Family Stories Festival 2019

ALL AUTHORS AND ARTISTS PLEASE READ

Festival information for all students who participated in The Grannie Annie 2018/2019

Congratulations on saving a story from your family’s history, or illustrating a Grannie Annie story! We value and appreciate your work!

You are invited to take part: Family Stories Festival on Sunday, June 2
The Grannie Annie invites you to play a special part in this year’s Family Stories Festival. The event is open to the public, so please invite your teachers, extended family, and friends to join you. You can see photos of last year's event here. Please review the Festival information on this website page and then be in touch if you have any questions or concerns.

Reserve your place in the Festival
All students who wish to participate in the Festival (whether your work is published or unpublished): Please reserve your place in the Festival by Friday, May 24, so that preparations can be made for you. You may make your reservation by e-mail or by calling Fran at 636-527-2822. Leave a message including your name (author's or illustrator’s name), your story title, and your phone number.

Students whose work is published in Volume 14: Please join us! Reserving your place by Friday, May 24 will allow your name to appear in the printed program. You will be invited onstage to read your published story or an artist statement, which we will help you write, about your published illustration. You are also invited to take part in the Reception and Book Signing following the Stories Program.

Students who participated in The Grannie Annie this year and whose work is unpublished by The Grannie Annie: Please join us! You will be introduced individually, and invited to stand and be honored. You are also invited to take part in the Reception following the Stories Program.

Coaching for students whose work is published in Volume 14
Please see the column to the right for information about free coaching sessions to help you prepare for your part in the Festival.

Festival check-in information
All students who have reserved a place in the program should check in on the lower level of the Missouri History Museum around 1:30 if possible, and no later than 1:45 p.m. Please allow plenty of time for parking and, possibly, walking some distance to the Museum. (See Transportation information.) [Link to be added] Once inside the Museum, look for a Grannie Annie representative holding a Grannie Annie poster or book and wearing a Grannie Annie name tag. You will be directed downstairs, where you can check in and receive your own Grannie Annie name tag — and, if there’s time before the program begins, have your photo taken at The Grannie Annie’s photo station. You may include your family storykeeper, other family members, memorabilia related to your story, or your illustration in your photo.

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IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE:
ADDITIONAL FESTIVAL INFORMATION

Purchasing items at the Museum
Before the program begins, adults may wish to visit the Museum store on the main floor and purchase copies of Grannie Annie, Vol. 14, in order to be ready to have the books signed following the Stories Program. Enlarged prints of the published story illustrations on display will also be available to purchase through the Museum shop. To be sure an enlarged print will be available for you for pickup on the day of the Festival, please e-mail Connie by May 29.

Festival photo information
Ideally individual photos will be taken before the Family Stories Program begins — your timely arrival will help to make this possible. We plan to take large-group photos after the Stories Program ends and before the Reception and Book Signing begin. If you have not had your individual photo taken before the end of the afternoon, please introduce yourself to our photographer at the photo station so we will be sure to have your photo. Students in photos are not identified on The Grannie Annie’s website or tagged by us on Facebook pages, although they may be identified elsewhere, such as in newspaper articles.

Festival details
All parts of the Family Stories Festival will take place on the Museum’s lower level.

The Grannie Annie Art Exhibit 2019 will be on display in the Bank of America Atrium from 2:00 until 4:00. Illustrations published in this year’s book will be enlarged, printed and matted, and displayed along with excerpts from the stories they illustrate.

The Family Stories Program will be held in the Lee Auditorium and will begin at 2:00 p.m. Authors and artists whose work is unpublished will sit with their families, and will stand as they are introduced during the Welcome and Introductions. Each student's name, school name and location, and story title will be given.

Participating authors and artists whose work is published will be seated together in reserved rows, separate from their family members and the rest of the audience. This is to ensure that they can easily exit their row and get to the stage promptly when it is their turn. The authors whose stories are published will read their story, and the artists whose illustrations are published will read their artist statement. The story title and author name, and the illustration and artist name if the story is illustrated, will appear on a large screen. Our introduction of each author or artist will include her or his name and the school and grade of the author or artist when the story or illustration was created. Authors may include a little background information about their story if they wish, or may simply read their story from a printout that we will make available, beginning with the title and story setting.

If the author and the illustrator of a published story are both on the program, once the author has finished reading, the author will leave the stage, and the artist will go to the stage to read the artist statement. If the illustrator of a published story is on the program and the author is not, the emcee will introduce and summarize the story. When an artist arrives onstage, the emcee will introduce the artist and point out some strong points of the illustration — the qualities that caused the piece to be selected for publication. The artist will then read the artist’s statement.

The program will proceed in chronological order by story setting dates of the published stories.

Printed programs will be available and will include the story titles and names of published authors and artists who have reserved their place in the program prior to the reservation deadline of Friday, May 24.

