Meet author Katy Hessel, New York Times bestselling author (The Story of Art Without Men) for the Seaport launch of her brilliant children’s book The Story of Art Without Men: An Illustrated Guide to Amazing Women Artists (Norton Young Readers). Tailored for kids 8 to 14, and wonderful for adults, too, Hessel’s new book takes young readers on a journey through centuries of art and the women who helped shape it.

Rather than presenting art history as a fixed timeline of movements and masterpieces, Hessel approaches it as an adventure in looking and discovery. Zhu’s vivid illustrations sit alongside reproductions of artworks and hands-on “Art Tasks,” giving readers a way to move between seeing, thinking, questioning, and making. Katy will share her illustrated guide to The Story of Art Without Men, and help kids devise their own “Art Task” as they open their hearts and minds to a new way of seeing. Free. RSVP recommended.

About the Author:

Katy Hessel is an art historian and author of The Story of Art without Men (2022), a Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller, and the winner of Waterstones Book of the Year 2022; How To Live An Artful Life (2025) featuring a quote by an artist or writer for every day of the year; and The Story of Art Without Men: An Illustrated Guide to Amazing Women Artists (2026), her first children’s book.

Hessel hosts The Great Women Artists Podcast, where she has interviewed over 170 artists and writers, including Marina Abramović, Tracey Emin, Ali Smith, Barbara Kruger, Hilton Als, Elif Shafak, and more.