Days Out in England – Quentin Blake: Inside Stories at Laing Art Gallery

Despite being ill on Tuesday, Little Miss and I had a day away to Newcastle, just the two of us. We’d been offered complimentary tickets to the Quentin Blake: Inside Stories at the Laing Art Gallery, and being a huge Blake fan, I just had to go. So we hopped on an early train (train tickets having been bought using my Nectar points) and headed down to the city for a few hours. After a morning of shopping and a terrible lunch, I was feeling all but defeated but thankfully the exhibit was lovely and well worth the trip for.

I know what you’re thinking, an art gallery with a 5 year old? Little Miss hasn’t ever been to an art gallery before purely because I’d always thought she was too young, however this Quentin Blake exhibit was actually the best event to take her for her first trip. Despite being too young to really enjoy what was on display, there was loads of things for her to do while I had a look around from drawing, picture books and even dressing up!

I don’t have that many photos to share with you as it was strictly prohibited to take photos of the exhibition however I have a few cute ones of Little Miss I can share.

Again, I’ll reiterate that the taking of photos of the exhibit was strictly prohibited. So these are photos of some of the activities Little Miss took part in. There was a chance to dress up which I know she would have loved however a rather large family had taken over that area so instead she took up a seat at a table where you could make up your own Roald Dahl esq animal. There was a dice and a sheet of paper with suggestions for each number. Little Miss got a female with webbed feet, feather, carrying an umbrella in the jungle. There were fine line pens so you could draw the outline in the style of Quentin Blake. As we all know Blake’s illustrations of Dahl’s characters are legendary, the two go hand in hand. Part of the exhibit was dedicated to Blake’s illustrations for Roald Dahl and the thought process that went into each one. I especially enjoyed reading about the Twits.

In the second room there were two more tables with activities as well as an area with comfy chairs and books depicting Blake’s illustrations. LM made herself comfy and had a flick through them all. As of yet she has only come across Quentin Blake illustrations in The Tale of Kitty in Boots by Beatrix Potter. I think this was her favourite area. She sat quietly while I looked at some more of the displays.

The exhibit costs £7 and children under 12 go free. I personally think it’s great even though we spent less than 30 minutes there. It was really informative and I loved seeing some original artwork as well as reading Quentin Blake’s own thoughts and words about the stories he illustrated. I loved that there was so much for the kids to do which kept them occupied and I loved the calm and quite environment.