The Very Friendly Museum
Famous illustrator will build $10-million museum for picture book art
Staff -- School Library Journal, 11/1/1999
In a few years, the public will be able to view some 1,200 original tissue-paper collages from The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other famous Eric Carle picture books in a new museum Carle's building in Amherst, MA. The idea for the museum is part practical -- Carle needs a home for all his artwork -- and part idealistic. Says Carle: "I have been very fortunate. My work has found worldwide acceptance and I have been handsomely rewarded.... I would like to give back what has been given to me." Besides donating his work, Carle and his wife, Barbara, will donate about half the $10 million it will take to build the museum, with the rest raised from outside sources. If all goes well, the museum should open in 2002 as part of a new "cultural village" surrounding Hampshire College.
