DRAWING INSPIRATION AWARDS

'Colmore City of the Future!' at Colmore Junior & Infant Schools, Birmingham

Organised by Giles Hughes, Assistant Headteacher & Art Co-ordinator and Dawn Whitaker Infant School Art Co-ordinator
Over 650 children and teachers collaborated to create a huge pop-up 3D futuristic city. Each class explored the idea of the city, designing and building a vision of the future. After masterclasses in paper engineering and drawing techniques with University of Central England art graduates, Year 6 children became 'classroom assistants' for younger groups, each partnering someone of a different age. The sheer scale of the finished piece, and its rich detail and intricacy, conveyed the 'wow' factor to the entire school community, governors and parents; everyone - from 3 year-olds to teachers - gained confidence and skills.

'Mark-making Creatures' at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

Organised by Saira Holmes, Curator, Education and Interpretation
Artist Chiu Kwong Man entertainingly engaged a hundred visitors with his collection of bizarre mark-making creatures - including the Seven-Legged Wobbler and the Fidget Crab - made from pens, rubber bands and recycled newspaper. After experimenting with them, participants of all ages invented their own zany mark-making assemblages, both small and large scale, often involving expressive body movements and gestural drawings. After naming their creatures, each maker received a Polaroid photo of themselves and their creation in action. The emphasis was not on skill, but experiment and inventiveness.

'Making Me' with St Michael's Youth Project, Hull

Organised by Liz Hammond, Children's Project Worker
Artist Lorna Moore worked with girls aged 9 - 14, using music, exercise, role-play and photographs to encourage and capture expression as the basis of self-portraiture. Holding wooden frames in front of their faces helped participants understand composition and scale. Finally each girl projected her image onto A1 paper, making a quick sketch before experimenting with charcoal and black poster paint for the final drawing. Organising a group exhibition of these dynamic portraits, with a launch for families, guests and the local press, added to the girls' pride and achievement.

'The Big Draw Bureau de Change - Spiritual Currency' with West Walls Studios, Carlisle

Organised by Paul Taylor, Sue Stockwell and studio members with Cumbria Institute of the Arts and Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery
Building on last year's prize-winning event, 'art waiters' toured Cumbrian cafes and school refectories as a warm-up act, before unveiling Carlisle's bank with a difference - where creative accounting and being overdrawn were positively encouraged! Artists in painted suits and angel wings welcomed shoppers to their stage-set of a classical bank. Customers were offered huge banknotes to decorate and free use of a whirring ATM Dream Machine, which issued music and balloons. Throngs of passers-by relished the idea of celebrating more valuable things than money and being rich in 'spiritual currency'. West Walls artists again devised inclusive and thought-provoking Big Draw festivities: re-designing bank notes, or discussing, drawing and depositing dream homes and future hopes with the Spiritual Bank Manager.

'Arts Beyond' at Bishops Wood Centre, Stouport-on-Severn

Organised by Jon Cree, Education & Training Officer, Bishops Wood and Marian Gager, Primary Arts Adviser, Worcestershire LEA
Over 1000 people joined in a huge variety of creative activities over two weeks. The concluding weekend programme encouraged families to use different materials to make connections with the surrounding woodlands. Drawing with copper, batik or on felt, creating bird images for tree dressing, twig pencil-making or tracing tree shadows on the woodland floor with charcoal made at the centre and natural objects engaged everyone. As a dramatic finale, the largest oak tree shadow was set on fire. With plentiful inspiration from the natural world, story telling and music, families worked together eagerly, producing both ephemeral and permanent responses to the beautiful oak woods.

'Evolution' at Lyme Regis ArtsFest, Dorset

Organised by Christine Allison, Artistic Director, and Sally Holman, ArtsFest 2004 Co-ordinator
The Big Draw acted as the flagship event for this annual festival, creating an artwork to celebrate Lyme Regis's special place on The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. Appalling weather required a quick relocation from the sea front to a pub skittle alley, but did nothing to dampen participants' enthusiasm. Around fifty pairs of fingers, young and old, completed a huge drawing, making marks, dabs and scratches with local fossil-rich blue lias clay on a roll of watercolour paper. The clay dried to a warm dark grey, like the fossils it represents. The finished piece is surprisingly stable and will be displayed locally - an inspiring example of creativity, collaboration and fun.

'Drawing with Wire' at Barber Institute of Fine Arts and 'Drawing with Sculpture' at the University of Birmingham Collections

Organised by Brian Scholes, Education Officer, Barber Institute, and Clare Mullett, Assistant Curator, University Collections
This inter-departmental collaboration attracted beginners and experts to workshops which successfully integrated the 2004 Big Draw themes: Inside and Outside, People, Structures and Spaces. Participants looked at fine examples of linear work in the Barber Institute's collection and then explored the three dimensional qualities of the human head with artist Martin Bocock; continuous line drawings were developed into wire sculptures using a live model. Artists Bridget MacDonald and Dinah Prentice ran workshops inspired by the University Collection's recently designed outdoor sculpture trail. Participants used observational and imaginative skills to make drawings and 3D structures.

