The Big Draw

Get set…make your marks... DRAW! Announcing The Big Draw 2008

- West Midlands Children and Adults Join the UK's Nationwide Celebration of Drawing –
- Amazing Paper Mazes - Car Part Art - Recycled Sculpture Triffids -

Children, families and adults across the West Midlands are set to discover the fun of drawing as hundreds of venues announce hands-on events for The Big Draw 2008 season, the ninth nationwide celebration of drawing running from 1-31 October.

The Big Draw West Midlands events range from making Car Part Art at the Heritage Motor Centre, Warwickshire, to filling polytunnels with Sculpture Triffids, made from recycled materials at The Fold, Worcestershire.

All The Big Draw events are listed at www.campaignfordrawing.org and most are FREE. Log in to find out what is happening in your area!

The Big Draw 2008 kicks off with the national launch, Drawing on Life, a jam-packed free interactive festival at Wellcome Collection and University College London on 26-28 September. With its focus on health, life and art, the Wellcome Collection is an ideal platform for showing that drawing is a vital medium for creativity in both science and art. Drawing on Life will bring together artists and scientists to explore what it means to be human, calling on visitors to delve deep into their understanding of the human mind and body in a series of creative events, workshops, talks and screenings.

Anna Somers Cocks (Former Editor, The Art Newspaper) writes: “Just as the doctors’ warnings about the effect of increasing obesity rates have woken up government to the need to encourage sport in schools, so we need to prove that the practice of drawing really does increase our skills, our concentration, and, above all, our engagement with life.”

Drawing is for Everyone!

The Big Draw is the flagship project of the Campaign for Drawing. Its aim is to prove that drawing is an important tool for thought, creativity and enjoyment. Drawing is not just for ‘artists’, it’s for everyone!

Who said you need a pencil to draw?

The Campaign continually expands the boundaries of conventional concepts of ‘drawing’. This year’s activities include mono-printing, mosaics, mobiles, mandala (sandpainting), drawing with your head, sgraffito, wire sculptures, fire-drawing and rangoli. Alongside Drawing on Life, the themes for this year’s Big Draw - Drawing on Energy, Changing Places and Doves For Peace - offer a broad scope for exciting, engaging and inventive Big Draw events across the UK.

The Campaign for Drawing’s work has won many distinguished supporters, including Quentin Blake, Lord Foster, David Hockney, Posy Simmonds and Gerald Scarfe.

West Midlands Events: Paper Mazes, Car Parts, Triffids…

There are almost 50 Big Draw events taking place across the West Midlands. Venues range from museums, galleries and castles to parks, schools, and village halls. Collectively they demonstrate that drawing is a universal language connecting people of all ages, abilities and cultures. Full details of all these events can be found at www.campaignfordrawing.org. New events are being added to this website daily, so keep looking. A selection of events include:

· TENCEP at Café 27, Tenbury Wells, 'Drawing Together': This event celebrates a year-long arts project and the launch of a commuinity sculpture trail. Come along and leave your mark about Tenbury and the river landscape. There will be a number of Big Draw activities in and around Tenbury town centre. (Oct 4, time tbc)

· Bishops Wood Centre, Worcestershire, 'The Big Draw': All ages are invited to draw with light and dark at the award winning Bishops Wood Centre. Among Big Draw activities in the wood will be creation of a light trail and sculpture - to be illuminated and ignited after sunset. And why not wait for our evening of Drawing with Light by sampling the delights of Boreley Pig Roast, listening to live music and playing drawing games. (5 Oct, 3-8pm)

· Gladstone Pottery Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, ‘Drawing with Heat’: Find out why top secret messages can’t stand the heat! (11 Oct, 11-4pm)

· Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, ‘The Very Very Big Draw’: Help make a giant recreation of one of the Barber’s most popular paintings - The Blue Bower by Dante Gabrielle Rossetti. This free workshop will take place in the gallery's main foyer throughout the day. (11 Oct, 10.30-4.30pm)

· Compton Verney House, Warwick, ‘Changing Places’: A drawing day for the whole family, in the magnificent Georgian setting of Compton Verney. Learn about elements, components and structure and contribute to a huge collaborative architectural plan. See how the house has evolved and how it now promotes the concept of ‘form following function’. (11 Oct tbc)

· The Fold, Bransford, Worcester, ‘Day of the Triffids’: Help fill polytunnels with all the exotic flora and fauna you can muster! Create your own Triffid from recycled materials – no art experience necessary and all ages welcome. Artists will be on hand to give guidance and help get those creative juices flowing! (11 Oct, 11-4pm)

· Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon, Warwickshire, ‘Car Part Art!’: Create your own unique piece of art out of car parts! (25-26 Oct, 11-3pm)

· Wroxeter Roman City, Shrewsbury , ‘The Big Roman Draw at Wroxeter’: All are invited to join a drop-in workshop where you can use Roman artefacts excavated on site as inspiration for some exciting new works of art! (25 Oct, 10-4pm, normal admission charge, English Heritage members free)

· Telford and Wrekin Town Centre Library, Shropshire, ‘Be Amazed – Paper Maze’: Travel through the paper maze on your way towards the library, meeting storytellers, illustrators and cartoonists. Create a wall of drawings, words and doodles until eventually you find yourself in the Library where adventures await! (30 Oct, 10-4pm)


About The Big Draw

The Big Draw, launched in 2000, has encouraged more than a million people to get involved, and demonstrated that drawing can be a social activity as well as a private passion. It has already notched up two world records – for the longest drawing in the world (one kilometre) and the greatest number of people drawing simultaneously (over 7000).

What our supporters say about The Big Draw

“The Big Draw has helped establish the importance of drawing not only as a mode of self-expression but a tool in learning and in science and design.” Quentin Blake CBE,

Lord Foster, Founder, Foster+Partners and Campaign for Drawing Patron, said: “Drawing is the root of every concept and design. It is a fundamental life skill. The Big Draw inspires people of all ages to engage with the world we inhabit and I hope that more people will rediscover the immediacy of the medium they relished as children.”

More information About The Campaign for Drawing

The Campaign’s aim is simple: to get everyone drawing. Its annual showpiece; The Big Draw gives children and adults the chance to explore different ways of seeing and engaging with the world through drawing. It also brings people from different communities, cultures and generations together in communal activities.

The Campaign’s Power Drawing programme turns its research into practical guidance in a series of books, DVD’s and other resources. These show how learning through drawing can take place in schools, museums, galleries and heritage sites. Its new Professional Development Programme – seminars, courses and publications - is designed to change attitudes to drawing and the way it is used in formal and informal education. Power Drawing shares the knowledge gained over the last eight years with teachers and other educators, artists, designers, scientists, technologists and more. The Campaign for Drawing is supported by Arts Council England, the Esmée Fairbarn Foundation and Foster+Partners.

The Big Draw Goes Global

The Campaign for Drawing has won international recognition. This year Big Draw events will also be taking place in Berlin, Brazil, Nigeria, Australia, Florida and California.