Curious & Miscellaneous with Kew Gardens, Library and Archives, and Anushka Tay

On one of the coldest but most beautifully bright and sunny days in January, we gathered outside Kew Gardens' Elizabeth Gate then set off to explore. As everyone got to know each other and discussed their interests in Kew and botany, we admired trees and sculptures alike, took occasional refuge from the cold in the glasshouses, and refilled our creative wells with inspiration from the natural world.

After several hours of happy wandering, we joined some more UAL students, plus the Kew Library and Archives team, at their building for an introduction to their facilities focusing on the treasures in their illustrations collection. We learned that despite all the technological advances of the last hundred years, botanical illustration is still a highly sought-after skill as botanists prefer illustrations to photographs. A single illustration can give equal emphasis to the different aspects of a plant and its life cycle, something not possible with a photograph.

Our guide, Julia, showed us examples of botanical illustration dating back hundreds of years, and wowed us with stories of people who dedicated their lives to the art, such as Margaret Mee, who only managed to complete her work illustrating the elusive Selenicereus cacti, or Amazon Moonflower, which opens only at night, shortly before her death.  The group let out an audible gasp of amazement to learn that every copy of one long-running botanical magazine used to be hand-coloured, fascinated by the process and attention to detail.

We also met up with London College of Fashion PhD candidate Anushka Tay, who told us about her experience as Kew Library and Archives' artist in residence, and the development of her exhibition Curious & Miscellaneous. Everyone enjoyed learning about the potential the library and archives offer for future researchers and creatives. Kew are keen to attract more artists to make use of their collections, and we hope that Anushka's residency is the first of many!

On our visit we only saw a small fraction of the collections at Kew - there is much more material available for you to explore. You can search their catalogue and read about the items in their collections online. We hope that many more members of the UAL community will visit the Library and Archives for research and to inspire their own projects - they would be absolutely delighted to have more visitors from UAL and to see how artists respond to the material in their archives.

Kew's Library and Archives Reading Room can be assessed by any member of the public for free. As it is a reference service, you must pre-book your visit, requesting access to any items you wish to see. On your first visit, you will need to register with photo ID and proof of address. You can bring pencils to sketch with, but wet materials (including pens) are not allowed in the Reading Room. More information on how to use the Library and Archives is on their website, along with information about the collections that have been digitised and can be accessed remotely.

If you do use the Library and Archives at Kew, please let us at Post-Grad Community know! We'd love to share what you learn and any projects you develop to encourage future students and alumni to make use of this amazing resource.

We would like to thank the Kew Library and Archives team and Anushka Tay for their time and support for this visit.