The n ~Oll·O Volume 19 RV Issue I 2002 From the Director The Norman I hope that many of you had the opportu­ from February 18 nity to share in the warmth of the fall through 22, designed Rockwell season at the Norman Rockwell Museum. to give students an Museum While the national tour Pictures for the exciting look at the at Stockb1'idge American People was in Stockbridge, over world of art. From 132,000 came to see it. During its national February 27 through April 10, we are offer­ BOARD OF TRUSTEES tour, more than one million people visited ing Art After School, a program for children Bobbie Crosby' President Perri Petricca • First Vice President the exhibition. Pictures for the American age nine and up. This seven-week class Lee Williams' Second Vice President People opened in New York at the Solomon explores the fundamental concepts neces­ Steven Spielberg· Third Vice President James W. Ireland' Treasurer R. Guggenheim Museum on November 3, sary for creating all styles of animation. Roselle Kline Chartock • Clerk where it remains until March 3, 2002, Robert Berle Ann Fitzpatrick Brown ending its two-year tour. The Museum has assembled four touring Daniel M. Cain Jan Cohn exhibitions of Rockwell's work, which aug­ Catharine B. Deely When the national exhibition left Stock­ ment our national visibility and reputation. Michelle Gillett Elaine S. Gunn bridge, Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle: The These exhibitions-Norman Rockwell's Ellen Kahn Art of Charles Schulz took over the Museum Family Life Series, Norman Rockwell's Tom Jeffrey Kleiser Luisa Kreisberg galleries and the hearts of all who have seen Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Rockwell in Harvey Chet Krentzman Thomas D. McCann it. It is a celebration of the cartoonist's the Forties: The War Years and Norman John C. (Hans) Morris extraordinary life and creative process. Rockwell's 322 Saturday Evening Post Cov­ Barbara Nessim Brian J. Quinn Organized by the Minnesota Museum of ers-contain original magazine tear sheets Tom Rockwell Edward A. Scofield American Art in St. Paul, Minnesota, in and high-quality prints. These amazing Mark Selkowitz partnership with the Charles M. Schulz exhibitions are in constant demand at Diana Walczak Richard B. Wilcox Museum in Santa Rosa, California, Speak hospitals, museums, retirement commu­ Jamie Williamson Softly and Carry a Beagle features original nities and historic locations around the TRUSTEES EMERITI cartoon strips, studies, archival photographs country. They are easily installed and viewed Lila Wilde Berle Jane P. Fitzpatrick and art materials. I invite you to come see by a wide audience who admire Rockwell's Norma G. Ogden Charlie Brown and his friends cavort art and might not otherwise have access Henry H. Williams. Jr. across the comic strip. Come smile with us. to it. If you would like further information Laurie Norton Moffatt. Director The Portfolio on bringing the art of Norman Rockwell to Volume 19, Issue I. 2002 The Museum is sponsoring a most innov­ your community, please contact Traveling Kimberly Rawson. Project Manager Cris Raymond. Editor ative juried sculpture show. Snoopy has Exhibitions at 413.298.4100, ext. 245. Mary Herrmann, Designer requested a new and better doghouse, and The Portfolio is published four times a year by the Norman Rockwell Museum we aim to find one for him. We have In this new year, we shall continue to at Stockbridge, Inc., and is sent free invited artists working in all media to carry out our mission-to preserve, to all members. © 2002 by the Norman Rockwell enter the Norman Rockwell Museum's study and communicate with a world­ Museum at Stockbridge. All rights reserved. first sculpture competition-New Digs for wide audience the life, art and spirit of Cover: Freedom to Worship. oil on canvas. the Dog. The dog domiciles will be on dis­ Norman Rockwell-by bringing you the Saturday Evening Post. February 27.1943. story illustration. © 1943 SEPS: Ucensed play here and we look forward to sharing best possible exhibitions of Rockwell's by CurtIS Publishing. Indianapolis. IN. All rights reserved this architectural adventure with you. art and that of his colleagues in the field of illustration. I look forward to seeing To enthrall our young friends, the Museum's you in Stockbridge. education department has created Art Adventures-a program for children age The Norman Rockwell Museum i. funded in seven and up. Join us during school vaca­ part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a ~~1tr- stote agency that supports public prog""'" in the arts, humanities, and sciences. tion for a special week of creative activities, Laurie Norton Moffatt Berger Funds i. proud to be • supporter of keeping the arts alive and well in the Berlcsh;,.. •. 