The British Council, in collaboration with Libraries Unlimited, has brought the Drawing Words exhibition in Bangladesh for the local young readers to explore a new world of joyful illustrations.

The Drawing Words exhibition is commissioned by the British Council and curated by the Waterstones UK Children’s Laureate, Lauren Child. It is inspired by Magic Pencil, a touring exhibition of children’s book illustration selected by the first UK Children’s Laureate Quentin Blake in 2002, which also included Lauren Child’s work in her early career. The exhibition features ten illustrators from across the UK whose work makes an important and original contribution to the contemporary British picture book illustration.

The exhibition was inaugurated at the British Council Fuller Road premises on 28 June 2019 and continued till 11 July 2019. There was also a two-day long exhibition in Cox’s Bazaar, at the District Government Public Library on 29 and 30 June 2019.

Emily Hughes, one of the illustrators of Drawing Words and Kirsty Crawford, Programme Director of Libraries Unlimited inaugurated the exhibition with the young members of Fun Club and students from different universities. After the inauguration speech by Kirsty, Emily shared more details about the exhibition.

Then the audiences relished a fun storytelling session by Tania Mansur, English Language Teacher, Teaching Centre, British Council. “The pictures are very colourful! I loved the books of this exhibition," says Rubaiyat Tasneem, a young reader who visited the exhibition. "Picture-books are my favourite! I also enjoyed today’s storytelling a lot.” 

During the exhibition period, Emily visited Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar. She facilitated multiple workshops with school children at Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar. There she shared tricks and tips of drawing different facial expressions using different characters of her own illustrations.

The Drawing Words exhibition was organised the British Council Cultural Centre to share an important part of the British culture and create an opportunity for everyone to look at children’s picture book illustrations and discover a new generation of books and artists.