Nijntje Art Parade
In 2015 it is 60 years since Miffy first started delighting children and their parents. And we plan to celebrate that all year long! One of the events being organised is the Miffy Art Parade: a project that honours Miffy, her creator, and fans of all ages worldwide. The Miffy Art Parade unites, inspires and is helping to create a better future in partnership with UNICEF.
The first book about Miffy was published in 1955. Dick Bruna recounts how, during a family holiday, he told his oldest son a story about the little bunny hopping around in the garden of their holiday home. He did some drawings of the little bunny, and Miffy was born. Miffy has since appeared as the leading character in 32 books that have been translated into more than 50 languages and sold more than 85 million copies worldwide.
Three generations have grown up with Miffy the Netherlands. But Miffy is also very popular outside the Netherlands. She began her international career in the UK and Japan in the 1960s and can now be found in dozens of countries all over the world. Besides featuring as the leading character in the books, Dick Bruna’s world famous children’s character is also enduringly popular as a design icon on all kinds of products.
The logo for 60 years of Miffy shows how Miffy evolved. To start with, she looked like a soft toy, with floppy ears. From 1963 onwards she has straight pointy ears and lovely round cheeks and looks candidly at the reader with her little black eyes. Some years later Dick Bruna made her ears and face even rounder, so they were more balanced. He also changed the proportional relationship between her body, which became slightly rounder, and her head.
Joseph Klibansky
Joseph Klibansky (1984) is an artist. He was born in Cape Town and grew up in a creative and internationally-oriented environment. In his teens he developed a fascination with the possibilities offered by computer art and digital imagery and started merging hundreds of images into powerful compositions, enhanced by computer artwork and a variety of painting techniques. He completed his business school degree, but quickly decided to pursue his overriding passion: art.
The young artist soon developed his own distinctive style, which fascinates art galleries and collectors worldwide. He is famous for his large-scale utopian city portraits made up of hundreds of layers of photography enriched with acrylic paint and fluorescent inks. He produces his works on museum-quality cotton paper and seals them with 3D liquid glass, which creates a very special 3-dimensional effect. He is regarded as the founder of the New Media Collage movement and pioneered the use of 3D liquid glass as a finishing technique.
The main themes of his work are architecture and the city, particularly the accelerated, compressed and densely populated urban environments of the 21st century, which he blends into what seems to be a possible glimpse of the future. In addition to his city portraits, in 2012 he started creating sculptures, using a combination of 3D printing techniques and traditional bronze casting. Inspired by evolution and human emotions, he is one of the youngest professional artists in the contemporary international art market.
Equilibrio Iconico
The title of Joseph Klibansky’s Miffy statue is Equilibrio Iconico. It embodies the idea of balance between career, family life and youth. ‘I see Miffy as an icon of playfulness and youth. Here these intangible concepts, which are so important, are presented as being in a delicate balance to encourage the viewer to reflect on their relationship to these issues.’
Dick Bruna
Dick Bruna was born in Utrecht on 23 August 1927. His father ran the family publishing company, A.W. Bruna and Zoon, which was founded by his great-grandfather in 1868. Though he was meant to follow his father into the publishing business, Dick managed to convince his father that he was unsuited to the profession. In 1951 he started working for the company as a book cover designer and made a significant contribution to the success of the Zwarte Beertjes paperback series. His powerful images and simple graphics have made his book cover designs and posters highly coveted collectors' items.
Unicef
Education can end the vicious circle of poverty. It enables children to realise their potential and contributes to the development of society. Good quality education opens up a future with more opportunities and conveys knowledge that can be imparted to the next generation. UNICEF, the world's leading children's rights organisation, is committed to making quality education available to all children, because a good education enables children to make a difference.
Education is a universal human right. Yet, worldwide there are more than 58 million children who do not go to primary school. UNICEF considers this to be unacceptable and is committed to making quality education available to all children.
UNICEF can help on a massive scale. Through its UN mandate and extensive cooperation with other agencies, UNICEF is able to reach millions of children across countries and regions. UNICEF helps governments develop education policies and urges them to improve access to and quality of education. Among other things, UNICEF lobbies for free primary education. UNICEF also helps raise the standard of education by training teachers and improving teaching methods and materials. In crisis situations UNICEF creates (temporary) schools and distributes educational materials.
UNICEF relies on the support of dedicated partners, volunteers and donors. In celebrating 60 years, Miffy is actively supporting this cause: the proceeds from the auction of the Miffy Art Parade statues will be donated to UNICEF in support of education projects. Together we are working to provide better education for all children.