In 1998, Ten Penny Players, as a result of two grants, was able to hire artists to work for us as consultants. Among the visual artists who worked with us were Magie Dominic, Jonathan Sharpe, Desirae Foston, and Molly Barker. Molly Barker was employed by the Waterways Project of Ten Penny Players to teach our students how to make picture books.
We met Molly at the annual Indie Book Fair at the Mercantile Library in Midtown, Manhattan. Molly's display of her limited edition art books was on a table next to Ten Penny Players’ display of Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, BardPress poetry chapbooks, Ten Penny Players' children's books, Streams, and curricula.
The picture book project evolved from Waterways’ poetry chapbook series, In Search of a Song, which had also evolved into a district wide program. Making picture books gave students new ways of thinking and approaching a subject, which helped them become better writers.
That school year Molly worked with 16-21 year old students from Frederick Douglass Literacy Center and New York City Vocational Training Center (VTC). Each class was a self-contained unit taught by one teacher. Each student produced a book, which was published in a limited edition. Some of the picture books were selected for publication in Streams.
Motherhood
Debt
We shared the picture book curriculum at the New York State Council on the Arts' Empire State Partnership’s summer seminars which enabled networking and constituency building among arts groups throughout the state. The picture book curriculum developed by Molly Barker and Ten Penny Players entered the NYS Academy of Teaching and Learning in 2000 after it underwent peer review in Albany.
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