DRAWING INSPIRATION AWARDS

'Drawn to Eden!' with A Dab Hand, Cumbria

Organised by Alex Jakob-Whitworth and Diane Steadman, artists and art educators
Running a series of workshops in rural schools, A Dab Hand artists issued an invitation to the eleven communities to turn a walk in their part of the Eden District into a quest for special objects, views or natural forms, and to record these hidden gems on a home made 'Treasure Map'. Pirate role-play with costumes, hats, parrots and sea shanties caused hilarity in the schools and inspired even the youngest participants to look for treasures to draw. Adults were offered their own workshops, and all generations enjoyed experimenting with gouache, watercolours, chalk and oil pastels for observational drawing, and textiles, rubbings, printmaking and photography to create their images. The final chapter will see communities sharing their maps. The aim was to draw people into aspects of their region which were previously well-kept secrets, let them discover walks in an area different from their own, and walk in someone else's footprints.

'Drawing Inspiration' at Arts Action York

Organised by Vanessa Langford, Arts Action Officer
York's community arts team used drawing to connect 9 projects and 10 partner organisations, engaging over 1000 people of all ages and abilities. At Yearsley Bridge Day Centre adults with disabilities drew with paintbrushes and crayons attached to long poles; SureStart hosted a drawing jamboree for under-fives and their families; residents of Fairfax Court sheltered housing drew and painted over four weeks, inspired by a visiting artist and live music. A group of ex-offenders on a resettlement programme at YACRO drew their first theatrical experience at at York Theatre Royal; a group of adult learners at Future Prospects teamed up with an animator to make a pop Aladdin-based video. Children listened to storytelling in the Theatre's studio and chalked their responses on the walkways. At the National Centre for Early Music, young people made colourful drawings inspired by the Jai Kapur brass band a. At York Minster 100s of drawers were inspired by the famous East window and vaulted arches. 20 York primary schools ran Big Draw events during Live Arts Week, co-ordinated by the city's Arts Education Service and Arts Action.
Funded by The Urban Cultural Programme as part of Illuminate

'Blueprint' at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

Organised by artist Chiu Kwong Man and Saira Holmes, Curator, Education & Interpretation
Run in conjunction with an exhibition by Rita Donagh, who uses layered drawn images to investigate meaning and narrative, visitors invented 'blueprints' for a new species and drew observational 'body maps' of themselves, friends, family and other participants. Using acetate sheets attached to transparent Perspex boards, people got up close and personal with each other, physically placing their board on their human model and tracing the framed view onto the acetate. The body maps were cut out and taped together, layering separate pieces in various formations to create the 'blueprint'. This was projected onto the walls and enlarged, enabling participants to trace their life-sized blueprints onto paper and take them home. These unconventional activities created good 'vibes' and kept visitors involved for longer than usual. Rolling up their sleeves to join in the fun, everyone quickly shed their inhibitions about drawing.
Funded by The Bryant Trust

'The Big Draw' at Oriel Davies, Powys

'Haven' at West Walls Studios, Carlisle

Organised by Paul Taylor and Sue Stockwell, Studio Directors, with Cumbria Institute of the Arts
The group built on their previous experiences of staging highly visible drawing events, designed to involve a wide public, using the theme Haven. As a result of January's floods in Cumbria this held a particular resonance for adults. 10,000 tiny flat-pack card building templates were distributed to estate agents, young farmers' groups, building societies and individual houses with an invitation to transform each into an individual celebration of 'home'. During the day's event in central Carlisle, the artists assembled a model town of the decorated properties on the pavement. They followed this with workshops in community centres and schools, where the theme fitted well with the national curriculum's sense of place topic, encouraging exploration of geographic, environmental, technical and social issues. A month later, 500 participants visited the cityscape of 3000 completed houses that covered the leisure centre's vast floor.
Supported by Premier Papers, Carlisle City Council and Flood Art Initiative

'Family Big Draw Weekend' at Bishops Wood Centre, Stouport-on-Severn

Organised by Jon Cree, Education & Training Officer, and Marian Gager, Teacher Adviser in Art & Design, Worcestershire Arts Education
A wonderful weekend of workshops for over 1000 visitors, including drawing with grass, making sensory mobiles from natural materials, a triptych from woodland materials, and drawing with felt to embellish a tree with real and imaginary images of what exists below the roots and in its branches. Families created a fantastic woodland from recycled and natural materials, or used a printing press to make a textile banner inspired by natural elements. Adults literally threw themselves into mark making with mud and clay to produce life-size body prints, which became mud-angel banners hanging in the trees. Music workshops, using instruments made from recycled materials to accompany a youth band, concluded with a jubilant procession that wove its way around the artworks and noisily celebrated the creativity of every participant.
Funded by Arts Council England, Worcestershire Early Years and Childcare Services and Family Learning Network

