The Big Draw Hungary

Despite being 183km apart, The Kunsthalle Budapest and Miskolc Museum of Art held a joint Big Draw. ‘The Great Drawing’ aimed to connect the two art institutes, and in fact the two cities, by means of a virtual line. Each museum used the other's floor plan as a base for collective drawing activities. A live internet connection was in place throughout so that spectators could see what was happening at both sites.

Visitors to the Danube Museum, The Hungarian Museum of Environment Protection and Water Administration, were invited to create ‘big’ objects. These included huge mosaics and a long blue ‘Danube River’ made from painted Duna-cobbles. While listening to ‘tales about water’, they added animals and plants to the Danube and made their own ships, creating a vast armada.

The Móra Ferenc Múzeum’s KASS Art Gallery had more than 200 visitors take part in its first Big Draw. The event was held in honour of designer János Kass, who was also a celebrity guest on the day. The drawing activities incorporated some of the designer’s favourite narratives, including the legend of St George and the story of Noah’s Ark, and visitors were encouraged to create self-portraits in characteristic ‘Kass’ style.

The István Dobó Castle Museum organised two exciting activities for their visitors using the museum’s own collection. In ‘Be the part of Eger Art Gallery paintings’, members of the public worked together to reproduce paintings from the collection, fitting their individual contributions together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. In ‘Imagine and draw what I have seen!’, participants were given the opportunity to hear about the castle’s 16th and 17th century engravings and then materials to create one themselves, based on the description.

Visitors to the Dombóvár Museum created a huge collaborative nature-themed drawing, which depicted a forest and the animals living in it. Kata Horváth, event organiser, reported that young audience members in particular enjoyed working on such a large scale. 

At the Dezső Laczkó Muzeum, in Veszprém, participants of all ages were invited to express how they feel about their city using paint and pencil crayons. The event successfully attracted a wide audience - even ninety-two year old artist Jelena Veszeli joined in!

Thanks to fine weather, children from the primary and secondary school in Püspökladány created beautiful chalk and tempera drawings outside the Karacs Ferenc Museum. The drawings were inspired by a visit to the tower of one of the local churches.

Visitors to the Museum of Fine Arts, in Budapest, viewed a special graphics exhibition curated as part of the Museum’s Big Draw activities and were invited to draw images after hearing a verbal description or after feeling objects in touch bags. An enormous ‘maze of colour’ was created when blindfolded children and adults arranged strips of coloured paper on the ground in response to the rhythmic music their partners played.

Other venues that took part include: The Janky Gallery in Békéscsaba, Bozsó Gyűjtemény, the Munkácsy Memorial House in Békéscsaba, Directorate of Somogy County Museums in Kaposvár and the Local Museum of Dombóvár city.