Press Release:
The Society of Illustrators is proud to announce a robust and distinguished programming schedule for the 2014 MoCCA Arts Festival, taking place April 5-6 at the 69th Regiment Armory and featuring more than 50 artists, designers, critics and scholars. Highlights of the program will include individual Q+A sessions with honored guests Robert Williams and Fiona Staples, honored guests Howard Cruse and Alison Bechdel in conversation, Art Spiegelman and Joost Swarte in conversation, a presentation by Drew Friedman, and a discussion about comics and design with Chip Kidd and Françoise Mouly.
In a special site-appropriate presentation, scholar Tad Suiter will trace the participation of cartoonists in the 1913 Armory Show that established Modernism in America at the very site of the MoCCA Arts Festival just over a century ago.
Performative reading of comics for children and a panel on comics and education will address the growing significance of children’s comics. International participants in this year’s programming include Marion Fayolle (France), Brecht Vandenbroucke (Belgium), Frederic Coché (Belgium), Nimrod Reshef (Israel), Ville Ranta (Finland) and more. North American artists including Sam Alden, Mike Dawson, Michael DeForge, Edie Fake, Drew Friedman, Sabrina Jones, Peter Kuper, Sophie Yanow, and many more will all discuss their work.
Admission to all programming events is included with MoCCA Arts Festival admission. To manage anticipated demand, first priority seating for the Bechdel/Cruse and Spiegelman/Swarte events will be given to registrants who have reserved free tickets for these events via the Society of Illustrators’ website, with any remaining seating to be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets for these two events can be reserved at the Society of Illustrators website.
This year’s programming schedule was curated and organized by MoCCA Arts Festival Programming Director Bill Kartalopoulos. The full programming schedule can be accessed online here.
The 2014 MoCCA Arts Festival will be held on the weekend of April 5 – 6, 2014 at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, running from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm each day. Tickets for the Festival will be available to purchase at the door for a flat fee of $5 per day.
About the Society of Illustrators
The Society of Illustrators, founded in 1901, is the oldest nonprofit organization solely dedicated to the art and appreciation of illustration in America. Prominent Society members have been Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell, among others. The Museum of American Illustration was established by the Society in 1981 and is located in the Society’s vintage 1875 carriage house building in mid-town Manhattan. In 2012 the Society acquired the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. It’s mission is to promote the understanding and appreciation of comic and cartoon art along with the artistic, cultural, and historical impact of what is the world’s most popular art form. The MoCCA Arts Festival, begun in 2002 and continued by the Society, features a selection of independent comic and cartoon artists and includes programming, gallery space, and an Exhibition Hall. The Society is open to the public Tuesday, 10 am-8 pm; Wednesday-Friday, 10 am-5 pm; and Saturday, 12-4pm. To learn more about visiting the Museum, Admission and the Society go to www.societyillustrators.org.