The Reception and Book Signing will take place in the AT&T Multipurpose Room following the Family Stories Program — probably around 3:00. Your participation in the Reception and Book Signing is especially important, as this will make it possible for attendees to actually meet and get to talk with you! You may even want to bring a photo or a small piece of memorabilia to show. (There will not be a secure place to display these items; your family will need to keep them throughout the Festival.)

During the Reception and Book Signing, attendees are also invited to explore the display items provided by participating teachers, and have individual or family photos taken at The Grannie Annie’s photo station. Photos taken at The Grannie Annie’s photo station will be posted on The Grannie Annie’s Facebook page, where they will be available for you to download.

IF YOUR WORK WAS PUBLISHED THIS YEAR, PLEASE ALSO READ

Pre-Festival coaching information for authors and artists whose work was published by The Grannie Annie this year

Coaching reservations for authors
whose story is published
On Saturday, June 1, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., The Grannie Annie will be offering free coaching sessions at the Missouri History Museum, in the Lee Auditorium, to rehearse authors in the art of reading before an audience. (Out-of-town authors, please be sure to also read the section below this one.) While attending a coaching session isn't required, we highly recommend that all Volume 14 authors take advantage of this opportunity. The Grannie Annie first offered coaching sessions in 2012, and everyone has agreed that the extra preparation makes a huge difference in the experience of authors and audience members alike. At the coaching sessions you can meet some of your fellow authors, and receive valuable feedback that will help you sharpen the skills that will bring your story to life for the audience. You’ll practice reading at the podium and with the microphone; you’ll be reading from a printout of the final version of your story that we will make available.

You can also get advance tips from our website resource “Reading Your Grannie Annie Story Aloud.” In order for your reading to be most engaging, it would be good for you to practice reading your story aloud a few times both before and after your coaching session.

Please schedule your author’s coaching session by Friday, May 24. You may schedule your coaching by e-mail or by calling Fran at 636-527-2822. Leave a message including your name (author's name), your story title, and your phone number.

Additional coaching information for the above authors who are from out of town
If your travel schedule allows, we encourage you to sign up for one of the June 1 coaching sessions described above. As an alternative, coaching sessions can be held at the Missouri History Museum on Sunday, June 2, immediately prior to the Family Stories Festival. To let us know that you would like to attend a coaching session on Sunday, and to arrange a time for the coaching, please e-mail or call Fran at 636-527-2822 by Friday, May 24. Leave a message including your name (author's name), your story title, and your phone number.

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Coaching reservations for artists whose illustration is published
On Saturday, June 1, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., we'll be offering free coaching sessions at the Missouri History Museum to prepare you to share your thoughts about your illustration. (Out-of-town artists, please be sure to also read the section below this one.) While attending a coaching session isn't required, we highly recommend that all Volume 14 artists take advantage of this opportunity. If you don’t plan to attend an artist’s coaching session, please be sure to read the rest of this section and then arrange for a brief telephone coaching session as detailed below.

By attending a coaching session, you can meet some of your fellow illustrators and the program emcee. In addition, you will be able to work individually with a coach to finalize your artist statement, practice reading your statement at the podium and microphone, and receive valuable feedback that will help you sharpen the skills that will make your presentation as engaging as possible for the audience.

Please consider the following topics before beginning to write your artist's
statement.

• Why you chose the story or scene that you illustrated
• What steps you used to create your illustration
• What you enjoyed about creating your illustration
• What you especially like about your illustration
• Whether you conducted any research about the scene you illustrated
• Anything else you want to share about your illustrating experience

We encourage you to choose one of the above topics, write down what you’d like to tell the audience about that topic — in other words, write a first draft of your artist statement — and share your draft with the coaches via e-mail by Friday, May 24. You may also want to read the sample artist statements included in the resource Writing Your Grannie Annie Artist Statement. Please bring your draft to the coaching session, where you will work with a coach to finalize your statement. Artist statements are to be 100–130 words long. In order for your part in the program to be most engaging, it would be good for you to continue to practice reading your finalized statement after the coaching session.

Please schedule your artist’s coaching session by Friday, May 24. You may schedule your coaching by e-mail or by calling Fran at 636-527-2822. Leave a message including your name (illustrator’s name), the title of the story you illustrated, and your phone number.

Additional coaching information for the above artists who are from out of town
If your travel schedule allows, we encourage you to sign up for the June 1 coaching sessions described above. As an alternative, coaching sessions can be held for out-of-town artists at the Missouri History Museum on Sunday, June 2, immediately prior to the Festival. To arrange a time for Sunday artist’s coaching, please e-mail or call Fran at 636-527-2822 by Friday, May 24.

If you don't plan to attend a coaching
session, please e-mail Connie by Friday, May 24, to arrange for a brief telephone coaching session.