The House of Illustration is a registered charity that was established in 2002. It is the brainchild of Quentin Blake. As an experienced illustrator and teacher, he saw a gap in the UK’s museum sector. At the moment, illustration is only seen in occasional temporary exhibitions in other museums and galleries. The House of Illustration will change that.
The House of Illustration will be the place to see past and present illustration, both British and international. It will be the world’s first centre dedicated to the art of illustration in all its forms.
We want to put illustration centre stage and give it the attention it deserves. Illustration is part of our everyday lives, firing our imaginations and evoking memories. It helps us to develop our language and to understand the world around us. And we believe that illustration opens a door to the whole world of arts for everyone.
We will offer a broad and varied programme of changing exhibitions, opportunities to understand the process of illustration with practising illustrators, and a unique collection of Quentin Blake’s original drawings. We want to redefine the exhibition experience and we will be searching for fresh ideas – the curious, the surprising, the influential, the popular.
We will be open to everyone - children and their parents, experts and novices, tourists and locals. We think it’s more about attitude than age.
At present – and this is amazing - there’s no non-commercial gallery in the entire British Isles to be devoted entirely to illustration. It’s as if there is this invisible hierarchy within the arts, which goes quite deep: fine above applied; painting above illustration; pure above ‘to a brief’. All very old-fashioned and not helpful.Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Rector Royal College of Art at the launch of Magic Pencil at the British Library, March 2003