Drawing Crowds Around the World and Down the Road For immediate use: 25/09/14
From1 October – 2 November, the world’s biggest drawing festival, The Big Draw, will be taking place in fourteen countries and includes a vast range of events across the UK.
Throughout October, many of the nation’s community venues, as well as national landmarks, will be transformed into creative spaces, where people of all ages and skills can flex their drawing muscles.
This year, the Campaign for Drawing is celebrating its 15thinternational Big Draw festival and the list of participating venues is staggering: from Alexandra Palace, The Baltic and Cutty Sark to York Minster, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, National Gallery and Jurong Park in Singapore. Events are being added daily, including an adults-only sketchbook scavenger hunt on London’s streets; an invitation to delve into the archives of The Royal Society; and the even rarer chance to become a life-size compass in Northumberland.
Jacqueline Wilson, renowned children’s writer and supporter of The Big Draw, will be fronting the 2014 Big Draw Launch at the V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green on 28 September. She comments:I loved drawing as a child – I still do now, even though I’m not very good at it. I think it’s a wonderful idea to have a whole month worth of activities aimed at encouraging absolutely everyone to pick up a pencil. Happy drawing!
Campaign Director Sue Grayson Ford adds: No matter where you live, and regardless of your age or ability, The Big Draw invites you to pick up pen, pencil, crayon or any other mark-making device, and explore our world in new ways.
This year’s theme,It’s Our World, encourages everyone to celebrate their environment – rural, urban or coastal – and to explore its sustainability. Additionally, art in any medium made by 14-19 year olds can be uploaded onto an online gallery by Big Draw organizers, in a wider initiative developed by Business in the Community. These images will be shown on digital screens nationwide to celebrate UN World Environment Day (5 June 2015).
Many Big Draw events are also part of The Family Arts Festival, spanning autumn half-term 17 October –
2 November. This is the second year of The Big Draw’s successful partnership with this major new initiative, offering a huge variety of family-friendly events across all art forms during the half term holiday.
The 2014 Big Draw Festival is sponsored by Faber-Castell, manufacturer of the high quality Playing & Learning art materials.
Comments, interviews and images of events and drawings are available onrequest; contact Sue Grayson Ford by email at ortel: 020 8351 1719 (07947 346050 outside office hours).
See over for selected events
Notes to Editors
1. Launched in 2000,The Big Drawhas encouraged over a million people back to thedrawing board. It has notched up two world records – for the longest drawing in the world (onekilometre) and the greatest number of people drawing simultaneously (over 7,000). The BigDraw has transformed national museums, Trafalgar Square, and even the South Kensingtonunderground tunnel into dynamic creative spaces enjoyed by thousands of people for a day.Every year, The Big Draw season includes hundreds of drawing activities in schools, galleries,museums, and heritage sites UK-wide, and now in 20 countries (1 October to 2 November2014). Selected regional events can be found atwww.thebigdraw.org/press.
2.The Campaign for Drawingaims to get everyone drawing. It raises drawing’s profile as apowerful tool for thinking, creating and communicating. Its long-term ambition is to change theway drawing is perceived and used by the public and professionals. The Campaign’s annualflagship, The Big Draw, proves that drawing can be a public activity as well as a privatepassion. The original inspiration came from visionary Victorian writer and artist John Ruskin,whose mission was to teach people to see through drawing. The Campaign demonstrates thatdrawing can also connect communities.www.campaignfordrawing.org
3. The secondFamily Arts Festival(17 October - 2 November 2014) will see over 500leading arts organisations across the UK host over 2,000 family-friendly events, spanningtheatre, dance, music, visual arts and more. The festival was launched in 2013 as part of theFamily Arts Campaign, an initiative of six national arts membership bodies and supportedusing public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. In 2014 the FamilyArts Campaign and Festival is being supported in Wales through additional funding from ArtsCouncil Wales. The Family Arts Festival aims to increase the amount and range of high qualityarts available across the country to families and was established to foster lifelong interest andpassion for the arts.www.familyartsfestival.com.
4. Since 1761, family-runFaber-Castellhas manufactured pencils in the small town of Stein,Nuremberg in Germany. They have a long history and vast experience of producing a varietyof 2,000 different high quality implements for writing, drawing and creative design, and aim forcreativity and innovation in everything they produce. The company is committed to usingenvironmentally-friendly processes and materials, sourcing pencil wood from its own certified,sustainable forests. Faber-Castell’s Playing & Learning range offers safe and innovativechildren’s art materials that encourage kids to explore their imaginations and creativity throughthe world of colour.Available here: www.stonemarketing.com/faber-castell-playing-learning
5.What our supporters say about The Big Draw:
Sir Quentin Blake, Campaign Patron: We live under a bombardment of manufacturedimages, and in the face of that we need to be able to draw as a way of discovering the realityof the world about us, as well as the life in ourselves.
