Blurring The Big Draw

Award:

Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Award 2010 - Highly Commended

Location:

Goldsmiths, University of London

At the start of each September’s course, Goldsmiths’ PGCE Art & Design students are given six weeks to meet the challenge of organising a Big Draw day: informal creative activities for local families, many from deprived neighbourhoods.

The tutors believe this experience is invaluable for their students, and extends the expertise they take to their school placements.

Thinking Big

PGCE Art and Design were joined by PGCE English students. Together they open the Great Hall to hundreds of families who come to the event from the local area and further afield. Encouraged to be adventurous, adults and children enjoyed the space to explore mark-making, drawing and 3-D engineering. They created cities and maps from recycled cardboard, and used a vast range of materials to invent narratives about their daily environment. The result was a riot of art, colour, sculpture and imagination.

Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Awards

The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust aims to increase public appreciation of the arts and music. Their awards recognise educators, artists, teachers and others who use The Big Draw to extend their audience’s perception of drawing and to engage them in innovative activities. They reward organisers whose events relate to their setting, local environment or community, show a clear purpose and good results. Individual drawings may have been used to create a collective artwork, or a public display to celebrate participants’ achievements.