'An Invitation to Draw - Drawing on Memories' at The Gardens of Easton Lodge, Essex

Organised by Catherine Mummery, Project Co-ordinator, Easton Lodge Preservation Trust
Oral memories and visual records of war veterans and local people inspired a team of artists, schoolchildren and families to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Easton Lodge played a strategic role with airfields for the US Air Force and RAF fighters. Launched with a family day in the summer, followed by workshops in 4 schools, a sculpture and drawing trail around the Garden's places of wartime significance, the Big Draw weekend culminated with an exhibition at Great Dunmow Maltings. Here everyone helped complete a collage of drawings based on wartime photographs. Inspired by the story of Churchill arriving at the Rhine prior to Operation Varsity to view proceedings and take tea at Monty's HQ, 2 primary schools created a Command Tea Room, covered in wallpaper made by the children, representing the aerial battles fought by Easton crews. The pupils also created a giant map of Essex, covered with a painted paper tea service, tea plate gliders and teaspoon airmen as reminders of the war.
Funded by the Big Lottery Home Front Recall Fund, promoted as part of BBC's People's War Project

'DRAWing on our Imagination' at Gamesley Early Excellence Centre, Glossop

Organised by Lynda James, Teacher
An invitation to the community to 'come, draw and have fun' was sent to parents, and displayed in local shops on posters and leaflets. Families enjoyed playing pictorial consequences and drawing in the round on a large circular table, where everyone added a character or detail. 'Drawing with your Elbow' and 'Squirt Painting' brought an element of creative messiness to the proceedings. Everyone who joined The Big Draw party made self-portraits. Many activities revolved around the theme of LS Lowry. A Lowry jigsaw was made by dividing a reproduction of one of his paintings into four sections; children from 3 local schools travelled to the Centre by free minibus, then helped to complete the puzzle by drawing their own fresh and youthful views of the original painting. Participants drew figures or market stalls on acetate and added their images to the collective composition. Charcoal and chalk lent themselves to evoking Lowry townscapes and children and adults enjoyed drawing matchstick men with matchsticks.

'Lichfield & District's Big Draw' with Lichfield District Council

Organised by Celia Houghton, Arts Development Officer
A month-long programme launched in the Three Spires shopping centre, with children chalking portraits on the pavement while being themselves drawn or caricatured by a professional artist. The following Saturday, crayons fixed to remote control cars proved irresistible to male shoppers; adding favourite places to a floor map of Lichfield and making sand pictures appealed to others. Drawing in the Cathedral engaged 170 people with their historic surroundings. Elsewhere, adults and children decorated giant jigsaw shapes on hoardings. Closed events included workshops on animation for a group with mental illness, and one on pastel portraits at an elderly people's club. 9 schools workshops with artists explored identity and motion in large chalk drawings, mono printing and drawing with wire and drawing with light on transparent and reflective materials to transform a classroom. An after school club with parents and grandparents created a visual soundscape to illustrate the book 'The animal that Drank up Sound'. Students with behavioural problems worked with a graffiti artist to transform an underpass into a bright, attractive space.
Also supported by the North Lichfield Initiative, Burntwood Town Council and local schools

'The Big Draw' at Matravers School, Wiltshire

Organised by Heather Leach, art teacher
A Saturday event for the whole community, including pupils from feeder schools and other secondary schools. Quirky drawing activities and unusual materials engaged those who might find traditional methods intimidating. Outdoor action painting with splashy paints, bikes, mopeds, roller blades and skateboards gathered eager participants, as did drawing on a huge MDF sheet with a power router (wearing full protective clothing, mask and goggles). Dancers challenged visitors to draw with paintbrushes between their toes. Other activities included drawing with light sticks in a darkened studio, adding these images to a video and to time elapsed photographs; using string and coloured wools to create an installation around a small stand of trees; and drawing on, and with, guitars and steel drums. In addition, The Big Curriculum Draw Day for students and teachers highlighted mathematical computational drawings, French literary illustrations, English comic design, technical drawing, drawing with stitches in textiles, music scores and dance notation.

