Alumnus and Noted Illustrator Jerry Pinkney Named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
May 29, 2012
Award-winning illustrator Jerry Pinkney '60 (Advertising Design) has been named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies. The Academy's new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 6 at its headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.
A native of Philadelphia, Pinkney has been illustrating beloved children's books since 1964 and is the recipient of a Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished illustrated children's book, five Caldecott honors and five "Best Illustrated Books" awards from The New York Times. He is also the recipient of five Coretta Scott King Awards for outstanding children's books on the African-American experience and four Coretta Scott King Honors. He received the Silver Star Alumni Award from the University of the Arts in 1992 and will be honored with a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Bank Street Graduate School of Education in New York this month.
In 2010, Pinkney became the first individual African-American to win a Caldecott Award for his book The Lion & the Mouse. His more than 100 books have been translated into 16 languages and published in 14 countries. His artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Delaware Art Museum, the Brandywine River Art Museum and the National Museum of Wildlife Art, as well as in private collections. He has had more than 30 solo exhibitions in venues such as the Art Institute of Chicago; the California African American Museum, Los Angeles; the Brandywine River Art Museum, Chadds Ford, Pa.; Schomberg Center, New York City; and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.
Since its founding in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected leading "thinkers and doers" from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.
