Exhibitions, Events, Talks, Learning Projects and more – find out what’s happening at Drawing Room!
Find out our opening hours, how to get here and learn more about our space & local area.
Drawing Room/Tannery Arts CIO Unit 1b New Tannery Way Bermondsey London, SE1 5WS
Our Learning projects make drawing relevant and accessible to our community – for schools, teachers, families & local groups. Come and draw!
Free and open to all, our Library is a unique collection of around 4,000 books dedicated to the exploration of contemporary drawing.
Our Supporters help fund all that we do and enjoy exclusive events, talks, tours and studio visits – find out how you can join!
Buy publications related to our exhibitions, as well as unique artworks and limited editions.
Find out more about Drawing Room, what we do, and our relationship with studio provider Tannery Arts.
Tannery Arts is a small, independent charity concerned with supporting the professional development of emerging and established artists through the provision of affordable studios, promoting their practice through opportunities to exhibit work, develop projects, generate partnerships with local authorities, private property owners and social housing organisations as well as engage in learning activities.
Drawing Room is the place to discover drawing. Our mission is to champion drawing and its potential to help us understand ourselves, each other and our world.
Drawing is accessible and intuitive, bridging art forms and cultures, a way of thinking and expressing available to all. Our mission to champion drawing derives from our charitable objective to ‘promote art for the public benefit’. We do this through inspiring free exhibitions, vibrant learning projects and our unique drawing research library. Our values inform everything that we do:
COMMUNITY
We strive to be a welcoming, responsible and responsive organisation that supports individual dignity, equity and the celebration of difference. Through our work with local schools, families and neighbourhood groups, we aim to be a relevant and accessible cultural hub that our community is proud to make their own.
CREATIVITY
Through our exhibitions, learning and library programmes, we encourage and support a diverse range of people to produce ambitious drawing, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to be creative. By being a resource for the latest thinking around drawing, we want to make drawing central in nurturing the next generation of creatives.
COMPASSION
We reject all forms of discrimination and aggression, and work to foster respect and kindness through everything we do without fueling divisions. Acknowledging our roots in historically exclusionary systems, we are committed to ongoing learning and listening, to help create safer spaces, particularly for those who face barriers in society.
We aim to live our values through intentional actions, not just words, and remain open to critical self-reflection and feedback with a spirit of humility and desire for further growth.
Last updated November 2025.
Drawing Room was founded by curators Mary Doyle, Kate Macfarlane and Katharine Stout in 2002 and is part of Tannery Arts CIO charity. As 90% of our income is self-generated, Drawing Room relies on the support of individuals, organisations and trusts, alongside the funding we receive from Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation. We are indebted to our Drawing Circle and Drawing Room Network Members and to the many artists who donate drawings to our Biennial Fundraising exhibitions.
'The place to discover contemporary drawing'