The works of a well-known children’s book author and illustrator who draws inspiration from Maine will be displayed at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath next year.
Maine Maritime Museum is working with Chris Van Dusen to showcase some of his artwork through an exhibit hosted at the Crooker Gallery. The exhibit will tell Van Dusen’s story.
Children’s book author and illustrator Chris Van Dusen with Splash the Friendly Sea Monster will be reading during story times at Maine Maritime Museum. Courtesy of Maine Maritime Museum
The nautical museum plans to debut the yearlong “Upon That Isle in Maine” exhibition starting on Feb. 8, 2025. The exhibition will be the first to showcase Van Dusen’s original artwork in a dedicated museum setting, according to Amanda Pleau, the museum’s marketing and communications manager.
Before publishing his first children’s book, “Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee,” in 2000, Van Dusen was a freelance illustrator specializing in art for kids with in magazines like Nickelodeon, Family Fun and Disney Adventures.
Museum staff and volunteers have been bringing Van Dusen’s illustrations to life with a model of the Circus Ship from the book of the same name, one of the children’s books by the Maine-based illustrator inspired by the true events of a circus ship called the Royal Tar, which shipwrecked off the coast of Maine in 1836. During a 2012 interview with the national public literacy initiative Reading Rockets, Van Dusen remembers reading about the Royal Tar in Down East Magazine.
The exhibition will feature a replica workstation evoking Van Dusen’s home studio to demonstrate the illustration process.
“This is probably the most whimsical exhibit we have ever done, and it will be incredibly family friendly,” Pleau said.
Van Dusen will be doing live story time sessions with Splash the Friendly Sea Monster — a puppet the museum commissioned — at the exhibit on April 1, July 15 and Sept. 9, 2025, and into 2026 on Jan. 26. Van Dusen will also be doing an illustration workshop with families, along with a members-only exhibition tour lead by the author.
LEGO artist and Mainer Colby Adolphsen will participate in the exhibition by hosting drop-in workshops next year on April 30, Aug. 1 and Nov. 5. Adolphsen works under Chorange Bricks and lives in the Midcoast.
The museum typically has two large temporary exhibitions at any given time throughout the year. Admission to “Upon That Isle in Maine” is free for active military personnel receiving supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits and for teens and kids 17 years old and under.
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