Ashley Bryan (b. 1923 USA) is an artist, writer, and storyteller. Drawing on folktales, spirituals, and visual art from Africa and other parts of the world, Bryan merges past and present to create a new voice, born of an ancient one. He has compiled, written, and illustrated more than thirty books for children. These include: Let It Shine (2007); Beautiful Blackbird (2003); All Night, All Day: A Child's First Book of African-American Spirituals (2003); The Night Has Ears (1999); and The Dancing Granny (1987). His illustrations appear in The Story of the Three Kingdoms by Walter Dean Myers, A Nest Full of Stars by James Berry, and All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Alexander, How God Fix Jonah by Lorenz Graham.

Bryan has received numerous awards and honors for his writing and illustration. Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum received a Parents’ Choice Award and the Coretta Scott King Award for illustration. He received four other Coretta Scott King honor book citations for his illustrations in I’m Going to Sing: Black American Spirituals; What a Morning! The Christmas Stories in Black Spirituals; All Night, All Day: A Child’s First Book of African American Spirituals; and for his writing of Lion and the Ostrich Chicks and Other African American Folktales. Other honors include the Arbuthnot Prize, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Metal for achievement in childrens’ literature, and the University of Southern Mississippi Medallion and a Fulbright Scholarship. In 2001, the New York Public Library established the Ashley Bryan Children’s Room at its Mott Haven Branch.

Ashley Bryan attended the Cooper Union Art School. At the age of nineteen, he served in World War II and on his return, earned a degree in philosophy from Columbia University. Bryan taught visual arts at Darmouth College from 1973 to 1985 and now travels extensively, bringing his stories to life for thousands of schoolchildren all over the country. Ashley Bryan was born in Harlem, New York and currently lives and works in Isleford, Maine.

Before arriving at the Gardner in early 1999, Ashley Bryan was working on a series of illustrations for How God Fix Jonah by African storyteller Lorenz Grahm. Bryan spent hours exploring the collection and sketching works of art with religious themes. He also shared his stories with visitors and staff at two storytelling hours in the Tapestry Room. Flyers were sent to the classrooms of the museum’s partnering schools, to community centers, and to libraries in and around Boston which drew crowds to both performances.

During his residence, Ashley Bryan was an active participant in the museum’s School Partnership program. He collaborated with two third-grade teachers, one from the Lawrence School and the other from the Tobin School, to expose students to different kinds of poetry, literature, and art. On their first visit, the students explored the galleries with Bryan and discovered the many stories in the museum. They discussed the importance of voice and listened to Bryan read in the galleries. The groups sketched throughout the museum and used these to make books in which they wrote their own stories. Bryan made multiple trips to the classrooms to work with the Tobin and Lawrence students. He helped them to develop ideas for stories and to stimulate their creative thinking.

Bryan also participated in the annual Teacher Institute at the museum that included museum staff and thirty teachers from the Gardner’s Partnership Schools. This day-long program was intended to broaden teacher’s understanding of the collection and to enable them to deepen their personal connection to it. Entitled “Eyes on the Future”, the day focused on conserving art and cultural objects. Ashley Bryan discussed the connections he had made to the Collection during his residence and the techniques he uses with children to bring awareness for Art and History. In other sessions, teachers and museum educators shared the programs they had designed to connect the classroom curriculum to the Collection.

In 2004, Ashley Bryan attended the International Board on Books Conference in South Africa where he was introduced to 2003 AIR storyteller Gcina Mhlophe by Johnetta Tinker, Director of Community Programs, with whom he had worked during his residency. Tinker had gone to South Africa to visit and work with Mhlophe and to attend the conference.