DRAWING INSPIRATION AWARDS

'Co-ordinate!' with Falmouth College of Arts, Cornwall

Organised by Philip Naylor, Programme Leader, Foundation in Art & Design
Coordinate! achieved its twin aims of demonstrating systems to help people draw successfully and giving foundation students experience in managing public art events. Student 'persuaders' ran entertaining sessions at the Arts Centre, tempting participants with unusual exercises - drawing from touch or verbal description, drawing 'blind', or with long sticks - and provoked debates about co-ordinating memory, logic and the senses. 'The Big Picture' consisted of 324 drawings, each transcribing a squared-up section of the Stanhope Forbes painting, A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach. These abstracts, drawn in permanent marker by local schoolchildren and adults, were assembled on a large sail, which was ceremonially raised by a 'Big Hoist' during the Oyster Festival and displayed outside the new National Maritime Museum.

'Drawing On-Line' with Moray Council Education Services

Organised by Jacqueline Bennett, Arts Development Worker with artists Gillian Drinkwater and Shaun MacDonald
This original idea de-mystified drawing for 300 passengers and schoolchildren travelling across Moray on the Aberdeen-Inverness line. Living up to its motto 'Time Well Spent', ScotRail sponsored a team of artists to inspire and encourage creative activities in waiting rooms and on board. Staedtler and Sanford UK provided high quality drawing pens for school groups and commuters. Primary and secondary students enjoyed time aboard a mobile studio, learning to capture movement and landscape through the windows. To complement this project, one of the artists encouraged young patients at Dr Gray's Hospital to draw on postcard blanks for sending to friends and family. This created a visual dialogue between children in Elgin and Aberdeen Children's Hospitals.

'autobioGRAPHICal' at The Study Gallery, Poole

Organised by Jem Main, Director
Since opening in 2000, the gallery has constantly extended its programme with inventive drawing activities - inspired by jazz or chamber music concerts, or choreographing movements of skateboarders and windsurfers. The Body Group, launched at the 2002 Big Draw for those involved in the physical and spiritual care of the body, now meets regularly. The six-week 2003 project invited art teachers, lecturers, students, pupils and others to respond to an exhibition of Anthony Green's painted and constructed autobiographical narratives. A master class for artist teachers and art group leaders provided the means for cascading the artistic process and content. Guided visits, talks, exercises using text and drawing gave further stimulus. All participants' work was 'added' to the exhibition in its final week. Visitor numbers increased substantially as more than 100 contributors brought their friends and families. Promoting the accessibility and power of gallery education, new ways were found to contribute to teachers' professional development.

'Draw your Dinner' with West Walls Studios, Carlisle

Organised by Paul Taylor, Studio Director, and Sue Stockwell, Co-Director
Colourful 'art waiters', in painted bow ties and paper pinafores, set up a huge dinner table in the city centre. The carnival atmosphere, an invitation to be portrayed on a giant tableau in exchange for a sketch, and the informality of decorating paper plates and tablecloths overcame adult taboos about drawing in public. A Big Blue Waiter on a bike toured nine 'art cafés', jump-starting the more timid diners into action. Menus with witty ideas for portraying real or fantastic food and drinks kept families enjoyably occupied and sparked competition between cafés. The paper plates, tablecloths and napkins were receptive to the materials on hand - paints in ketchup bottles, crayons and charcoal - and to challenges like drawing edible aliens, free range Cumberland sausages escaping over the fells, or a storm in a teacup. The results were displayed at Tullie House Museum & Gallery.

'Designs on Your Town' at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea

Organised by Catherine Orbach, Head of Education, with Kent Institute of Art & Design, Bexhill Museum and Bexhill College
Two days of workshops encouraged people to picture and plan their ideal town, and express ideas for Bexhill's regeneration: Wish List: add your dream building to a seafront collage, Watch this Space: fill a vacant urban space, drawn in 2D using a projector or made as a 3D model, filmed and played back on TV; Map a Map: make improvements to the town through annotated drawings on a giant floor map; Building Bexhill: make a model for a new town centre building and add it to the map. Afterwards, the students developed consultative projects into courses with pupils and parents at four primary schools.
Funded by East Sussex Family Learning Project Partnership Group.

'ArtyFishAll' at National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth

Organised by Juliana Depledge, Education Officer/Resident Artist
Over half term, teams of artists, Plymouth College of Art lecturers and students encouraged visitors to make observational and imaginative drawings of aquatic worlds. Aquarium staff led the way, with displays of their drawings in the gallery and on slides - adding visitors' work during the week. About 60% of the 13,500 visitors attended a 'master class' and used art stations, with drawing materials, rolls of paper and preserved specimens. These activities induced a calmer atmosphere and longer visits, with families studying the patterns, textures and forms of marine life, and absorbing more information. Many parents suggested that drawing should feature permanently and staff agreed that The Big Draw improved internal communications. This event was supported by many local businesses.

'Mapping the Body: Drawings On, Of & With the Body' at University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Organised by Sarah-Jane Harknett, Outreach Organiser
This unusual event challenged visitors to be both 'hands-on' and 'minds-on' while exploring the theme of body art, its myths and manifestations across the world. Relevant displays were highlighted in worksheets and guides. Rosanna Raymond, New Zealand artist and performance poet, worked with a small team of museum staff and student volunteers urging visitors to design their own body ornaments. The less inhibited enjoyed body painting, while others tattooed, pierced and decorated life-size paper bodies lying on the floor. These activities were popular with all ages, removed barriers, concentrated attention on the collections and transformed a quiet University museum into a lively, vibrant space.

