Romare Bearden

Citywide Exhibit Celebrates Harlem Collage Artist Romare Bearden. A ny1.com segment from 11/04/04 A new citywide celebration of Harlem artist Romare Bearden is not just for the adults. NY1's Stephanie Simon has more in the following report.

Romare Bearden may have elevated collage to a fine art, but that doesn't mean kids don't still love cutting, pasting and creating those mosaic-like works of art. And that's what they're doing now at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. "I'm making a collage…You stick it together with the things you cut out," says one little artist.
"You put glue on it and stick it together," says another. A collage workshop is part of an ongoing celebration of Romare Bearden at the Brooklyn Children's Museum and around the city. The late New York artist was best known for his collages.
You can never have too much glue. In fact the term collage comes from the Latin word colla which means glue. In the museum's community gallery, while these youngsters make their own collages, they're also learning about the master, Romare Bearden. And like Bearden, these kids certainly cut a wide swath with their creations. After cutting and pasting it was story time with "Lil Dan, The Drummer Boy: a Civil War Story." It's the only book ever written and illustrated by Romare Bearden. He died in 1988. The book was pieced together by his family after his death and published last year. "They found the written material as well as the illustrations and they decided to publish the work," says Niobe Ngozi of the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Bearden's original illustrations for the book hang on the walls at the museum. It's the first time this artwork is being shown publicly anywhere. So just about anywhere kids look, their eyes are sure to be glued to the work of Romare Bearden.