Andrew Marr, Campaign Patron: I became Andrew Marr again when I started to draw oncemore. That was the first time I knew who I was properly and became myself again.
David Hockney OM CH RA, Campaign Patron:Drawing should be part of visual education,in the same way that press-ups are part of an athlete’s training.
Selected Events
London
V&A Museum of Childhood
Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA
Tel: 020 8983 5227; http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk
Join The Big Draw Party!
28 September, 11:30am to 16:30pm; All ages; Free
Join special guests writer Jacqueline Wilson and illustrators Nick Sharratt andMarion Deucharsfor the launch of the 2014 Big Draw. Help Pip and Squeak throw a surprise party for Wilfred, one of the Museum's shyest residents.
The Parade, Watford Town Centre
Centre, The Parade, Watford , WD17 3EX
Tel: 01923 278 333
The Big Draw: Celebrating Watford's Animal Farm
4 October, 11am to 4pm; All ages; Free
Celebrate Watford's Animal Farm and animate the Parade! Discover printing, animation, dance, drawing and heritage with Quirky Pictures, Culture Cart, Roger Kattenhorn (WRAP) and Farzana Chaudry. with Watford Museum, Watford Palace Theatre, Campaign for Drawing, Halas & Batchelor and Watford Borough Council.
Streets of London
StoryHands Illustration Collective, Monument to the Great Fire of London Fish Street Hill, London, EC3R 8AH
Tel: 07591416986
StoryHands London Sketchbook Scavenger Hunt
18 October and 1 November, 1:30pm; Ages 18+; Free
As part of the Big Draw festival, StoryHands is offering the chance to flex your drawing, looking and imagining muscles and to discover a side of London you might nothave seen before. Using unique recycled drawing materials, embark on a guided walk and scavenger hunt of drawing challenges that encourage you to really look and learn about London past, present and future, and to imagine the stories that might take place in the less known corners of this amazing city.
The Royal Society
6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG
Tel: +44 (0)20 7451 2500; https://royalsociety.org
Drawing Science
25 October, 11am to 5pm; All ages; Free
Visitors will have the chance to view and draw historic artefacts and scientific illustrations pulled from the Royal Society’s extensive archives. Visitors will be invited to create drawings inspired by the displayed artefacts and illustrations, as well as extraordinary architecture of the Carlton House Terrace building.
The event will inspire visitors to explore the areas where art and science overlap, and view rare items from the most prolific names in the history of science.
William Morris Gallery
Lloyd Park, Forrest Road, London, E17 4PP
Tel: 020 8496 4390; www.wmgallery.org.uk
Drawing with Indigo
25 October, 1pm to 4pm; All ages; Free
We demonstrate the versatility of textiles with an afternoon of hands-on drawing activities. Textile artist Lucille Junkere will be showing us how to draw with stitch and ink, inspired by her recentPeopleseries. Lucille is the William Morris Gallery’s Artist in Residence for 2014 and will be investigating Morris’s love of the colour indigo and his experiments with natural dyes. Lucille has run workshops using natural dyes all over the world including Jamaica, Barbados and Nigeria.
Battersea Park Children's Zoo
Battersea Park, London, SW11 4NJ
Tel: 0207 924 5826; http://www.batterseaparkzoo.co.uk
Marvellous Meerkat Montage
25 October, 11am to 4pm; Under 11s; Paid event
Upon completing yourfun booklet of animal sketcheswe'll ask you to cut out yourMeerkat and add it toour world scene... Will it be waiting for a bus or spray painting a message in the city scape? Maybe it'll besitting in a deck chair sipping bug juice, whilstsunning itself on the beach, in the tropical scene? Or perhaps it'll bephotographing the birds in the trees in our Finches' Forest?You get todraw, createanddecide!
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN
Tel: 020 7747 2865; www.nationalgallery.org.uk
Bring an Ipad: Talk and Draw
31 October, 6:30pm to 7:30pm; Ages 12+; Free
Bring your own Ipad or equivalent electronic drawing device.You will need to be familiar with your Ipad's own drawing app. Spaces are limited to 40 people on a first-come, first-served basis. Join an artist and lecturer to explore a painting in two different ways. First, listen to a brief talk then respond by making your own ipad work in this short, artist-led drawing session taking inspiration from the work of Luca Giordano, known as 'Luca fa presto' (speedy Luke) because of how quickly he could cover a surface with paint.
