28 June 2012
Our Children's Writers & Illustrators Group will be hosting a 'Celebrating Asylum' Exhibition at our Joined-up Reading conference in September. Illustrators including Nick Sharratt, Chris Riddell and Catherine Anholt have all donated pictures to the conference exhibition.
Back in February, 26 wonderful illustrators donated original artwork to an exhibition called `Celebrating Asylum`, held at The Illustration Cupboard in London, to raise much needed funds for the St Mary Magdalene Centre for Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
This small charity, based in Islington, North London, offers some of the capital's most vulnerable people a safe place in which to meet and study, working with refugees from countries as far apart as Eritrea, Turkey, Albania and Syria. Many of the refugees and asylum seekers living in London have severe health problems, feel isolated, receive no benefits and are challenged on a daily basis by things we take for granted.
The St Mary Magdalene Centre offers a warm welcome and a chance to develop their skills and talents, helping them to help one another. A small team of dedicated teachers and over 30 volunteers provide daily English classes (working towards accredited qualifications), clothes, food parcels, advice and help - and perhaps most importantly of all, friendship. Visit www.stmarymagdalenecentre.org.uk for more imformation.
The original show ran in the gallery for two weeks and continued online. To date, £5,000 has been raised for this very worthwhile cause and we are now bringing a selection of the work to the Reading CWIG Conference, both to publicise the Centre further and, hopefully, to raise some more money.
As there are no overheads for this exhibition, and the work is being sold unframed, this presents a unique opportunity for delegates to buy original illustration at extremely good prices. All the money raised will go to the Centre, so bring your cheque books and cash! (no cards - sorry).
- To view the pictures, visit our Facebook page
- To view the price list, click here
- To book your place at the conference, click here
The booking deadline for the conference is fast-approaching, so if you haven't booked your ticket yet, you have until 24 July!