Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration

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The Engine House and Coal Stores at New River Head, the site for the future Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration New River Head in Islington.jpg
The Engine House and Coal Stores at New River Head, the site for the future Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration

Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration (formerly House of Illustration) is the only public arts organisation in the UK dedicated to illustration. It was founded by Quentin Blake in 2002 and is based in London, England. From 2014 to 2020, it was located at 2 Granary Square in the London Borough of Camden and called House of Illustration. [1]

Quentin Blake: Inside Stories exhibition at House of Illustration, 2014 Inside Stories at House of Illustration.jpg
Quentin Blake: Inside Stories exhibition at House of Illustration, 2014

In July 2020 it was announced that House of Illustration at Granary Square would close and that the organisation would relocate to industrial heritage site New River Head in the Clerkenwell area in the London Borough of Islington. [2] The site's 18th- and 19th-century buildings will be restored according to a scheme by Tim Ronalds Architects as part of a £12mn capital campaign. [3] The site will open in 2024 and will be named Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. It will be home to exhibition galleries, education studios, events space, a shop and a café [4] Until the site opens, the organisation is touring exhibitions of original illustration, [5] hosting creative workshops [6] and working with schools and community groups in Islington. A 2021 project in collaboration with The Peel Institute and London Metropolitan Archives was called Clerkenwell: Now and Then, and resulted in an alternative guide to Islington written and illustrated by local residents. [7]

Previous exhibitions have shown a diverse range of illustration, including advertisements, animation, comic books and manga, children's literature, propaganda, political cartoons, scientific illustration and fashion design. Subjects have included Cuban graphic design, [8] feminist comics [9] and retrospectives of artists including Enid Marx, [10] Tom of Finland [11] and Jacqueline Ayer. [12]

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References

  1. ↑ "About". Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  2. ↑ Edmonds, Zoe Paskett, Lizzie (28 July 2020). "House of Illustration to launch new gallery named after Quentin Blake". Evening Standard. Retrieved 18 October 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ "Drawing on ghosts of the city: a new home for House of Illustration". Financial Times. 12 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  4. ↑ "Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration". Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  5. ↑ "Exhibition". Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  6. ↑ "Adult learning". Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  7. ↑ "An Illustrated Map Of Clerkenwell - Scattered With Local Memories". Londonist. 8 February 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  8. ↑ "Designed in Cuba: Cold War Graphics review | Museums in London". Time Out London. October 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  9. ↑ "Comix Creatrix: where women artists and stories are the big draw". the Guardian. 29 January 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  10. ↑ McLaughlin, Aimée (25 May 2018). "The remarkable prints and patterns of Enid Marx". Creative Review. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  11. ↑ AnotherMan (5 March 2020). "Inside the UK's First Tom of Finland Exhibition". AnotherMan. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  12. ↑ "The groundbreaking children's books that drew on life in Thailand". the Guardian. 17 June 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2022.

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