The Story of Esphyr Slobodkina and How Caps For Sale Was Born

For Children Ages 8 to 11

This workshop is a 90-minute cultural event that gives children and adolescents an opportunity to experience how the illustrations in the highly acclaimed children’s book Caps for Sale were made. It is a lively, interactive program designed to inspire an interest in exploring children’s book illustrations and experimenting with collage.

Via a Powerpoint biographical presentation, Director Ann Marie Sayer presents the story of Esphyr Slobodkina and the challenges of her early childhood years through young adulthood.

Esphyr Slobodkina as a child

Part 1: Attendees learn about:

Slobodkina’s childhood illness, including a kindness bestowed on her and how that kindness affected her love of color and design
Early experiments with cut out paper shapes
Work in her mother’s dress shop after school
Slobodkina’s study methods
Immigration to the United States
Use of collage in her first children’s book
Creative process in building the collage illustrations for Caps for Sale

Part 2:

Participants learn how the Caps illustrations were made using collage. Ann Marie asks the children to pay close attention to what changes and what does not change in each image.

Part 3:

Following the presentation, Participants make their own collage.

Program Time: 90 minutes (can be modified).

Program Participation: Up to 40 participants per group.

Program Features:

One signed hardcover copy of each book for the venue
Coloring page handouts
Presentations that accommodate special needs and can be modified for smaller or larger groups

Program fees are: $400/single program, $600/2 programs, $800/3 programs (same day/same building).

About the Artist and Author

Ann Marie Mulhearn Sayer met Esphyr Slobodkina in 1996, when she was hired to write musical narratives for Caps for Sale, The Wonderful Feast and other Slobodkina books. Slobodkina and Sayer became close friends. Sayer has administered and exhibited Esphyr Slobodkina’s works for over eighteen years.

In the year 2000, Esphyr Slobodkina formed the Slobodkina Foundation. Ann Marie Mulhearn Sayer serves as president of the Slobodkina Foundation and has been administrating, cataloging, and exhibiting Slobodkina’s fine art, children’s books, textiles, and publications for over eighteen years. It was Slobodkina’s wish that after her death, Sayer continue her work and keep Slobodkina’s art, books, and illustrations in the public eye for future generations to enjoy.

Artist Ann Marie Mulhearn Sayer is a powerful and charismatic stage performer who spent over 25 years in the music and performance industry. Exploring all music styles, Ann Marie has composed and performed rock, cabaret, contemporary, music-theater and music-theater for children in a number of venues. Her composition, I Am a Good Child, was chosen as song of the year by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements and she was invited to perform this song, as well as other original compositions, in a concert for World Habitat Day in the 1990s. Ann Marie has toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada. She has also done studio work, voiceovers and radio commercials.

Through the new Caps for Sale sequels and posthumous performances, Sayer reawakens Slobodkina’s voice for this young generation.

For booking information contact:

Slobodkina Foundation

P.O. Box, Northport, NY 11768

Tel: (516) 532-7040