DRAWING INSPIRATION AWARDS

'Emergency Drawing Service' with Art in Healthcare, East Sussex Hospitals Trust

Organised by Margaret Richards, Project Manager
Two artists and a comedian posing as a nurse, nursing sister and Mr A. Pendix the Consultant Artologist wheeled a medical trolley of emergency drawing materials to selected departments. Patients, staff and visitors drew on hospital ephemera such as appointment cards, medical masks, inflated rubber gloves and disposable kidney dishes. Doctors, nurses, paramedics and students sketched internal organs and anatomical diagrams on the Consultant Artologist's white coat. This interactive event encouraged laughter, communication and uninhibited drawing.

'The Weekend Academy Family Drawing Day' at Byam Shaw School of Art, London

Organised by Deborah Froome, Director, Weekend Academy.
Byam Shaw's first Weekend Academy opened up the school's facilities to local communities. The stage was set with plentiful art materials; young actors from the nearby National Youth Theatre animated famous paintings as inspiring subjects to draw. Degas' Absinthe Drinkers sat and argued in the café, the Arnolfinis stood patiently under a single candle chandelier and discussed how many children their marriage might produce and Chagall's Promenaders defied gravity with a ladder. Children were so absorbed in their work that parents were able to draw independently. Families, adults and student volunteers enjoyed the buzz of energy and invention.

'Drawn Together' at the University Gallery Leeds

Organised jointly with University Museums Collections
The Drawn Together exhibition was a celebration of drawing across the sciences and arts. The purpose was to widen perceptions of its uses, from planning a building to recording pottery - and of the variety of media available. Four primary school workshops fostered portraiture and scientific illustrations. In two lively weekend workshops, financially supported by Leeds College of Art & Design and led by visual artist-in-residence Dan Robinson, adults and children experimented with shadow drawings, botanical projections and shoe rubbings, working on giant paper scrolls. The 3 Galleries... Go for a Walk project, a collaboration with Leeds City Art Gallery and Leeds Metropolitan University Gallery, brought new audiences to each gallery.

'The Big Draw' at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea

Organised by Catherine Orbach, Education Officer
Artists Susan Diab and Mary Hooper, alias 3B and 6H, took over the building in a frenzy of drawing. They enthusiastically encouraged visitors to draw inside and out with a host of strategies that challenged definitions of drawing. 250 visitors took part: menu cards urged diners to 'doodle over noodles', while others picked a task from a lucky dip of ideas. Paper was stretched from one end of the terrace to another, people made life-size portraits, used drawing machines - long sticks or funnels of sand - and drew with tape on windows. The day was good fun whether you took part or simply enjoyed the spectacle.

'The Big Draw' at East Kilbride Arts Centre

Organised by Carla Hillman, Arts Development Officer for South Lanarkshire Council, and Heather Liddell, Arts Tutor
Drop-in activities encouraged regular and new visitors to focus on drawing - without the barrier of cost or the formality of a workshop. The brief was shape and pattern: participants made their mark directly on the gallery walls - inspired by aboriginal sand paintings and Indian textiles. They experimented with pastels and photographic techniques. Everyone was invited to exhibit finished drawings on the café walls in exchange for a free drink! This was the finale of a week in which the Travelling Gallery brought South Lanarkshire the exhilarating Drawing Room exhibition and education programme.

'Pictish Silk Banners' with Highland Council

Organised by Lorna Cruickshank, Heritage Officer, and Wendy Sanders, Arts Officer
To celebrate Archaeology Week and The Big Draw, children and adults from Ross and Cromarty gathered at four remote community centres over four days. With artist Heather Butlin, Ruth Black and Marion Tonkin they looked closely at - and drew - the unique Pictish symbol stones in their villages. They interpreted them with vibrant patterns and colourful scenes painted on silk 'patches'. These were joined into an impressive collective banner for each community, providing an immediate link with the Pictish stone carvers of the third to ninth centuries AD.

'Drawing Platform' at the National Railway Museum, York
Organised by Graham Relton, Education Officer
This ambitious event in the museum's Great Hall was designed to stimulate a fresh view of the museum's collections. Visitors were invited by staff and artist Caroline Jariwala to observe design, curves, colour, tones and contrasts within the exhibits and the building. Zooming in on mechanisms and components and comparing the results with a special railway print exhibition made participants really look, explore and experiment. Individual drawings were added to a huge collective collage.

'I Drew this and Thought of You!' at the National Space Centre, Leicester

Organised by Joy Horton, Education Manager
Over two weeks, 2000 visitors were encouraged to think about our planet as a unique place in the universe and express this through drawing. All drawings made during the event will be digitised and sent into space in 2004, aboard Humanity's First Starship (built by Team Encounter). Each day a winner was selected from all the drawings posted on a huge display rocket. Excited by this rare chance to perhaps communicate with an alien, participants carefully chose their messages and appropriate pictorial language.
Sponsored by Berol Sandford UK and Team Encounter

'Create A Zulu Army' at the Royal Regiment of Wales Museum, Brecon

Organised by Alison Hembrow, Education Advisor & Outreach Officer
This Regimental Museum in a sparsely populated area used a theme with strong local interest to reach schools, new visitors and international audiences through the web. Real and virtual displays and handling objects focused on 'the other side of the story': the brave Zulu warriors who fought the men from this regiment in 1879. The 1,200 Zulus drawn and displayed in the museum were made by a thousand participants aged 20 months to 75 years, including students from two schools in Rorke's Drift in South Africa - descendents of the Zulu warriors.

'A Space Story: Drawn with Light' with Vital Arts, Royal London Hospital

Organised by Ginny Carvisiglia, Artist-in-Residence
For two weeks, long-term patients prepared props, costumes, masks, backdrops and storyboards. Artist Ginny Carvisiglia and light artists, Lisa and Manuel of Oficina Humanae, completed the storyboard frames by using a camera obscura to record drawings made by the children with lights and torches. These exhilarating drawing sessions, bordering on physical theatre, created surprising special effects - without sophisticated technical equipment.