Horse wearing a birthday hat and pink tutu prances with young child in a living room, with parents and brother looking on.
See full image
Sophie Blackall, Illustration for If I Was a Horse (Little, Brown Books). Courtesy of the artist. © 2023 Sophie Blackall.

Family Fun Day

Artists & Authors
For Families
-
Free with Museum admission

Join us for day of stories, book signings, and drawing demonstrations as we celebrate the opening of Horse Tales: Galloping into Children’s Books. Meet exhibition artists Micha Archer, Jane Dyer, Ruth Sanderson, and Audrey Helen Weber, and horses from Whispering Horse Therapeutic Riding Center!

Update: Program with Whispering Horse Therapeutic Riding Center is canceled due to inclement weather.

Schedule

11:00 am - Special Storytime with Micha Archer and Ruth Sanderson (book signing to follow)

11:30 am - Yoga for Kids, with Yoga Sanctuary

1:00 pm - Special Storytime with Jane Dyer and Audrey Helen Weber (book signing to follow)

1:00 - 3:00 pm - Crooked Stick Pops (courtyard)

1:30 - 3:00 pm - Drawing Horses with Ruth Sanderson and Audrey Helen Weber, with horses from Whispering Horse Therapeutic Riding Center.

Who You'll Meet
Author/Artist Micha Archer

Micha Archer

Micha is an artist, illustrator and educator living in Western Massachusetts. A world traveler, her sense of color and pattern is influenced by the folk art, crafts, and architecture of the world. Working with gouache, watercolors, pen and ink, and collage, she creates layered pieces from various materials on paper and digitally.
Artist website
Jane Dyer

Jane Dyer

Jane Dyer is the beloved illustrator of more than fifty books for children, including the New York Times bestsellers Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Kraus Rosenthal, Time for Bed by Mem Fox, I Love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose A. Lewis, and Talking Like the Rain: A Read-To-Me Book of Poems. She lives and works in Northampton and Cummington, Massachusetts. ​
Artist website
Ruth Sanderson

Ruth Sanderson

Ruth Sanderson is the renowned illustrator and author of over 80 books for children. Her fairytale retellings have been widely praised and much loved by children everywhere. She has also illustrated book covers, fantasy art, collector’s plates, animation concept art, and product design. She teaches writing and illustrating for children in a summer graduate program at Hollins University.

Artist website
Artist Audrey Helen Weber

Audrey Helen Weber

Audrey Helen Weber is a picture book author and illustrator from Massachusetts. They are the author and illustrator of On the Day the Horse Got Out and The Wind & the Clover and the illustrator of Tumblebaby by Adam Rex and Gwendolyn and the Light by Susan Yoon. Aud lives and works in a small town by the Connecticut River with a fuzzy black cat and a lot of used books. Their work explores the way things grow, the way things change, and how to find little moments of wonder in the chaos of our big, beautiful, complicated world.

Artist website
Explore Further
Illustration of six different colored horses leaping through air with child rider.
Past Exhibition

Horse Tales: Galloping into Children’s Books

June 17 - December 31, 2023

Saddle up for a picture-perfect horse show. 

Yoga instructor and families doing yoga in Bobbie's Meadow.
Event

Yoga for Kids!

-
Children ages 3-6 will explore movement and fun inspired by the beautiful nature found in Bobbie’s Meadow.