'The Big Draw' at St Benedict's Junior School, Ealing, London

Organised by Jan McKenzie, Art Co-ordinator/Illustrator
The school spent a week on drawing activities, many suggested by the Power Drawing 'Get Creative' teaching pack. Pupils discovered the possibilities and limitations of a range of media and tools, exploring scale and format on different surfaces. They developed new techniques while observing, imagining and communicating through experimentation. The Big Draw reinforced the school's year-round strong Art & Design programme to develop creativity. All pupils complete a drawing foundation, using sketchbooks extensively at school and visual diaries at home. Work produced in lunchtime, after school and in holiday art clubs is exhibited in thirty changing corridor displays.

'My School Playground' at St Paul's C of E Primary School, Camden, London

Organised by Sally Spens, After-School Art Club/Textile Designer and Miranda Robinson, Reception Teacher/Art Co-ordinator
The school day was dedicated to drawing and painting an idealised playtime, on a backdrop of the playground made by Sally Spens. Children contributed self-portraits with their favourite playground activity; staff caused much hilarity by portraying themselves as children in similar situations. Everyone contributed eagerly to the giant picture, stimulated by teachers' demonstrations with juggling balls, bubble blowers and skipping ropes. This highly successful day combined fun, imagination and disciplined drawing. Parents were encouraged to get involved and to take their children to other Big Draw events.

'Here, There and Everywhere'

Organised by Christine Stringfellow, freelance artist
Participants from eighteen months to ninety years old, joined drawing activities across Fylde, contributing to a colourful exhibition which toured and was shown on the council website. 'Beach & sea' drawing sessions were held in libraries and youth clubs, day care centres, scout huts and the YMCA. Scores of budding artists flocked to Lytham St Anne beach to draw 'home' in the sand, an event launched by Michael Jack MP. 750 took part, thanks to the subject's flexibility, the artists' approachability and the simplicity of the materials. This celebratory community activity overcame drawing and social inhibitions.
Supported by Fylde Borough Council, Lancashire Libraries and local businesses.

'History on the Hill' with English Heritage at Old Sarum Castle, Salisbury

Organised by Nerys Hayes, South West Events Manager
Illustrator Peter Dunn talked to visitors about his new interpretative drawings of Old Sarum, based on discussions with archaeologists. Participants were given copies of his line drawings of elements of the site (such as the keep, well or bailey) and invited to develop their own interpretations around them. The event provided an excellent starting point for stimulating historical interest, enquiry, imagination and drawing skills. It proved again that drawing is a powerful investigative tool. All participants received commemorative certificates.

'Freeze Frame...The Biggest Draw' with Fowey Community College, Cornwall,at Fowey Leisure Centre

Organised by Lynn Simms, Head of Art, with artists Foot, Oliver West, Clive Williams
The college created the largest and most unusual still life in South West England. A micro-light plane, Honda sports car, windsurfer and four trees (loaned from the Eden Project), were placed in the centre of the Leisure Centre's hall so that they could be walked around and drawn from different angles. The sheer size of the composition inspired college students, local playgroup, primary schoolchildren, sixth formers and art groups to produce large-scale, adventurous work. Over 800 people contributed work of surprising quality over two days and an evening.

'Bowled Over, Car Chase, Long Arm of the Law, Lab Coats' at the Royal British Society of Sculptors, London

Organised by Henrietta Hine, Education Project Manager
Visitors played bowls with giant balls made of pencils, or remote-controlled specially adapted model cars, with pens in place of wheels, to create a vast floor drawing. Emma Churchill devised this intriguing installation, and her cars launched The Big Draw on BBCtv's Blue Peter a week earlier. In another part of the gallery, families drew round each other with long sticks fitted with crayons. Kate Hammersley's workshop participants, including older learners and a mental health support group, transcribed their experiences of visiting the nearby Natural History Museum onto paper lab coats. The artists also contributed to an informal talk on the boundaries of drawing.
Funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation.

'Celebrating Difference' at St Mary's Bryanston Square C of E Primary School, London

Organised by Kyra Sheppard, Teacher/Acting Art Co-ordinator and Mineli Woolf, School Governor responsible for Art
The entire school worked together with energy and enthusiasm over a sustained period to celebrate the richness of its multi-cultural community. Each year group studied a different aspect of cultural and religious diversity, guided by their class teacher and visiting artists Dido Crosby, Julia Farrer, Robert Hardy, Harriet Hill and school govenor Harriet Tennant. The 6-11 year olds visited different places of worship - Methodist or Anglican church, mosque, Hindu temple, synagogue - to make preliminary sketches, which were finished and exhibited at school. All participants (children and adults) were invited to evaluate the project and resulting exhibition of mosaics, shrines and stain glass designs.

'Without Walls' with York Museums Trust at York Art Gallery

Organised by Rosalyn Macdonald, Assistant Curator, Arts Learning, with artists Mary Greene, Judy Burnett
The artists worked with gallery staff and York College art and design students to develop the Council's consultation project, inviting residents to contribute ideas for how the city might look in 2020. Inspired by the artists, gallery collections, books of art history, architecture and old photographs of York, participants used various materials to express ideas for a new gallery, experimental architecture and transport systems. The project developed momentum over nine days, changing from a reserved, 'adults-hold-back' atmosphere to a stimulating sharing of ideas and drawings by all ages. Proud contributors returned to show their work to their families.