HASTINGS.- Jerwood Gallery’s Jerwood Drawing Festival (19 July -15 October 2014) features Drawn Together: Artist as Selector, a special exhibition of drawing by eminent contemporary artists and exclusive display of works by acclaimed illustrator, Sir Quentin Blake.

Drawn Together: Artist as Selector is a new exhibition which marks the 20th anniversary of the Jerwood Drawing Prize. The exhibition centres on the role of drawing in the practice of eminent artists, including Michael Craig-Martin, Cornelia Parker and Rachel Whiteread, who have been on the selection panel for the Jerwood Drawing Prize over the past twenty years. The exhibition explores the selectors’ own drawing practice and interests, continuing the Jerwood Drawing Prize’s dialogue about what constitutes drawing and its importance as a medium for artists working today. Drawn Together: Artist as Selector has been curated by Professor Anita Taylor, Director of the Jerwood Drawing Prize.

Drawn Together: Artist as Selector features work by the following artist selectors of the Jerwood Drawing Prize: Graham Crowley (selector in 1994), Estelle Thompson (selector in 1994), Anthony Green (selector in 1994), Deanna Petherbridge (selector in 1996), Peter de Francia (selector in 1996), Timothy Hyman (selector in 1997), Eileen Cooper RA (selector in 1998), Alexander Moffatt (selector in 1999), Cornelia Parker RA (selector in 2002), Ken Currie (selector in 2003), William Feaver (selector in 2003), Anita Taylor (selector in 2003), Basil Beattie RA (selector in 2004), Stephen Farthing (selector in 2005), Sarah Simblet (selector in 2005), Jason Brooks (selector in 2006), Yvonne Crossley (selector in 2006), Paul Thomas (selector in 2006), Avis Newman (selector in 2007), Tony Bevan RA (selector in 2008), Tania Kovats (selector in 2009), Emma Talbot (selector in 2010), Rachel Whiteread (selector in 2011), Lisa Milroy RA (selector in 2012), and Michael Craig-Martin RA (selector in 2013).

Drawn Together: Artist as Selector coincides with an exciting project with multi award-winning illustrator and part time Hastings resident, Sir Quentin Blake. Quentin Blake at Jerwood Gallery: Artists on the Beach is a display of Quentin’s own artistic responses to ten of his highlights from the Jerwood Collection, including works by Stanley Spencer, Christopher Wood and LS Lowry. The responses by Blake form a one- room exhibition giving visitors a personal and touching view of artists in the Jerwood Collection. Blake is perhaps best known as the illustrator of books by authors including Russell Hoban, Joan Aiken, Michael Rosen, John Yeoman and, most famously, Roald Dahl. He taught for over twenty years at the Royal College of Art, where he was head of the Illustration department from 1978 to 1986. The collaboration also sees the production of a new gallery guide to support the display, ‘Artists on the Beach: A Jerwood Gallery Notebook’, illustrated by Quentin Blake, which is on sale in the gallery shop.

The Jerwood Drawing Festival also features a wide range of drawing-related events and activities which will take place throughout the summer. The gallery will be holding twenty drawing workshops to celebrate twenty years of the Jerwood Drawing Prize and there will be free drop in drawing activities both in the gallery café and studio. A drawing symposium led by Professor Anita Taylor of Drawing Projects UK and curator of the Drawn Together: Artist as Selector exhibition will also take place during the summer.