SCBWI hosted a booth at this year's Bologna Children's Book Fair, and as their official Educational Parter, Hollins had a third of the booth.
I love being so close to my SCBWI family again, it feels like coming home! Here's Dorothia during her portfolio review with our dear friend and head of SCBWI, Sarah Baker.
We were in an excellent location, right next to the Illustrators' Survival Corner, which is the gathering spot for all the illustrators from around the world who attended the Fair.
This is the first year we've had such a strong presence at the Fair and it was quite exciting. Our marketing department did a bang up job on our decor!
In fact, I gave a workshop at the ISC this year on Understanding Color. It was sold old with folks standing around the edges - marvelous!
SCBWI also did a Master Class panel led by Sarah and including Laurent Linn, who is a dear friend from way back.
I also gave portfolio reviews at both the ISC and the SCBWI booths. I love doing those.
Out of the 80,000 or so attendees at the Fair each year, thousands of them are aspiring children's book illustrators. The reason is that only big names in industry tend to attend the BCBF—it is Italy after all! And many of them offer free portfolio reviews while they are at the Fair. So, illustrators have the rare opportunity to show their portfolios to the very people who can give them their big breaks. Lines will oftentimes be 100 people long as they wait for their five minutes.
Some of them like to make sure they're memorable and dress up in fun outfits. My fave was The Mad Hatter.
For Hollins, that means that thousands of people who want to do exactly what we teach, all show up at the same place each year for four days of chaos and magic.
But not only are there portfolio reviews, there are also about a dozen highly competitive art shows at the Fair each year. I was thrilled to see artwork by Lauren Paige Conrad featured in one of the shows. I reconnected with Lauren recently when I discovered that she had stepped into her mom's illustrator shoes, doing cut paper and using many of her mom's tools to create her own beautiful artwork. Her mom was Liz Conrad, my best friend who passed away in 2009. Talk about meaningful to see this in Italy! Liz would be so proud!
Illustrators also flock to Bologna to participate in the Illustrator Walls.
These go on forever and they fill up in about 15 minutes when the Fair first opens.
Here is Dorothia's artwork. She even had little fairy lights illuminating her shadow-box-like work.
The elevator walls also fill up eventually, but Larissa got there first and popped our Hollins posters on there for some instant billboard appeal!
Mary Jane Begin's cat illustration always grabs us tons of attention!
Of course, there are plenty of reasons to wander around at the Fair as well. For instance, I got to say 'hi' to Mo Willems who was there celebrating his new publishing company. (We were supposed to be the guest author/illustrators sharing a dinner table at the Savannah Children's Book Festival years ago, but he was so popular even then, I got pushed from our table. He has stories of unruly fans and crowds!)
I stopped by the Phillipines booth because they have a
booming children's publishing industry. They were giving out shots of a popular purple liquor from their country. It sort of tasted like chocolate milk, with a serious kick! (They were very small cups - ha!)
Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian booth was giving out tastes of their delicious coffee spiked with cardamom seeds - yummy!
I also spoke with representatives from South Korea and hope to build relationships there. I also received a kind gift of a glass pomegranate from the Azerbaijan representatives. (Pomegranates are positive symbols in their culture.) Truly, the entire world is at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and they're all trying to make a good impression!
You'll also see lots of products represented, and some of them are downright magical, like the Mouse Mansion.
There are lots of food trucks and pop-up vendors for food at the Fair. I was sad my Thai truck wasn't there again this year. But there was a pop-up restaurant that searched roasted veggies that were
delish!
And truly, having Dorothia and Larissa there was such a treat. We made a great team and represented Hollins WELL!
And Dorothia's beau even helped carry out the collateral when it was time to leave!
The entire event comes down as quickly as it goes up and everyone returns to their busy lives. But in Bologna, for four days each year, we come together as the children's publishign family that we are!