'Drawn to Africa' at Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge

Organised by Sarah-Jane Harknett, Outreach & Publicity Organiser
The Big Draw linked to Black History Month to develop resources for black and minority ethnic communities of all ages. Inhibitions were liberated and new skills fostered, by combining artworks requiring shared endeavour with pieces that could be made by individuals. African fabric printing allowed visitors to stamp and decorate a communal Adinkra cloth. They created 'magic squares' (pictures which can be viewed from four sides) in shades of blue to add to the Indigo Squares display. A small exhibition showed the origins and samples of the dye and authentic African examples. Paper weaving, with felt tip embellishments, based on kente cloth from Ghana, produced some remarkable work. Making 'money' inspired a closer look at African currency. Visitors drew with words after listening to a Nigerian storyteller and described the fish, sharks and houses from these stories, using sand trays to emulate Sona sand drawings by the Chokwe people.
Supported by student volunteers from Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Cambridge Centre for African Studies

'The Chain Gang' with Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Library Services

Organised by Tom Flemons, Reading Development Facilitator, Helen Wilshaw and the Chain Gang
Using paper chains as a symbolic, but extremely simple and practical device, this project offered an accessible tool for involving new venues and new audiences. Coloured paper strips were sent to libraries, museums, galleries, art groups, the Women's Institute and schools - with the invitation to design links for a giant paper chain. Capturing imaginations and encouraging relationships between museum collections and libraries, other Big Draw and Family Learning organisers contributed to the growing chain. Community librarians used mobile libraries to take workshops to village communities, Brownie and Rainbow packs and reading groups, producing miles of daisy chains. Collecting and connecting all the links encouraged friendship and community involvement. The finished chain joined the County of Staffordshire and the City of Stoke on Trent through Park Hall Country Park and also the City Central Library with the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery - no mean feat.
Paper links were sponsored by Pronta Print and a prize was donated by The Works Retail Group

'DoOdLe DaY' at Wildern School d.@rt centre, Southampton

Organised by Katie Smith, Community Development Officer
500 doodlers were entertained with a wide choice of materials. Visitors found the alternative 'canvases' at their disposal irresistible. These included a full size re-creation of a bedroom, fully furnished with bed, wardrobe, tables, chairs, computer and TV - everything obligingly painted white. How often are children given permission to doodle all over a room? Giant exercise books and markers also demanded a response. A theatrical make up artist led a body painting workshop, demonstrating how to make convincing fake scars, cuts and tattoos. An illustrator showed how to create subtle changes in facial expressions and a Manga artist launched a giant comic strip mural. New Forest Art Force ran pavement art activities involving extended handle paintbrushes and large paper rolls. ICT fans enjoyed CAD digital doodling in the new computer suite. Visitors decorated Hands of Friendship to add to a frieze originated by the borough's arts development team.
Supported by Eastleigh Borough Council and surrounding parish councils

'Chislehurst Common Family Fun Draw' in aid of Chislehurst Common Conservators

Organised by Donna Bompas, Chair of Organising Committee
A small voluntary group of parents, with the help of local artists and art students, brought the the Common alive. 1400 postcards were sent to local schools to promote the event with a 'Colour in the Commons' competition. Over 500 people spent the day recording their observations and thoughts about the common and its buildings. Participants registered by donating £2 for an artists' pack, a 'How to begin drawing' leaflet, and information about the Common's history and conservation. Everyone signed in with a self-portrait in a zany pre-drawn frame on a giant paper roll before visiting the storytelling and storyboarding tent, or trying gravestone rubbing, T-shirt design, or calligraphy using feathers and twigs. Chislehurst Artists Group members dotted their easels around the common to inspire others. Crayon drawings on postcards were tied to helium balloons to create high-flying art. Even the pub joined in, offering free lunches, and the chance to create pastel jigsaw murals of views of the Common based on enlarged photos. The event raised over £1000 for Chislehurst Common Conservators.

'Drawing Coronation Street' with Ordsall Community Arts and Salford Lads' Club

Organised by Gail Skelly, Ordsall Community Arts Project Manager, and artist Leslie Holmes
Older residents of the original Coronation Street, young families, members of a sports club and fans of The Smiths Band came together for something new - workshops focused on the heritage of the area. Adults and young club members enjoyed a visit to Granada TV Centre to see the set of Coronation Street and record the experience in drawings. A giant drawing of the tower of the derelict St Ignatius Church was made by children from the New Barracks Tenants Co-Operative. Artists and architects led an open workshop in the gym at Salford Lads' Club, creating large-scale drawings of the surrounding streets. The finale took place outside the club entrance with everyone drawing a re-enactment of a famous Smiths' album cover - with help from The Other Smiths, a Midlands tribute band. Manchester Music Tours provided a mini-bus to bring fans to the club, attracting visitors from France, Canada and Ireland.