Academy kids, artwork wind up on Hallmark cards

A series of Hallmark greeting cards featuring the artwork and faces of Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy students has hit stores from coast to coast.

It’s the outcome of a yearlong — and continuing — partnership between the Kansas City, Mo.-based greeting card giant and the local Jewish day school.

Jen Walker, art director for Hallmark’s Tree of Life Jewish card line, says it’s the first time Tree of Life — and perhaps Hallmark as a whole — has used children’s artwork as the main focus of a card.

“It’s really a push for authenticity,” Walker said. “In these tough economic times, people have to really want to spend their money. It has to feel authentic. And what’s more authentic than children’s artwork?

“Of course, we want to make sure it’s accurate and that it appeals to all people — not just the parents of these kids.”

Of course, the advent of these cards — eight so far, with two more on the way — in Hallmark stores or displays around the country has already caught the attention of the local students’ parents, friends and relatives. For instance, Ori Bauman’s grandparents reportedly spotted the Chanukah card on which his photo is featured in a card rack back East and bought out the entire stock.

To illustrate Judaism
The project began over year ago, when Hallmark’s Walker contacted officials at HBHA, seeking their advice on potential sentiments (i.e., the actual words) and artwork for the Tree of Life card line. Hallmark apparently doesn’t have as many Jewish staffers working on the line as it once did.

Headmaster Howard Haas, Judaic Studies Head Rabbi Avi Weinstein and a couple of others went downtown to share their thoughts with Walker and others. One thing that grew out of that meeting was an art contest back at school, with the idea that the best entries might — as they have done — wind up on a greeting cards.

Walker and other Tree of Life staffers visited the Academy last fall to collect the best entries and to shoot photographs of students acting out various holiday celebrations. That’s how Ori Bauman wound up on a Chanukah card, holding a small, wooden dreidel up to his eye. Likewise, Cailyn Nye’s smiling face — nose covered in red donut jelly — was captured that same day and used on a new Chanukah card.

Two students’ artwork was employed on new Chanukah cards — Rafi Abramov’s rainbow-hued menorah drawing and Jeremy Gutovitz’s dreidel collage.

The other four new cards with Hebrew Academy artwork deal with Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. Hallmark staffers photographed a tallit at the Academy that is the focus of one new card. Morgan Krakow’s pastel painting of Stars of David is the cover of another.

Natalie Cabell, age 12, said that when she got the initial assignment — simply to illustrate Judaism — a Bar Mitzvah celebrant came to her mind. Thus, she drew a young man holding up the Torah, and it became the cover of a new card, which also features a Hallmark-written “Bar Mitzvah Chai-ku” on the front:

“You’re a man today.
Will it last till Monday, though?
Back to junior high!”

The student artwork that received perhaps the most elaborate treatment, though, is Brynn Shaffer’s drawing of a girl placing a note in the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Not only does it dominate the cover of a new card, the stones, plants and notes are embossed.

Two more cards featuring HBHA art are still in the pipeline, Walker said, and should be out in time for next Rosh Hashanah.

Partnership continues
In each case, the students are (or in Gutovitz’s case, will be, following a revision) given credit for their artwork, as is the Hebrew Academy. That, of course, thrills the administrators at HBHA.

Academy leaders are also pleased that the link to Hallmark continues. Walker said she gathered 40 pieces of artwork last fall at HBHA, and more might yet make their way into the Tree of Life line. It’s all part of Hallmark’s ongoing effort to keep its card lines fresh and relevant.

In addition, Academy senior Joel Mann has had two one-week internships at Hallmark/Tree of Life (one this past summer, and another this week), offering the Hallmarkers advice on Judaic subjects, while being inspired as he pursues his own interests in graphic design.

“To have people like that say ‘I think you could do this’ is pretty inspirational,” Mann said last week. “We’ve stayed in touch. One of them texted me a question this past summer while I was at a Jewish camp. She wanted to know what color Moses’ beard was. I asked all the rabbis and got back to her.”

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