'Illustration and Inspiration' at the Granary Gallery, Berwick

Over the past few months, we have been working with the curator of the Granary Gallery in Berwick, on their new exhibition 'Illustration and Inspiration'. 

Opening to the public on Saturday 11 October, and running until Sunday 18th January 2015, the display celebrates the extraordinary wealth of acclaimed children’s book illustrators from Northumberland and the Scottish Borders and the artists who have inspired them.

The exhibition includes works by Vanessa Cabban, Olivia Gill, Brita Granstrom & Mick Manning, Cara Lockhart Smith, Helen Stephens and Gerry Turley. Each of the illustrators have also selected work from the Seven Stories collection by illustrators who have inspired them or had an impact on their creative practice.

Artwork on loan includes work from the archives of some of our most prestigious illustrators, and it has been an interesting exercise looking at our collections through the eyes of practising illustrators, to see what and how certain artists have inspired them over their career.

Lindsey, the Seven Stories conservator, putting the final touches to one of the display mounts.

So as not to ruin the visit to the exhibition, I'll not say who chose what, but these are the artists whose artwork was chosen from our collections:

• Edward Ardizzone - artwork for 'The Little Train' by Grahame Greene
• George Him - artwork for 'The Giant Alexander' series by Frank Hermann
• Angela Barrett - artwork and sketchbook for 'The Snow Queen' by Hans Christian Anderson
• Tove Jansson - a letter with picture of 'Little My', written to her publisher Kaye Webb
• John Lawrence - artwork for 'Tiny's Big Adventure' by Martin Waddell
• Michael Rosen - preparatory notes for 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'
  
  
  

  

  Artwork by John Lawrence for 'Tiny's Big Adventure' by Martin Waddell. These two pieces on display offer the opportunity to try and match up the images - the mice in the left picture should fill the voids in the right!

  

  Stunning artwork for 'The Snow Queen' by Angela Barrett, on display are a finished original piece of artwork, a first edition copy of the book, and Angela's fantastic sketchbook.

To find out more about visiting the exhibition, click here and to find out more about the Berwick Literature Festival click here.

If you want to find out more about this collection, or about any other of our archives then 
email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk
phone: 01914952707 
visit: http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/collection 

Robert Westall: a Writer and His World Exhibition at Weaver Hall Museum, Cheshire

In 2013, Tom Hughes of Weaver Hall Museum in Cheshire got in touch with Seven Stories about a possible loan of work by Robert Westall. The exhibition explore's Westall's connections with the area local to the museum, and on show are a number of items from the Seven Stories collection never before displayed.

Robert Westall, as well as being a fantastically well loved children's author, was also incredibly active in his local community, working as a head teacher for a number of years, writing a column for the local paper, as well as being instrumental in the saving of historic parts of Northwich. Weaver Hall Museum is one of the buildings Westall helped save, and it is only apt that he is recognised in this special exhibition.

This is an article about saving Weaver Hall, written and illustrated by Robert Westall, c. 1967 and saved in an educational book on town planning he was working on. It was part of a campaign to save the Hall from being demolished.

Tom, curator of the exhibition, is incredibly knowledgeable about Robert Westall, and added some fascinating local details to parts of the collection. Although Westall is known for many of his books set in the North East, he lived much of his life in Cheshire.

Self portrait by Robert Westall. Although not known for illustrating children's books, the Seven Stories Collection shows the impressive graphic posters he made for school plays, personal sketches and illustrations for articles in the local newspaper.

The exhibition has been on display since 12th April, and is on display until Sunday 14th September at Weaver Hall Museum in Cheshire. Click here for more details about visiting the museum.

Watch this space for more details of Seven Stories loans, we are currently working with the Granary Gallery in Berwick on a display linked to the new Berwick Book Festival. Works have been chosen from the Seven Stories Collection to display alongside illustrators from the area, including Mick Manning & Brita Granstrom, Helen Stephens, Gerry Turley, and Cara Lockhart Smith.

Interview with Angelina Ballerina Illustrator, Helen Craig

The third and final part in our Angelina Ballerina series, linked to the 'Twist and Tails - the Story of Angelina Ballerina' exhibition is this interview with Helen Craig.

