The Big Draw
October 20 and 21
Venues nationwide
Drawing is one of those things most of us believe we can’t do. Young children make marks instinctively, often long before they can talk, but as they grow up they tend to lose the drawing impulse, disheartened by the perception that others draw better. Drawing is being squeezed out of thenbsp; curriculum, and the art world’s love affair with computers, video and installation has led to the closure of art school drawing studios.
But there are drawing evangelists out there: notable artists and illustrators, mathematicians, designers and architects who believe the tide must be turned; that to draw is to see more truly and to see is to understand the world around us more deeply.
This weekend, children and adults are being invited to take up pencil and paper for The Big Draw at more than 350 venues across the UK. The British, Science, Natural History and Vamp;A museums; the Tate galleries in London, Liverpool and St Ives ; shopping centres; National Trust gardens; railway stations; church halls and provincial museums and galleries - all will be involved, opening up collections and providing materials for people to make their mark.
In Surrey, Kingston University and the nearby Bentalls shopping centre aim to enter the Guinness Book of Records with the world’s longest drawing; the Isle of Skye is staging a Festival of Scribble; and children in the Midlands are helping to design the finale of the Walsall Illuminations with fire drawings.
This is the Big Draw’s second year, expanded as part of a three-year initiative by Drawing Power, the Campaign for Drawing, which has struck a chord with the nation since the first Big Draw.
Drawing Power was set up to mark the centenary of John Ruskin’s death by the Guild of St George, a tiny charity founded by Ruskin. He drew almost every day of his life to train his eyes, as he put it, to see more clearly. He believed drawing was the foundation of visual thought. The campaign has attracted substantial funding and wide interest.
Details of Big Draw events and the Campaign for Drawing on www.drawingpower.org.uk
The Power Drawing booklet is available free from The Campaign for DrawingPower Drawing,
7 Gentleman’s Row, Enfield. Tel: 020 8351 1719.
Details of Power Drawing and the Drawing Research Network from Eileen Adams on edu@drawingpower.org.uk
- Picture: a visitor makes her mark at a preliminary Big Draw at the British Museum last month
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