Illustory

Managing Director of Instituts Saint-Luc Brussels

The fortieth anniversary celebrations of the Illustration option at ESA Saint-Luc in Brussels should have taken place in September 2009. Why did we have to wait until January 2011? We have to go back to 2006 to find the explanation. In the autumn of that year, the exhibition Le 9e Rêve 6 was such a success at the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, that the management of ESA Saint-Luc wanted to take advantage of this notoriety to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the birth of the Bande Dessinée option in 2008. However, the Brussels Region has declared "2009, Year of the Comic Strip". No matter, the festivities will be postponed by a year (the opening of the exhibition, and the book 2048, taking place, as you may recall, in February 2009).

However, it's unthinkable for a school to organize another major anniversary in the same year. We were therefore planning the festivities associated with the Illustration option for 2010. Unfortunately, Seed Factory, which hosts these events, has already booked up its program. That's why our fortieth anniversary is being celebrated in January 2011. The students and their teachers have pulled out all the stops. All the option's best and brightest alumni have agreed to take part. Recently graduated students also have their fair share of gallery space, and a publication, Il était une fois... (Once upon a time...) demonstrates the vitality and quality of teaching "made in Saint-Luc".