Helen Craig showing Kris McKie, Seven Stories Archivist works from her Angelina Ballerina archive.

This interview was part of the Seven Stories Picturebooks in Progress project, which you can find out about elsewhere on this blog. It was conducted by Martin Salisbury, Professor of Illustration and Course Leader of the MA in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University. It details Helen's creative process, where the idea for the character's came from, and show's Helen discussing in her own words the journey of Angelina Ballerina.

If you would like to visit the exhibition, it will be on display from Saturday 19th July until April 2015 at Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books. Click here to find out details about visiting the Centre.

If you'd like to find out more about the Helen Craig archive or would like to arrange a research visit to the Seven Stories Collection then
email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk, phone: 01914952707 or visit: http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/collection.

Interested in other posts about Storylab Gallery at Seven Stories? Click here or here.

Angelina Ballerina books are now published by Puffin Books and are available for sale from the Seven Stories Bookshop.

To find out more about Martin Salisbury, and the Illustration course at Anglia Rusking, click here.

The Gruffalo Travels to Chatham, Kent

This Saturday, A Squash and a Squeeze, Sharing Stories with Julia Donaldson will open at The Historic Dockyard Chatham, in Kent. 

View from just outside the exhibition space

The exhibition arriving in crates to the venue

The exhibition will open on 15th February 2014, and will be on display until 1st June 2014. Axel Scheffler, illustrator of the Gruffalo, among many other of Julia Donaldson's books, will be hosting an event on the 17th May.

Contained within the exhibition is some beautiful original illustration work from a mix of illustrators including Axel Scheffler, Nick Sharratt, Lydia Monks, Joel Stewart, Karen George, Emily Gravett and David Roberts. It is displayed alongside notebooks and early ideas from Julia Donaldson, including the notebook with the first idea for the Gruffalo!

The exhibition has plenty on offer for families including areas where you can share stories and explore sensory environments based on Julia's books; You can follow in Toddle Waddle's footsteps, climb into the cave with the Cave Baby and meet The Gruffalo. Sing-a-long to songs on Julia' Jukebox or perform a play on the stage.

This is the second venue for the exhibition, after being on show in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery last summer, and attracting a whopping 33'000 visitors! The exhibition will travel to Bradford following its run in Kent, at Cartwright Hall from 28^th June – 9^th November 2014.  

The Historic Dockyard is easily accessible via train from London and the surrounding area, and is a fascinating day long visit, not just for the exhibition, but also to explore all of the different parts of the dock, including a fantastic submarine! 


Go to the Dockyard website.

Alison (Exhibition Curator)

Our BRAND NEW Storylab Gallery: Behind the Scenes

Seven Stories, as we all know, has seven floors! The sixth floor has been undergoing refurbishment for the past three weeks, and has now opened its doors to the public.

The floor now boasts a small dedicated gallery space - designed to host small scale exhibitions for 3-4 months - as well as the 'Storylab Studio', which is a new room to accommodate larger groups for all different kinds of booked workshops and training sessions. 

Here are a few images of the transformation of the room to the calming gallery space we now have. This new gallery will allow us to display our Collection - especially newly acquired archives - much more quickly, and also allow for external exhibitions to be brought in.

During the transformation the lighting tracks were altered to gallery style lighting, and the windows were blocked to protect the delicate artworks from harmful light levels. We also removed the original graphics, and added two new walls. We kept the two display cases that have been in here for some time, to continue to display 3D items.

Storylab BEFORE 

Storylab BEFORE

Storylab mid-transformation 

Storylab mid-transformation

Storylab mid-transformation

Storylab mid-transformation

Storylab mid-transformation

Gallery FINISHED

Gallery FINISHED

Gallery FINISHED

Gallery FINISHED

Gallery FINISHED 

Gallery FINISHED

The current display is 'Picturebooks in Progress', which uses our Collection to show how a picturebook is created - from early ideas to final artwork.

This exhibition is one of the outcomes of a large scale learning project, funded by the Arts Council. For the past year, members of our Learning Team have been working with higher education and further education students around the country, using the Seven Stories Collection as inspiration for their illustration work. The material that was used to inspire them is now on display, alongside a film of the project. Find out more about the project in an upcoming blog post!

Find out more about the gallery here.

Alison (the Curator)