Here are some highlights that illustrate our story ’til now…
2002 Internationally acclaimed illustrator Quentin Blake gathers together a group of people who have a passion for illustration and believe that it should have a home of its own.
2003 Quentin Blake pledges his archive of over 4,000 original drawings and 250 illustrated books.
2004 50 Years of Quentin Blake exhibition at Somerset House breaks box office records with 28,500 visitors.
2005 We form relationships with such leading illustrators as Peter Blake, Lauren Child, Sara Fanelli, David Gentleman and Jan Pienkowski.
2006 We launch In All Directions, a UK-touring exhibition about illustration and travel, including works by Tiepolo, Hokusai, Ardizzone and Ronald Searle.
2007 We gather together a number of eminent Ambassadors, such as Philip Pullman, Will Alsop and Peter Capaldi to champion our cause.
We make agreements that the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the British Library and the Wellcome Trust will lend to us from their collections.
We launch our website a www.houseofillustration.org.uk
2008 50,000 people visit our UK touring exhibition, What Are You Like?
2009 We launch PICTURE IT, an education programme where professional illustrators fire the imaginations of London primary and secondary school children through innovative, practical illustration projects.
Our House Party raises £75,000 through an auction including works by Tony Ross, Posy Simmonds, Heath Robinson, Michael Foreman and Peter Brookes.
2010 Joanna Lumley becomes President of our Founders’ Club, part of the capital campaign to transform a Victorian building in King’s Cross into our home.
We launch ‘Getting Inside The Outsider, the House of Illustration and The Folio Society’s Inaugural Book Illustration Competition‘.
Our festive exhibition and auction in partnership with Sotheby’s featuring works by illustrators including Eric Carle, Paula Rego and Oliver Jeffers raises £59,000.
2011 Caught By My Eye, an exhibition of work created through our PICTURE IT education programme, is shown at the German Gymnasium in King’s Cross.
We form a partnership with Pop Up Festival of Stories, running schools story-making workshops, a community project and an ‘Art Day’ for 500 children in Coram’s Fields on the eve of the Festival.
Matthew Richardson wins our Inaugural Book Illustration Competition and illustrates The Folio Society’s new edition of The Outsider by Albert Camus.