Exhibit | August 8, 2011

The Eric Carle Museum Exhibits Winnie-the-Pooh

(Amherst, MA)  The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts is now showing a small exhibition of Pooh and his friends, featuring the book’s penultimate drawing from Winnie-the-Pooh recently purchased by private collectors.  The iconic piece depicts Pooh and Piglet walking into the sunset just moments before they turn back into ordinary toys, and Christopher Robin drags Pooh “bump, bump, bump” back up the stairs.”  Additional Pooh drawings on long-term loan from the Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA), are also on exhibit through September 4th.

“Happily for The Carle, the collectors generously asked if we would like to have this drawing on loan for a period of time.  We are pleased to make this wonderful work the centerpiece of a small exhibition surrounded by a selection of other engaging Pooh drawings from the Penguin archive,” said Carle’s Chief Curator Nick Clark.

Winnie the Pooh is one of the most beloved animals in children’s literature, according to Clarke.  Making his first appearance in 1926 in Winnie-the-Pooh and again in the 1928 sequel, The House at Pooh Corner, this “bear of little brain” has been immortalized by the words of author A. A. Milne and the simple but enduring illustrations of E. H. Shepard. Together with his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger, Pooh’s adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood have enchanted readers young and old for over eight decades, and have been described as one of the greatest celebrations of childhood. 

The timelessness of these stories and drawings is captured in what Milne wrote at the end of Chapter X in The House at Pooh Corner, In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place and We Leave Them There: "Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on top of the Forest, a little boy and his bear will always be playing."
 
About the Museum:
Together with his wife Barbara, Eric Carle, the renowned author and illustrator of more than 70 books, including the 1969 classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar, founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art as the first full-scale museum in this country devoted to national and international picture book art, conceived and built with the aim of celebrating the art that we are first exposed to as children. Through the exploration of images that are familiar and beloved, it is The Museum’s goal to provide an enriching, dynamic, and supportive context for the development of literacy and to foster in visitors of all ages and backgrounds the confidence to appreciate and enjoy art of every kind.
 
The Museum—which houses three galleries dedicated to rotating exhibitions of picture book art, a hands-on Art Studio, a Reading Library, an Auditorium, a Café, and a Museum Shop—is located at 125 West Bay Road, Amherst, MA. Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday 10 am to 4 pm, Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday 12 noon to 5 pm. Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for children under 18, and $22.50 for a family of four. For further information and directions, call 413-658-1100 or visit The Museum’s website at www.carlemuseum.org.
 
IMAGES ARE AVAILABLE FOR REPRODUCTION For additional press information and/or images, please contact Sandy Soderberg, Marketing Manager (413) 658-1105 / sandys@carlemuseum.org
 
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