Anita Riggio, “Smack Dab in the Middle”(© Putnam, 2002). Used with permission.

A Celebration of Anita Riggio is the inaugural exhibit in the new Roger L. Crossgrove Exhibit Series, honoring Emeritus Professor of Art Roger Crossgrove. Roger has been a highly visible and active participant in Connecticut’s arts community for many years, a long-standing member of the Libraries’ Exhibitions Committee and a generous donor to the UConn Libraries. The series will focus on exhibits that feature the work of his former students and current colleagues.

The exhibit will be in the Dodd Center’s gallery from Oct. 19 through Dec. 18, 2009.  Anita Riggio is the author of a number of children’s books and the illustrator of many more for other authors. In addition to working as an illustrator for the Hartford Courant, Riggio has served as a courtroom artist for WVIT, a teacher at the American School for the Deaf, and is currently on the faculty of Lesley University’s graduate Creative Writing Program. She recently adapted her 1994 work, Beware the Brindlebeast, for the National Theatre of the Deaf ’s Little Theatre of the Deaf 2007-2008 tour.  For more information about her, please see www.anitariggio.com.