ABRAMS AND THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART STORE ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE PARTNERSHIP TO PUBLISH CHILDREN’S BOOKS INSPIRED BY THE MUSEUM’S COLLECTION
Publishing program launches in March 2018 with original poetry collection, World Make Way, inspired by art in The Met collection
New York, NY (December 12, 2017) — ABRAMS is partnering with The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store on an exclusive publishing program, it was announced today by Andrew Smith, Senior Vice President and Publisher of ABRAMS Children’s Books. The deal for world rights was negotiated by Howard Reeves, Editor-at-Large at ABRAMS, who developed the program and will oversee its editorial vision, and by Elizabeth Stoneman, Senior Manager of Merchandising Partnerships at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Drawing on the Museum’s world-renowned and vast collection, the publishing program will include an array of subjects and formats, including books about art concepts and histories, artist biographies, exhibition-related content, holiday-themed titles, and activity books.
First in the series is World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from The Metropolitan Museum, launching in March 2018. This poetry collection, which features an introduction by esteemed poet Lee Bennett Hopkins, includes work by eighteen prominent poets who have written original poems inspired by popular artworks in The Metropolitan Museum of Art that are lushly reproduced in full color and exquisite detail. The book represents a wide range of poets and artists, including poems by acclaimed children’s poets Marilyn Singer, Alma Flor Ada, and Carole Boston Weatherford and artworks by Mary Cassatt, Fernando Botero, Winslow Homer, and Utagawa Hiroshige. The book will also feature biographies of each poet and artist to provide context and additional background for this engaging new content.
In addition to World Make Way, the 2018 publishing program will also include I Love Art in Fall 2018. A whimsical gathering of subject matter represented in paintings, sculptures, and drawings, I Love Art is an easy and beautiful introduction to The Met collection. Starting in 2019, the program aims to deliver four to six new titles each year.
“The Met’s celebrated art collection combined with ABRAMS distinguished history as a visual publisher makes this an especially auspicious partnership,” says Smith. “Now more than ever, engagement in the arts is essential to today’s young people. This publishing program helps ensure that today’s young readers can gain critical exposure to art, artists, and cultures from around the world.”
“We are proud to partner with ABRAMS on a publication program targeted to young readers,” says Richard Pedott, The Met’s Vice President of Merchandising. “These new titles will introduce children to a diverse range of art and artists from around the globe. Our hope is to delight and inspire a new generation of artists and thinkers, which is central to the Museum’s mission.”
About The Met Store
The Met Store offers a selection of gifts inspired by The Met’s unparalleled collection and exhibition program, spanning more than 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present. The store has a presence in all three of the Museum’s iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters—and online at store.metmuseum.org.
All purchases support The Met’s collection, study, conservation, and presentation of 5,000 years of art.
About ABRAMS
Founded in 1949, ABRAMS was the first company in the United States to specialize in publishing art and illustrated books. Now a subsidiary of La Martinière Groupe, the company continues to publish critically acclaimed and bestselling works in the areas of art, photography, cooking, craft, comics, interior and garden design, entertainment, fashion, and popular culture; children’s books ranging from young adult fiction to picture books to board books. ABRAMS creates and distributes brilliantly designed visual books with the highest production values under the following imprints: Abrams; Abrams ComicArts; Abrams Image; Abrams Press; Abrams Books for Young Readers; Amulet Books; Abrams Appleseed; and a gift and stationery line, Abrams Noterie. ABRAMS also distributes books published by The Vendome Press, V&A Publishing, Tate Publishing, Booth-Clibborn Editions, 5 Continents Editions, SelfMadeHero, The Museum of Modern Art, Cameron + Company, Getty Publications, and others.
Find out more on Publisher’s Weekly >>
