STOCKBRIDGE, MASS.- This weekend Norman Rockwell Museum will debut a new, comprehensive, online resource dedicated to the illustration arts. The Illustration History website will serve as an evolving digital forum, providing greater access to information about the field in which Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) played a seminal role. A public launch will be held at the Museum on Saturday, August 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., providing demonstrations of the new site, along with a reception with its production team. To RSVP, contact the Museum at 413.931.2263, or brundback@nrm.org
This first-ever digital connection to an aggregated history of illustration art was made possible, in part, by a generous grant from The National Endowment for the Arts’ ART WORKS program, and an anonymous donation in honor of illustration history, Walt Reed (1917-2015).
The Illustration History website will be devoted to the documentation and study of American illustration within aesthetic, cultural, and historical contexts. It will be populated by Museum staff and scholars working across disciplines throughout the world. The project is an outgrowth of a multi-year discussion among museum curators and academic scholars working in partnership with the Museum through our Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies – the nation’s first research institute dedicated to the integrative study of American illustration, established by the Museum in 2009. Comprised of several distinct programs designed to advance scholarship and access relating to this influential but understudied aspect of American visual culture, the Center currently supports the Rockwell Scholars Program, which provides annual fellowships for graduate and post-graduate scholars choosing to pursue research in or relating to the field of American illustration from diverse academic perspectives. The Center’s curators also have led a weekly Critical Seminar for graduate illustration students at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
For a preview of the site, visit
illustrationhistory.org
