Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration

MAKE YOUR MARK ❤️ After our exciting news this week about receiving a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we now need your support! Help restore New River Head, an extraordinary 18th and 19th century waterworks, and reopen it as a new national centre for illustration. Donate today ❤️ www.qbcentre.org.uk/donate We're launching an appeal to raise £1 million by the end of the year and are inviting fans of illustration, Quentin Blake and industrial heritage to 'make your mark' with a gift. ✏️ Impression of the new Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration © Nora Walter 📸 New River Head © Justin Piperger 🤞 Made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery Players. #Illustration #ArtsCharity #MakeYourMark

Our contractors have been busy constructing a new floor in the Coal Stores Gallery which will be our largest exhibition space at Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. 🏗️   Added to New River Head in the 1840s, this building stored coal which was burned to power steam engines in the next door Engine House. From 2026 it will be home to exhibitions which explore how illustration shapes our world!   You can find out more about our new home via the link below. You can also make your mark with a donation to support bringing the Quentin Blake Centre to life. https://lnkd.in/gaC7gqvJ   📷 Photo © Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration

We've found so many wonderful illustrators and illustrations to help celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month this year! These illustrations are from Kate Charlesworth's graphic novel 'Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide' 🥾   The first of its kind, this book documents the history of lesbian life from the 1950s up to the present day through illustration. Illustrating her own personal life experiences intertwined with major moments in LGBTQ+ history from around the world, Kate's book captures the spirit of activism that this year's history month is focused on!   Read more about the book in our Journal: https://lnkd.in/eR8FFMYD   ✏️ Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide © Kate Charlesworth

We’ve just checked the weather for the rest of half term and the forecast says cloudy with a chance of creativity…   Why not grab a pencil, paper and rubber and try these pencil skills techniques by Toya Walker? Take inspiration from objects around the house, or keep your eyes open for interesting things outside, and brush up on the basics with the easy-to-follow instructions.   Find this resource and more on our website: https://lnkd.in/eyWcneJ5   Why not tag us in your finished illustrations? We would love to see them!   ✏️ Pencil Skills © Toya Walker

We are supporting academics at the University of Cambridge as they research the intersection of comics & autism, to help comics communities be as inclusive and accessible as possible for autistic people.   If you are over 18 and based in the UK, and are:   🌟 Autistic and a creator or fan of comics; or 🌟 An organiser, employee or volunteer of a comics organisation, event, project or community group; or 🌟 Both of the above   They want to hear from you! Follow the link to the anonymous survey and share your experiences to help shape the comics scene and kickstart a wider conversation about accessibility: https://lnkd.in/eig825zh   Please share with anyone whose experience you think might be relevant!   💬 Comic by Bex Ollerton © Bex Ollerton

In Hilary Stebbing's 1946 book, Freddy and Ernest are two gentle but accident-prone dragons who have lived peacefully in a small village for centuries. That is until they find themselves facing eviction at the hands of an evil property developer! 🐉   Hilary made friends with people who were part of the LGBTQ+ community while at art school in London. Back in the 1940s, LGBTQ+ people were criminalised and LGBTQ+ characters were rarely seen in picture books. Hilary's book seems to be a statement that people should be free to live as they wish.   In addition to helping us celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month, the Hilary Stebbing Archive are selling a range of prints which support building our new home. You can buy one here: https://lnkd.in/eVZVySZc   Find out more about Freddy and Ernest here: https://lnkd.in/e46asyM8   Freddy and Ernest, Hilary Stebbing, 1946 © The Hilary Stebbing Archive

It's LGBTQ+ History Month and this year's theme is activism and social change. One of LGBT+ History Month's highlighted activists is Octavia Hill, illustrated here by our founder Quentin Blake.   Octavia Hill was a Social Reformer, Environmentalist and Founder of the National Trust. She wanted to improve the lives of working-class communities in Victorian Britain.   She founded the National Trust in 1895 to protect the 'green belt' - a term that she coined - and felt that the right to safe, clean green spaces were essential for all people, especially urban dwellers who lived in the polluted conditions of industrialised Britain.   We are turning the cobbled and concrete industrial yards of New River Head into public gardens, so Octavia Hill's work particularly resonated with our team. Realising Quentin has also illustrated Octavia for an anthology on her enduring relevance was a cherry on top!   What LGBTQ+ activists are resonating with you this month?   ✏️ © Quentin Blake, 2011

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin!   It’s National Storytelling Week and what better way to get involved than making up and illustrating our own stories?   Follow the link below for Toya Walker's free family activity on making your own story tile game. All you need to get started are something to draw with, some pieces of card and your imagination! https://lnkd.in/ew4QHU3J   When you’ve finished telling your stories, why not turn them into a book or comic so you can read them again?   ✍️ Story Tiles © Toya Walker

It's been a long wintry January! We hope you're managing to have a cheery winter like this Puffin Picture Book illustration by Pearl Binder from 1942. ❄️   Established by designer and editor Noel Carrington, many illustrators worked on this series of affordable books. Carrington believed that using vivid colour and artist illustrations would be more successful in awakening a child's interest in their surroundings than the camera.   This illustration forms part of our Online Collection, generously supported by #JohnEllermanFoundation. If you're staying warm at home, why don’t you explore our collections? https://lnkd.in/e5xpSgPk   📖 Misha learns English © Pearl Binder 1942. Published by Puffin Books Ltd

Today marks three months since work began to transform New River Head into the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration ✨   Anyone who has walked past recently might have noticed scaffolding on the Engine House and Windmill Base. Our construction team have been hard at work inside and outside of these buildings so that these spaces will become galleries, project spaces, a café and shop, beautiful gardens and more!   If you'd like to support our work to restore this heritage site and fill it with a celebration of illustration, consider making a donation: https://lnkd.in/eDrYUNNQ   📷 The Engine House and Windmill Base at New River Head © Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration