Rachel Lillie

I am Course Leader for BA Illustration Animation and Module Leader for Level 6 Presentation: Professional Practice. Prior to this I was Level 5 Year Leader and Module Leader for Studio: Practice & Purpose. 

My teaching practice foregrounds an emphasis on community, curiosity, listening and inclusivity. Conversation, care and critical awareness is central to this. 

I have co-led a SADRAS funded project 'Listening with Power', working with student co-researchers to enable discussion around disability & mental health in higher education. I have facilitated critical issues forums with guest speakers around Collaboration, Confidence and Resilience.

As part of building course community, I support and encourage students to design, instigate and facilitate student-led workshops; where processes, skills, and research are tested, shared and exchanged with each other. I co-established Unknown Publishing Thing alongside Russell Weekes & alumni Cicely Pilkington. A student, staff and alumni space for self publishing practices, exploring and supporting making and distribution models.

Alongside this, I have led on external collaborations with Stanley Picker Gallery, Turf Projects, Croydon Museum & Archives, Wimbledon Museum, Tate, Vintage publishers, Witherford Watson Mann Architects as well as live projects with local organisations.

I have lectured and guest lectured at a range of institutions including, Central Saint Martins, Leeds Arts University, University of Bedfordshire, Northampton University and Maryland Institute College of Arts.

Qualifications

• Fellow in Higher Education Academy
• Postgraduate Certificate for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Courses taught

• Illustration Animation BA (Hons)

Landscape and place, everyday heritage, ecology and materials are areas of particular interest. I look towards ordinary, adaptive and inclusive methodologies; observation, walking, talking, writing, making, alongside interpretation of text, archival research and ideas around narrative non-fiction. My approach is built around an ethos of the illustrator as instigator and facilitator, taking action, creating meaning and initiating dialogue across spaces and disciplines.

I endeavour to make research tangible and participatory; working across drawing, material investigation, creative writing, image-making, object-making, exhibition, workshop design and self-publishing. I collaborate across disciplines; working with community groups, local councils, architects, heritage and educational institutions across the UK. 

Alongside this, I make and self publish print editions. These are spaces where drawing, research, creative writing, sequencing and print production interplay. A form to explore the relationship between text, image and the page. 

My work has been presented and published across a range of public spaces, including Somerset House, Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration (formally House of Illustration), Varoom Mag, Vestry House Museum and independent community venues.

I was selected as Inaugural Illustrator in Residence at House Illustration (HOI, 2014), and have participated in multiple Illustration Research symposiums; Illustration & Landscape (Edinburgh College of Art, 2016), Education & Illustration; Models, Methods, Paradigms (Kingston University, 2021) and Illustration & Heritage (Chelsea College of Arts, 2024).