If you loved Elephant & Piggie’s We Are In A Play: The Musical, or our production of Knuffle Bunny in 2013, we’d guess you are a fan of Mo Willems.
Willems was raised in New Orleans and lives in Northampton, Mass.. He graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and spent his early adulthood in New York City, where he was an aspiring filmmaker, stand-up comic and animator. Eventually he landed a gig as a writer and animator for “Sesame Street” and spent nine seasons on the show, creating the character Suzie Kabloozie and winning six Emmys.
The New York Historical Society’s DiMenna Children’s History Museum recently did an exhibit of Mo Willems work, their second full-fledged exhibition to focus on children’s books. Much of the focus of the exhibit is on Mr. Willems’s process — how he creates characters, and then builds his picture books around them. The exhibit includes original artwork featuring all Willems’ beloved characters, from Pigeon, to Knuffle Bunny, Elephant & Piggie, and more!
You can learn more about the exhibit and Mo Willems in this New York Times article.