This summer will see the British Library’s first UK touring exhibition on display at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle. ‘Picture This: Children’s Illustrated Classics’ is a playful exhibition featuring ten classic children’s books from the twentieth century, exploring how illustrators over the years have interpreted and reinterpreted our favourite stories. The ten classics chosen are Paddington Bear, Peter Pan, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Hobbit, The Railway Children, The Secret Garden, Just So Stories, The Iron Man, The Borrowers and The Wind in the Willows.

Picture This - items originally on display at St Pancras, now on tour in Newcastle.

The exhibition will open to the public tomorrow (Saturday 20 June) and will run until Sunday 27 September. This will be the first time that the Library has toured an entire exhibition, including the full range of objects, audio-visuals, graphics and text,  and it’s an amazing opportunity for us to share our collections with audiences in the North-East.

For the past six months I have been working with Amy Barker (Keeper of Art) at the Laing Art Gallery, along with various departments across the British Library, to bring the exhibition together and recreate the splendid design that we had at the British Library at St Pancras when the exhibition was on display in the Front Entrance Hall in Autumn 2013. Lenders have generously loaned key items once again to the exhibition and I have been busily sorting out frames, cradles and mounts to showcase the objects in all their glory.

Illustration from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Puffin Books. Image (c) Quentin Blake.

We have brought the 58 original items back together – 38 British Library collection items and 20 loans from well-known illustrators such as Michael Foreman, Quentin Blake, Lauren Child, Ian Beck, David Roberts and Andrew Davidson. The exhibition is a wonderful mix of original manuscripts, original illustrations, first editions and pop up books. ‘Picture This’ is a vibrant exhibition that appeals to a family audience and captures the heart and imagination of adults and children alike.

The Laing has two beautiful and spacious galleries, and we have been able to display the exhibition in a fun and creative way which includes comfortable reading areas, an inspiring space for school groups and a cinema room for watching the interviews that were conducted with authors and illustrators represented in the exhibition. The galleries really do the exhibition justice and our colleagues at the Laing have been very creative in the ways that they’ve embraced each story and worked with the illustrations to create interactive elements, such a size chart for adults and children by using characters such as The Iron Man and Paddington Bear as a guide!

Earlier this week, and following months of preparation, I finally arrived in Newcastle! The truck journey with the objects took around eight hours from central London and it was great to finally arrive at the gallery and see how the build and painting had progressed. It is always great to work with different institutions and a fantastic opportunity to share skills, resources and experience and to gain an insight into the collections of other museums and galleries. Our colleagues at the Laing have been so welcoming and the venue will provide a wide reach for our exhibition as it is situated in the heart of Newcastle city centre.

The touring exhibition is at the Laing Art Gallery from 20 June to 27 September.

We started the object installation by condition-checking all 58 objects and ensuring nothing had changed during packing and transportation. British Library conservators had created condition reports for every object and had mounted and framed all of the artwork to beautifully showcase the intricate illustrations. The Laing conservators have enjoyed looking at all of the objects and reminiscing about their favourite childhood books – exactly the type of conversation we hope will happen between visitors! All of the objects are in good condition and we are happy to get on and install them – the exciting bit!

With condition checking complete we could start to place the framed artwork and begin the process of strapping the books and placing them in their cradles. All of the books have been presented inside a variety of showcases and we have many discussions with the designer and Amy to place each object as effectively as possible and think about good display heights and accessibility. The object labels then sit beside each of the objects to talk about the work of each illustrator and the techniques used to create much-loved and recognised characters.

All that’s left now is to finalise the positioning of the wall graphics, text panels and acknowledgment panels and concentrate the lighting onto the objects and labels. We carefully check the light levels, temperature and humidity inside the gallery spaces to ensure that the objects are in the ideal conditions and that we have met all conservation and lender requirements. The finishing touches really do bring the exhibition together and celebrate all of the hard work that has gone into the project. An exhibition is a joining together of different areas of expertise and I always love how the objects, design and text come together in once space to create a unique experience.

It has been an exciting opportunity to bring a successful British Library exhibition to Newcastle, to attract new audiences, share our collections raise awareness of the British Library and engage adults and children in literature and art. I hope the exhibition is as successful for the Laing Art Gallery as it was for us at St Pancras.

Alex Kavanagh

Exhibitions Officer