2 Upcoming Exhibitions Nature came through with the beauty that we so much John Held Jr. and the Jazz Age needed in the midst of the September tragedy, and provided Step back in time to the us with one of the most spectacular fall seasons in memory. golden years of the 1920's The Museum galleries were filled to overflowing with with this retrospective. The visitors who came to enjoy our permanent exhibitions, exhibition highlights the compelling programs and the spectacular Charles Schulz works of one of the roaring show. We are holding four terrific new exhibitions in the twenties' premier illustra­ next few months. Good griet1 tors. Through his visuals, Held proved himself a keen Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle: The Art of Charles Schulz observer and a shaper of is currently on exhibition. Through May 5, you will have what F. Scott Fitzgerald the rare opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary life tagged "the Jazz Age." Held's and art of the beloved creator of Peanuts. Experience for portrayals of flappers, colle- yourself the cartoonist's original drawings, along with giate capers and jazz bands Photo courtesy of Illustration House. selected Peanuts memorabilia. were a departure from the New York City elegant, upper-class figures that dominated American New Digs for the Dog illustration at the time. His works poke gentle fun at the As a special and original treat, social standards of that era. View his original drawings, from April 6 to May 5, you are paintings, sculptures, artifacts and archival photographs, invited to enter Snoopy's private and witness Held's artistic evolution during a period of world! Come and see the creative cultural change in America. John Held Jr. and the Jazz Age results of many artists' three­ is on view from May 6 through September 8. dimensional depictions of the World-Famous Beagle's domicile Norman Rockwell and the ~~ ( l/ ". as they build New Digs for the Artists of New Rochelle Dog. This juried sculpture exhi­ The art of Norman PEANUTS © United Feature Syndicate, Inc. bition can be seen both in the Rockwell evolved when he galleries and on the Museum grounds. Don't bring your immersed himself in the dog; he or she will want to take one home! vibrant New Rochelle artistic community, which Sixteenth Annual Berkshire County High School Art Show offered both significant begins on March 23. The Museum is pleased to host this cultural connections and annual exhibition of diverse and original artworks by a sense of country life. many talented local students. The High School Art Show Explore Rockwell's life continues through April 21. and art during his New Rochelle years by placing Norman Rockwell in his New Rochelle studio. A FAMILY DAY OF FUN April 6 his work within the context Photographer unknown New Digs for the Dog: BUild a Better Doghouse for Snoopy of such colleagues as J.e. and Frank Leyendecker, Coles MEMBERS' OPENING May 18 Phillips, Walter Beach Humphrey, Claire Briggs, Clyde John Held Jr. and the Jazz Age Norman Rockwell and the Artists of New Rochelle Forsythe, Frederick Remington, Worth Brehm, Edward MEMBERS' DANCE PARTY June 8 Penfield and others. Norman Rockwell and the Artists of New Rochelle is on view from May 18 through October 27. 3 Charles Schulz ,..........-If Master Jan Eliot, Popular Cartoonist and Originator of the Nationally Syndicated Cartoon Strip Stone Soup I first decided to contact Charles dreams, and for the next five years three months, I suppose he faced the Schulz, whom I would later know as developed my skills in graphic design choice of either issuing a restraining "Sparky," in 1982. I had spent three and copy writing. I had the occasional order, or sending me a contract. For­ years developing and publishing my opportunity to draw a cartoon for tunately, he opted for the latter. In first cartoon strip, Patience and Sarah, some brochure or computer manual the fall of 1995, 16 years after the which featured a divorced single or employee handbook. debut of my first comic strip and 13 mom (Patience) and her precocious years after my first letter from Sparky, daughter (Sarah). I was writing from In 1988, my life changed substantially Stone Soup opened in 25 papers. A my own life situation. While this when I married my husband, Ted. He modest number, but I could finally early strip appeared in about 10 small offered emotional support and a call myself a cartoonist. newspapers and magazines, and had genuine interest in my creative pur­ piqued the interest of three syndicates, suits. I decided to try launching a I remembered Sparky's early words I had not been able to leverage these comic strip once again, and I con­ to me, admonishing me to learn to successes into a syndicate contract and vinced my local paper to give it a draw better and avoid obvious ideas. a viable career as a cartoonist.