Jim Burke’s artistic talent was discovered at a young age, when he was named class artist in kindergarten. Jim won many state wide art contests during his early school years through high school, including the New Hampshire Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Arts and Writing Contest in 1991 and 1992. He also won the Union Leader’s Best High School Editorial Cartoon, which appeared in Central’s Little Green newspaper, during his senior year. Jim graduated from Manchester Central High School in 1992, and has always been grateful to the teachers who encouraged his artwork along the way. They include Tom Clow, James Ewell and Dorothy Messenger.
 
Jim’s family connections to Manchester are deep. His great grandmother Ellen “Nellie” Kearns worked in the Amoskeag Mills, during the Depression Era. In 1952, his grandparents Bernie and Marie Burke opened Bunny’s Superette, now run by Jim’s father, Tom. Jim’s mother, Marjorie, is a teacher at Bakersville Elementary School.
 
Jim earned his BFA from Syracuse University in 1996. While still in college he gained the attention of New York City publishing houses. He received his first book contract upon graduation: Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman from Sterling Publishing, in which many familiar faces from Manchester can be seen.
 
Following graduation, Jim moved westward to study at the Illustration Academy in Kansas City, MO, which lead to an apprenticeship with renowned artist Mark English. A native of Hubbard, Texas, Mark was inducted into the Museum of American Illustration, Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame in 1983, alongside N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, and Norman Rockwell.
 
It was during Jim’s three-year stay in Kansas City, Missouri that he experienced his first live jazz performance in the historic Jazz District. This had a profound influence on his artwork. The visual impact of musicians and their instruments have ever since been a source if inspiration for this artist. Soon after, Jim started winning numerous national and international awards for his paintings including a gold medal from the prestigious Society of Illustrators in New York City.
 
In addition to painting, Jim has illustrated heralded children’s books, such as My Brothers' Flying Machine: Wilbur, Orville, and Me by Jane Yolen (Little, Brown and Company). This picture book won a coveted Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award, a Parent's Choice Gold Award and received a starred review from Booklist. An Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award was awarded to A Christmas Gift for Mama (Scholastic) written by Lauren Thompson, which also received an award of excellence from The Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators.
 
Additional awards Jim has received include: Massachusetts Book Award Honor Book 2004, an IRA Teacher’s Choice Booklist 2004. He’s also received awards of excellence from Print’s Regional Design, Communication Arts, Graphis and the New York Art Directors Club.
 
Returning to the east coast from Kansas City in 2000, Jim and his wife Suzanne moved to the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, NY where they presently reside. Together they share a studio in the North Williamsburg neighborhood.
 
Jim is a faculty member of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and Manhattan. He has lectured at Syracuse University (undergraduate and masters programs) and at The Illustration Academy, now held at The Ringling School of Design in Sarasota, Florida. Clients include Little, Brown and Company, The Monterey Bay Blues Festival, Martignetti, Davidoff Columbus Circle (NYC), Harper Collins, Penguin Putnam, Clarion Books, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, GE, Scholastic, The Ris Paper Company, The Palace Theatre, Cotton, and the Manchester Downtown Jazz & Blues Festival. His paintings have also graced the covers of books from many best selling young adult authors, including Kevin Henkes, Robert Clyde Bulla and Katherine Paterson.
 
The Manchester Artists Association proudly presents Jim Burke’s first showing back home, at the McIninch Family Gallery, to coincide with his latest publications. The exhibition, Take Me Out to the Ball Game and Other Works, will include paintings from two new books and a selection from other recent publications, as well as examples of his fine art oil paintings.
 
Featuring Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Little, Brown and Company), a picture book that Burke has written and illustrated featuring Jack Norworth’s famous original lyrics. Jim’s rendering of the beloved song recalls one of the all-time most memorable match-ups in baseball history, when, in 1908 (the same year the anthem was written), the New York Giants faced the reigning World Series champions the Chicago Cubs. Jim’s account of this game pays tribute to Christy Mathewson, the greatest pitcher in Giants history and America's first true sports superstar. Filled with nostalgic paintings and fan-pleasing trivia, the book includes a foreword by journalist and bestselling author Pete Hamill.
 
Also new this spring, in Maggie’s Amerikay (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) written by Barbara Timberlake Russell, Jim captures the rich mix of people that make up New Orleans in the 1890s and the story of an Irish family’s quest to find their own place in America. Join Maggie as she discovers kinship in Nathan, an aspiring cornetist, and ragtime music.
 
Jim Burke
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
and Other Works