- ACCU held the Symposium “Artists of Children’s Books in Asia, Africa and Latin America” on 13 March, 2009, in Tokyo. We invited children’s book authors, illustrators and publishers from Costa Rica, Japan, the Philippines and Sudan. Two of the panellists were prize winners of the 16th Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations. The panellists shared thoughts and their daily practices on current issues in book development and children’s reading environment in their respective countries. ACCU published a booklet including panellists’ papers and a manual, “Fathers’ Guide to Reading Kids Stories”, for the symposium and distributed them to the participants and concerned institutions and organisations to promote book reading in and beyond Asia and the Pacific region.
ACCU has been implementing programmes for encouraging artists’ work.
ACCU has been organising the Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations biennially supported by Noma International Book Development Fund, which was established in commemoration of the receipt of the first International Book Award in 1974 by the late Mr. Noma Shoichi, the then president of Kodansha publishing company and Vice-President of ACCU.
This Concours aims to spotlight up-and-coming illustrators, graphic designers and artists in Asia (except Japan), the Pacific, Africa, Arab States, and Latin America & the Caribbean, to provide an opportunity for them to present their works, thereby offering incentives for their creative activities.
The International Jury meet in Tokyo to select 33 works including the Grand Prize, Second Prizes, Runners-up and Encouragement Prizes. The prize-winning works are exhibited in Tokyo and the BIB, Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava, Slovakia, ensuring their exposure to a wide audience and generating opportunities for publication. The Tokyo and BIB exhibitions provide an unparalleled opportunity and source of incentive for Concours prize-winners. The award-winning works are also presented on the concours website, as well as in the catalogue in book format.