North West
Alexandra Park
Moss Side, Manchester,M16 7JL
Tel:+44(0)7816683171
Kaleidoscopic Drawings
4 October, 1 to 4pm; All ages; Free
Come to Alexandra Park and make a kaleidoscopic drawing with artist, Naomi Kashiwagi.Trap and layer your drawings, leaves, cut-out shiny coloured plastic shapes in between sheets of plastic to make rotatable and waterproof kaleidoscopic drawings that can be used as viewfinders in the park. This event is part of 'Pankhurst in the Park', a programme of events at Alexandra Park, Manchester, based around a series of talks and installations by local artists and accompanied by an integrated arts educational programme, with St Mary's Primary School in Moss Side.
Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum
Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Dove Cottage, Ambleside, LA22 9SH
Tel: + 44 (0)1539435544
Japanese Art Afternoon
30 October, 2 to 4pm; Under 16s; £3 per child (adults free)
Learn new art skills with your family this half-term at the Wordsworth Trust’s great Japanese Art Afternoon! Ideal for children under 12 and their parents, the workshop introduces families to different creative skills popular in Japanese culture, including writing haikus, calligraphy and origami. All materials provided.
Tate Liverpool
Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4BB
Tel: 0151 702 7400
The Big Draw: Lively Lines
28-31 October, 1:30 – 4:30pm; All ages; Free
Have lots of fun in these exciting free workshops for families led by Artist Sarah Marsh. You’ll look and listen to artworks in our DLA Piper Series: Constellations display, then get creative drawing and moving to drum beats. Experiment with bending and stretching wire to make long and lively sculptures. You’ll be able to take your creations home or add them to the week- long display in our lovely Art DockStudio.
Wales
Penrhyn Castle
Bangor, LL57 4HN
Tel: 01248 353084
Big Draw day
4 October, 11am to 4pm; All ages; Normal Castle admission
Slate plays such an important part in Penrhyn Castle's history; the Bethesda slate quarry was part of the Penrhyn estate and helpedfund the building of the castlethat we see today.So, we thought it was fitting to usefor thisevent where we will becreatively looking at Penrhyn Castle and our local environment.Find out more about slateas amaterial, its connection to Penrhyn Castleand how it is a fantastic tool for drawing and getting creative. Your drawing can form part ofa communalslate installation.
Cardiff Story, Tourist Information, Cardiff
The Hayes, Cardiff City Centre & other locations across the City
Cardiff, CF10 1BH
Tel: 01792 652016
Drawing with Wire (A Welsh language event)
22 October, 11am to 4pm; All ages; Free
Drawing the City with wire. Create a continuous line drawing with wire in response to the shapes and forms that you observe in thecity center, with Rhian Wyn Stone.
Pontypool Park (event repeated at different locations)
Pontypool, NP4 8AT
Tel: 01495 762200
Arty Parky
25 & 26 October, 1 & 2 November, 10am to 3pm; All ages; Free
Work with artist Kate Raggett to create a large, outdoor piece of art using natural materials found in the park. A chance to get creative and enjoy the great outdoors! Forage for natural materials such as twigs, leaves, conkers and seeds in the park and use them to create a large, communal artwork which celebrates the local environment. Each participant will receive a free postcard of the artwork created.
South West
The Royal West of England Academy
Queen's Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1PX
Tel: 0117 973 5129
Paint Pals
24 October, 2-3pm; All Ages; Donation
Paint Pals, an intergenerational project connecting communities, brings together children and older people living in care homes through exchanging painted postcards and making art together.This is the first time ever that Paint Pals is open to the public! Come along and watch the children and residents involved in the project with the opportunity to chat with organisers, and let loose your own creativity after being inspired by what you’ve seen!
National Marine Aquarium
Rope Walk, Coxside, Plymouth, PL4 0LF
Tel: 0844 893 7938
Ocean Cities
25 October – 2 November, 10am to 5pm; All ages; Free
Explore the National Marine Aquarium by taking part in the annual Big Draw event,Ocean Cities.Find as many different underwater habitats or 'cities' in the aquarium as you can. Be amazed by the unusual shapes, stunning colours and intricate patterns of the huge variety of animals that live in the world's oceans. Have a go at drawing the animals using materials available in the aquarium.
Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA
Tel: +44 (0)117 917 2300
Big Family Arts Picnic
1 November, 12 – 4pm; All ages; Free
Come along to our giant celebration as we invite families to take over Arnolfini’s Auditorium and transform it into a fantastical and imaginative world. Take part in exciting Big Draw activities with Bristol Children’s Scrapstore and Architecture Centre as we imagine what the city would look like if families were in charge, work with amazing local artists and bring your lunch along to take part in our huge family picnic.