The pilot Pathways Into Children’s Publishing programme, co-produced by Pop Up Projects and House of Illustration, was a cross- sector, deeply collaborative venture to tackle the barriers that many artists from backgrounds that are under-represented in children’s publishing, especially artists of colour, face in accessing academic and industry routes into children’s illustration and publishing.
In 2019 we recruited 26 mentees from across England and Scotland – aspiring and emerging illustrators, both with and without formal training in illustration, who had ambitions in the field. The work on display in this very first group portfolio provides a small snapshot of some of the stories they told through illustration, and reveals a real breadth of talent – some at the very beginning of their creative story, all very much in the process of becoming professional practitioners, and some who truly are on the cusp of great success.
