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Our first Discussion Event of 2026 …
Join us online this Friday 15th May at 13.30 GMT for a live dialogue between two brilliant practitioner-educators responding to this year’s thematic text ‘Agitation-Oscillation-Embodiment: The Spaces Between’.
Can Yang @solxus : designer, art director and academic — explores the shifting terms of perception in the age of machine learning. When images are shaped before they arrive, what does it mean to truly see?
James Langdon @jameslangdon.eu : graphic designer, educator and writer — asks what happens when we use labour-saving technology to expand the scope of what one person can laboriously make.
Hosted by Katie Jones Barlow and Peter Nencini.
If you are not a member - join us - link in bio to sign up and receive your Zoom invite ahead of the event.
Please note: this event will not be recorded.
See you there! Image credit @solxus

We just wanted to quickly intro Breakfast Club our new initiative. Taking place once a month, Breakfast Club will be an opportunity to get updates, insights, share thoughts and receive news with members and colleagues in a quick and informal format. We are pleased to announce that Dr Catrin Morgan will be joining us for our first session on Wednesday 11th February at 08:30 GMT. Catrin will be introducing us to the theme for this year illustration research conference, and offering insights into the proposal and call for papers ‘process’.

For more information please visit the illustration educators website (link in bio) or DM for zoom link.

We are pleased to announce this year’s theme for illustration educators: Agitation, Oscillation, Embodiment. The Spaces Between. Our creative and professional conventions, modalities and pedagogies are in flux as Machine Learning technologies have a radical and destabilising effect on where, what, and how we practice as educators. This theme emerged from our gathering in November 2025 at Kingston School of Art, aiming to capture the richness, scope and complexity of ideas developed there, and inviting us to sit with discomfort and recognise value in embodied practices as we live through the most significant and rapid technological evolution in several lifetimes. You can find out more about this year’s theme here.

We warmly encourage you to participate in our upcoming membership events throughout 2026. In addition to our Reading Club and Discussion Events, we’re launching monthly Breakfast Club meetings; informal gatherings to connect, share emerging issues, and discuss pedagogic challenges, with occasional guest updates from organisations like the Association of Illustrators, Journal of Illustration, and Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.

You can find the full programme on our website (link in bio) ie members will receive an invitation automatically with a link to join. If you are not a member already and would like to attend, then please purchase a membership subscription here before the event.

We warmly invite you to the annual ‘Gathering’ Event for illustration educators! Join us at Town House, Kingston University on Friday 7th November, 2025 for a day of making, discussing, sharing, reflecting and developing.

This is our second in person gathering and will offer us the opportunity to consider the years’ activities on the theme ‘Vectors of Hope’. We are interested in exploring new ways of teaching and learning that are helping to shape illustration education in a world that feels increasingly uncertain.

We welcome all educators to book a ticket through eventbrite, (link in profile) ie members receive a discounted ticket. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Please email us directly with questions, we would love to hear from you.

More details to follow on the ie website

This event was led by Rachel Emily Taylor and Philip Kennedy.

Reading Group is a recurring format where members share and discuss resources used before, during, and after teaching illustration. Do you want to prepare and share something for our next event?

A documentation of this event is now up on the illustration educators website containing a reading list and reflections.

We warmly invite members to our first illustration educators talk event of this years theme on Wednesday 18th June at 10.30am GMT +1: A conversation with Tom James and Shanyah Dadral at Absolute Beginners’ (A—B) workshop space in Park Royal Industrial Estate (part of the Park Royal Design District), North-West London.Zoom link has been sent to members and the event will be recorded and available to members on the ie website. If you are not already a member and want to join it’s easy to do on the ie website- link in bio.

We are really excited to announce that tickets are now on sale for illustration educators first in person gathering; a day of making, discussing, sharing, reflecting, held at Royal College of Art on Thursday 21st November. Follow the link in bio to purchase a ticket.
@peternencini @darrylclifton @katiejbarlow @_sinead.evans @rachelemilytaylor @dr_rachelemilytaylor @teleitlikeitis

We warmly invite you to our third event of the year, ie Talk Event on Friday 12th April at 12.00pm (GMT +1), online. This event is titled ‘Where we educate’ and we will bring together educators, illustrators, practitioners, artists and researchers who are interested in the spaces and environments in which we learn, teach and play. The speakers have been selected for their relevance to this year’s theme, ‘Who educates’; each presenting interesting and inspiring educational models that explore educational spaces in and out of the institution.

The event will be chaired by Catrin Morgan, Assistant Professor of Illustration at the New School, Parsons. Guest speakers include artist and researcher, India Harvey @indiaha_v and designer, educators and authors Rose Gridneff @rosegridneff and Neil Drabble.

Image credit: India Harvey and Lisa Marie Bengtsson, Squish Space, Barbican.

*This event has now passed please look out for the resources documenting this event on the illustration educators website and announcements for our next event on the 12th April.

We warmly invite you to our first ie Reading Group on Friday 16th February at 12 pm (GMT), online. This is an opportunity for members to come together and share examples of resources used when teaching illustration, building on the ie theme of ‘Who Educates…?’

The resource you share could be something that you read while preparing for a course; you directed a student to during your teaching; or something a student asked you to read! You might have asked a student to read the text for a specific reason, or something a student group read together.

Image credit: I Swear I Saw This: Drawings in Fieldwork Notebooks, Namely My Own by Michael Taussig (The University of Chicago Press, 2011)

*This event has now passed please look out for the resources documenting this event on the illustration educators website and announcements for our next event on the 12th April.

We have our first ie Discussion Event on Friday 19th January 12 - 2pm (GMT). This is an opportunity to explore some of the ideas and questions that are emerging from our theme this year, ‘Who Educates?’. Before the event have a read or listen to the conversation between Hayfaa Chalabi and Jhinuk Sarkar, as this will set the scene for our discussion. The text and audio can be found here on the ie website. We will be addressing ideas around co-creation, risk viability, new forms and alternative exchanges, which have been derived from Jhinuk and Hayfaa’s original dialogue.

Image credit: Miro board documenting the discussion.

We are pleased to announce our events schedule for 2024. All members are welcome to attend. Links access online events will be sent out to members the week before the event. Link in bio.

Interested in joining illustration educators? Visit our website to become a member. As a member of illustration educators you will be part of a unique community of academics, educators and students.

Benefits include:

- Platform for professional dialogue to share ideas, knowledge and experiences.
-Opportunity to make public research and scholarly outputs through resources published on the illustration educators website.
-Unlimited access to online resources.
-Free attendance to local in-person and online events scheduled throughout the year.
-Discounted attendance to the annual symposium.
-Invitation to attend the Annual General Meeting.