Illustrating Issues of Children’s Rights

All children should be sheltered, nurtured, loved and protected from violence andabuse. So states the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a human rights treaty that would guarantee basic rights for children regarding housing, medical care, religion, family, poverty, disabilities and times of war and civil unrest. (It has been ratified by 191 nations, but not the United States.)

Fourteen children’s book artists are helping raise awareness for the U.N. effort to protect children, giving creative expression to some of the rights adopted by the convention in “For Every Child,� published in January by Phyllis Fogelman Books, with an introduction by Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu. Their original artwork, touring cities in the United States, is on exhibition at the Museum of Tolerance through March 25.

Colorful, thought-provoking images of children around the world are rendered in watercolor, pencil, oils, ink and other mediums to illustrate such poignant statements as, “All children shall have time to play and time to rest when we are tired�; “In times of war do not make us part of any battle, but shelter us and protect us from harm�; “Allow us to tell you what we are thinking or feeling�; and “Every one of us shall have a name and a land to call our own.�

The artists, hailing from the Americas to Zimbabwe, include John Burningham, Babette Cole, Phillipe Dumas, Shirley Hughes, Rachel Isadora, Satoshi Kitamura, P.J. Lynch, Claudio Munoz, Jerry Pinkney, Henriette Sauvant, Rabindra and Amrit K.D. Kaur Singh, Peter Weevers, Ken Wilson-Max, Yang Tswei-yu.

* “For Every Child� exhibition, Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. Hours: Mondays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. through March 26. (310) 553-8403.

Postcard Art: Another child-related art exhibition can be found at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where 250 unusual postcards are on display. The postcards were created by children attending art workshops in the museum’s Sheila and Wally Weisman Family Sunday program, and then were mailed to California artists with the request that each artist either add to the child’s original work or create a new work on the same postcard.

* “Mail Art Exchange,� Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Bing Theater, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, noon-5 p.m.; Fridays, noon-9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Ends March 27. (323) 857-6000.