Literature academic Pam Macintyre. They took part in an information night forum held at the exhibition.  Another event at the venue which was a major part of the Writer’s Week program this year, was attended by Australian and Chinese publishers. Our week in Beijing was frenetic, and we experienced extreme weather, from thick pollution and smog to an unseasonal dump of snow … which made a visit to the great wall quite special!


Beijing Capital Library workshops with Ann James and Anne Spudvilas.
To be continued in chapters...