Jane Frances Aaron (April 16, 1948 – June 27, 2015) was an American filmmaker and children's book

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

, best known for her work on '' Between the Lions'' and ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

''. Aaron mixed live-action shots and animated images to teach children the alphabet, counting skills, and opposites, such as front and back or full and empty.

Early life and education

Jane Aaron was born in Manhattan to Sam Aaron and Florence Goldberg. Aaron attended the

High School of Music & Art The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art" (or "M&A"), was a public specialized high school located at 443-465 West 135th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York, from 1936 until 1984. In 1961, Music & Art and the High ...

and graduated from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

with a bachelor's degree in fine arts.

Career

In addition to her animation work, Aaron illustrated the ''When I'm...'' book series written by Barbara Gardiner. She also worked with Oralee Wachter on two films about child sexual abuse and prevention, ''No More Secrets for Me'' and ''Close to Home''. The films were later made into books illustrated by Aaron. Aaron's independent films have been shown at the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

. Permanent collections of her work exist at the Museum of Modern Art, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

. She received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1985.

Personal life

She married

Skip Blumberg Skip Blumberg (born October 10, 1947) is one of the original camcorder-for-broadcast TV producers, and among the first wave of video artists in the 1970s. His early work reflects the era's emphasis on guerrilla tactics and medium-specific graphics ...

on January 17, 1988, with whom she had one son, Timothy Aaron. Aaron died of cancer in Manhattan on June 27, 2015, aged 67. In addition to her husband and son, she was survived by her mother and three siblings.

References

External links

* * 1948 births 2015 deaths People from Manhattan American children's book illustrators Artists from New York City Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni Animators from New York (state) American women illustrators The High School of Music & Art alumni American women animators 21st-century American women {{US-animator-stub