When: 2 October - 18 October 2008
Where: The Ruskin Gallery
Time: 10am-9pm Monday to Friday, 10am-5pm Saturdays

Sara Fanelli is one of the world's most admired children's illustrators. Born in Florence, Sara is now London based since graduating there in 1995 from the Royal College of Art. As a freelance designer and illustrator, she has attracted both world-wide recognition and several awards for her innovative work. Sara has exhibited at various international venues including the Tate Modern, London , L'Art à la Page, Paris, Galleria d'arte Moderna, Bologna, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Katonah Art Museum, New York State, and Dailmaru Museum, Tokyo to name but a few.

To the Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, Sara brings an exhibition themed around her award-winning book 'Pinocchio' (Walker Books). This interactive exhibition provides a multidimensional experience of art with which children can truly engage. Surrounded by displays of ephemera from the artist's own studio and images of Pinocchio which Sara paints directly on to the walls, children themselves become artists using paper, wood and shapes to explore their own creativity. Large collages of Sara's work can be finessed with crayons housed, as they are, safely under Perspex.

This beautifully designed exhibition receives its British Premiere at the Ruskin Gallery before continuing to Newcastle.

Please visit: www.sarafanelli.com

This exhibition coincides with the launch of University's Centre for Children's Book Studies which focuses on several areas of proven excellence in teaching and research. The centre brings together the work of the MA in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, the new MA in Publishing in the Department of English and Media and the work of the Faculty of Education which is developing an MA in Children's Literature.

... and invites everyone to join in The Big Draw

As Anglia Ruskin University continues to mark the 150th year anniversary of the founding of the Cambridge School of Art, by visionary Victorian artist and writer John Ruskin, the Ruskin Gallery celebrates The Big Draw from 1-31 October 2008. This national event seeks to prove that drawing can be an enjoyable public activity as well as a private passion. As such the Ruskin Gallery has teamed up with Kettle's Yard and Wysing Arts centre to provide children with a range of activities through which to explore the interconnectivity of words and pictures.

The Big Draw was inspired by Anglia Ruskin University's namesake John Ruskin. His mission was not to teach people how to draw, but how to see.

'The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way.' John Ruskin

Generously supported by Cambridge City Council, the Ruskin Gallery will also be offering opportunities for Cambridge residents and their families to get involved with The Big Draw. Storytelling and gallery activities around the Sara Fanelli exhibition combine with a specially commissioned Urban Origami artist-led activity from Wysing Arts centre-based Simon Woolham.