'Mini-beasts ExDrawinaire' at Gamesley Early Excellence Centre, Glossop

Organised by Lynda Kirkham, Teacher
Each curriculum area was dedicated to a different drawing activity, ranging from an indoor 'underground' tunnel, requiring head torches to find and draw 'worms' and 'moles', to discovering real worms and creepy crawlies outdoors. Children, staff and parents enjoyed outlining ladybirds on red material, creating mini-beast puppets on acetate to animate a projected garden, drawing insects according to taped audio instructions, and icing spiders' webs on biscuits. A particularly popular project involved reception class children at the five local feeder schools sketching spiders on a large section of a giant web jigsaw and visiting the nursery on Big Draw day to join them all together.

'Credit Card Drawing' with Liverpool Hope University College

Organised by 'Teaching the Eye to See' group, led by Peter Moore, Tutor, Education Deanery
The scale posed no threat, the subject matter was wide open and drawings were easily made with readily available materials. This project invited responses from anyone and received over 900 submissions. Teachers, tutors, students, whole families, local comprehensive and primary schools entered their drawings, excited by the certainty that their work would go on public display. Every participant had a smile on their face and a moment of fame. By ignoring normal conventions of scale, the credit card size work assumed an unusual intimacy and encouraged participants to draw, regardless of competency. Richly varied in content, the 'miniatures' intrigued and amused exhibition visitors. Sponsored by the Co-operative Bank (Visa).

'The Robot Big Draw' at Museum of Reading

Organised by Elaine Blake, Curator of Art, and Museum team
The lure of technology - from a talking Dalek outside to internally-lit diddybot robots which created long exposure light 'drawings', and a corral of robots drawing round visitors with paint - secured a record attendance. The museum welcomed unusually large numbers of fathers and young teenage sons. Professor Kevin Warwick's team from the Cybernetics Department of the University of Reading generously provided robots and technical support. Visitors made remote-controlled drawings with the Lego robots they designed. Observational drawings of robots, or imaginary evocations of cyborgs appealed to others. Participants tried on an ultrasonic cap to find out how a robot 'sees' and acted as human gyroscopic computer mice, using large body gestures to draw on a projector screen. Drawing with artificial intelligence brough a real 'buzz' to the museum.

'Win, Lose and Draw!' with Notts County Supporters Trust, Nottingham

Organised by Dr David Hindley, Supporters Trust PR and Community Officer
100 fans of all ages helped cartoonists Pete Dredge and John Clark to create a giant mural at Meadow Social Club in the three hours before a Saturday match. The finished work, now on permanent display, features caricatures of top Notts County players and self-portraits by fans or sketches of their friends, as faces in the crowd. This unique creative collaboration between NCST, Magpie supporters and community groups helped to raise awareness of 'Kick it Out', the National Anti-Racism Week of Action in Football. Enthusiastic volunteers succeeded so well in overcoming the 'I can't draw' responses, persuading even the most reluctant to swap a pint for a pencil, that eventually there wasn't room on the mural to include everyone's contribution. Drawing, like football, proved its value in tackling social exclusion.

'Big Drawing Extravaganza' at The Changing Room and Tolbooth, Stirling

Organised by Kirsteen Macdonald, Visual Arts Development Officer, Stirling Council
Drawing was the common thread for Stirling's week-long Blast festival, with all ages drawing their responses to music, drama and exhibitions on A5 cards. Collectively displayed, they formed an epic festival logo. For Big Draw day, the Tolbooth became an arena for new approaches, supported by a crew of energetic artists. Upside down, spinning and profile drawings (triggered by a schematic vase outline) entertained and challenged those who claimed they couldn't draw. 'Put yourself in the picture' involved wearing a costume and drawing an imaginative backdrop on acetate for a souvenir photograph. Plus primary school, adult and flick-book workshops, and even fun sessions in the café.

'Chislehurst Common Family Fun Draw' with Chislehurst Common Conservators

Organised by Donna Bompas, Chair of Organising Committee
300 people congregated on the Common, despite changeable weather, to draw its open spaces, woodland, historic buildings or each other. Gazebos offered shelter and a 'how to begin' leaflet gave ideas for family activities. The church and pub invited participants to draw in the warm, making rubbings of brasses and gravestones in the former, and a large mural of the adjoining Victorian cottages in the latter. Local primary schools publicised the day, the Residents Association and nearby businesses provided paper, card and even waterproof bags to sit on; members of Chislehurst Artists and students from the Slade and St Martins inspired and the library put on an exhibition of the resulting work. This community-wide event drew residents together to celebrate an under-valued resource, while raising awareness of the Conservators' work and need for support.

'The Big SALI Sketch' with Seedley & Langworthy Initiative, Salford

Organised by Laura Rynhart, Meral Mercan-Darby and Simon Higgs, Trainee Regeneration Officers. Supported by Awards for All & Langworthy & Ordsall Community Committee
The Trust was formed as a voice for the residents in this deprived inner-city area on regeneration plans. Minority groups, isolated individuals and others were encouraged to draw memories of the past and hopes for the future. Postcards inviting residents to draw 'home, sweet home' were posted through 3000 letterboxes. Artist-led workshops in a library, primary schools, day care centres and sheltered housing provided further impetus. Salford Refugees, the Asylum Seekers Project and Sutton Housing Estate Youth Club joined the project. Made into a house of postcards, everyone's contribution could be admired by visitors to the Cornerstone Centre at a popular finale, with a multitude of workshops.