Anglia Ruskin and AccessArt, a registered UK charity which facilitates visual arts workshops and events, won the award for The Big Draw, which saw 98 teenagers attend a Saturday workshop on Anglia Ruskin’s Cambridge campus designed to inspire, motivate and widen their perception of drawing’s scope and significance.
Led by expert tutors and artists, the teenagers could choose from six different workshops exploring drawing in relation to architecture, sculpture, animation, textiles, autobiographical narratives and illustration.
The Big Draw was co-ordinated and co-delivered by AccessArt and was supported by VIVID, (Value Increase by Visual Design), a cross-border network involving a number of European organisations which have joined forces to give the visual arts sector an economic boost.
Chris Owen, Head of Anglia Ruskin’s Cambridge School of Art, said: “It is events like this that help to enthuse teenagers to want to pursue a creative career. We were delighted to open up Cambridge School of Art for a day so that local young people could enjoy using the different facilities. It was wonderful to see the passion and creativity they all brought in with them and no doubt many of them are going to be the artists and designers of tomorrow.”
Sue Grayson Ford of the Campaign for Drawing said: “AccessArt and Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University superbly demonstrated The Big Draw’s aims of bringing people together, engaging them creatively and supporting active learning. I am amazed at how organisers constantly expand drawing’s boundaries, by bringing vast amounts of enthusiasm and imagination to their events.”
Another Anglia Ruskin event, The Big Draw on Tour, won the Campaign for Drawing’s Highly Commended award. The aim of the project was to help children and their families look at museum collections more closely by using them as the basis for drawing activities. The project was organised by The University of Cambridge Museums’ Connecting Collections programme, and venues included Romsey Mill, Cambridge Central Library and the University of Cambridge Museums.
The awards were presented on 19 March, along with a commemorative certificate designed by Sir Quentin Blake and a cheque that will be reinvested into teenage creativity.
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The Campaign for Drawing
The Drawing Inspiration Award is generously sponsored by NADFAS (the National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies). All NADFAS Societies subscribe to the aims and objects of the National Association: the advancement of arts education and appreciation and the preservation of our artistic heritage. NADFAS promotes these aims through lectures on the fine and decorative arts in their widest sense, through study days, visits and tours and through volunteering activities, such as Church Recorders, Heritage Volunteers and Young Arts and the giving of grants.
The Campaign for Drawing was launched in 2000. Its aim is to put drawing back on the agenda, to raise awareness of drawing’s power to enable us to think and to do things. The Campaign has raised the profile of drawing and promotes its use as a tool for thought and creativity as well as social and cultural engagement. It focuses on museums, galleries, heritage sites, schools and other community settings.
VIVID (Value Increase by Visual Design)
VIVID is a cross-border network in which a number of leading parties in this field have joined forces to give the sector an economic boost. A cross-sectoral approach has been chosen in which education, industry and local government work closely together. The VIVID project has nine partners: the municipality of Breda (NL), Avans Hogeschool (NL), NHTV (NL), Huis voor Beeldcultuur (House of Visual Culture) (NL), Strategische Project organisatie Kempen (Strategic Project Organisation Kempen) (B), Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles (F), CRRAV/Pole Images (F), Southampton Solent University (UK) and Anglia Ruskin University
The Cooperation between the nine partners is aimed at combining skills in the field of visual design through the interchange of knowledge and research, promoting creative entrepreneurship and showcasing visual design to a broad public. The project is supported by the European Interreg IV A Programme “2 Mers Seas Zeeën”.
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For more press information please contact:
Jon Green on t: 0845 196 4717, e: jon.green@anglia.ac.uk
Andrea Hilliard on t: 0845 196 4727, e: andrea.hilliard@anglia.ac.uk
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