Tower Hamlets Residents Urged To Draw Together
- East End Event Launches Month-Long Celebration of Drawing Across UK -
with Quentin Blake, Posy Simmonds and Lord Foster
Explore Bio Diversity, Biomedical Science and Changing Cities

30 August 2007: World famous illustrator Quentin Blake is calling on Tower Hamlets residents to sharpen their pencils for The Big Draw East: Drawing Things Together, a massive day of free drawing events across Tower Hamlets and Hackney on Sunday, 30 September.

The day is an opportunity for adults and children of all ages to discover the joy of drawing and to explore different ways of seeing the world with some of the UK's leading designers, illustrators, scientists, artists, architects and engineers. The Big Draw East programme, supported by Tower Hamlets Borough Council, is listed in full at: www.campaignfordrawing.org

The Big Draw East marks the launch of the eighth Big Draw, a free month-long celebration of drawing at over 1,300 venues throughout the country. More than 500,000 people are expected to take part. At 10.30am on 30 September, Quentin Blake will launch The Big Draw 2007 by releasing a giant flock of paper birds from the V&A Museum of Childhood.

The Big Draw East takes place at 20 venues across the East End, and over 45 separate drawing activities - every one of them free - will be held throughout the day. They celebrate the East End's creative wealth and rich cultural diversity. A shuttle bus will connect venues - the fare is a drawing.
Tower Hamlets children are involved in preparations for the Big Day in schools across the borough, where they are making artwork for banners to be displayed at the event.

Derwent, England's only pencil manufacturer, and Tullis Russell, Scotland's premier papermaker, are providing free, high quality materials at each venue. Events explore exciting themes, such as sustainable design, body culture, changing cities, and shaping the future.

Contributors include:

	Architects from top firms Future Systems, make and Foster + Partners will lead the quest to see buildings differently in Changing Cities (sponsored by Hammerson).
	Dr Greg Elgar of Queen Mary, University of London, will lift the lid on life in the lab, encouraging visitors to design amazing 'virtual' creatures (sponsored by the Wellcome Trust).
	Artists Adam Dant, Andrew Logan and Posy Simmonds will be drawing on the Celebrity Frame, a huge canvas in Museum Gardens (next to the V&A Museum of Childhood).
	Architect-artist Narinder Sagoo and architect-engineer Alistair Lenczner (both with Foster + Partners) will invite participants to use special viewfinders to take a closer look at the city, and at what happens behind its facades.
Below are a few highlights of the 45 Big Draw East activities taking place on 30 September. Plan your own perfect Big Draw East day at www.campaignfordrawing.org.
	Start the day as you mean to go on at Move Along Please! At the V&A Museum of Childhood draw and build your favourite transport - bus, bike, car or tube - with artist Patrick Letschka. Build two model vehicles: keep one and add the other to the museum's giant cityscape in the Education Room. Then walk 50 metres down the road to …
	Shape the Future, York Hall, Bethnal Green. Invent and fly zero carbon flying machines and design carbon neutral airfields, with engineer Chris Wise (one of the team who created the Millennium Bridge) and Ed McCann (presenter of TV's Engineering at the Cutting Edge and Buildings of Britain). Catch a ride to …
	Join the "Easy Graphics" campaign at Bishopsgate Institute. Austin Williams leads RIBA workshop Condensing Complexity. Have fun reducing over-complex everyday instructions - from fire regulations to the Highway Code - into simple graphics, drawings and cartoon strips. Use your drawing to get a free bus ride to …
	Investigate how One Cell Made Me (funded by the Wellcome Trust), at The Octagon, Queen Mary, University of London. Explore human biology with genomic scientists, work with Tessa Garland and other artists from Bow Arts Trust to uncover surprising developmental links between humans and animals. Create and race your own virtual creatures. Make science-inspired clothes and adornments with the London College of Fashion to star in your own photo-shoot and then grab the free bus and…
	Why not try Changing Spaces at Ocean NDC? Be inspired by artwork created by young artists from the Ocean Estate and add your own drawings to the exhibition. Organised by The Building Exploratory and Ocean New Deal for Communities.
	End your day in style at The Big Knees Up at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. Cor blimey trousers, pens 'n' sing-alongs, dancing and magic in a huge evening of musical entertainment, cabaret and, of course, drawing with Le Gun magazine; Hunga Munga, and live entertainment from 1927, Shekoyekh Klezmer wedding band and Top Banana DJs.

Covent Garden hosts Big Draw Day
The Campaign for Drawing will launch its nationwide Big Draw Day in Covent Garden this year for the first time. Held on Saturday13 - Sunday 14 October, celebrity drawing and art enthusiasts including broadcaster Andrew Marr, illustrators Daisy de Villeneuve and Mishael Foreman, cartoonists Gerald Scarfe and Posy Simmonds, plus the crème of London's art community will come together to take part in a series of drawing games. The Covent Garden Big Draw will offer unique workshops exploring the excitement and magic of drawing - all for FREE!

From 1-31 October, Big Draw events take place throughout London, including: Hackney Museum, The Design Museum, The British Museum, Sir John Soane's Museum, London Zoo, Jerwood Space, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Armouries, Guardian Newsroom, National Gallery, HMS Belfast to name but a few. Full listings at www.campaignfordrawing.org.

The Big Draw, launched in 2000, has encouraged over a million people to draw, proved that drawing can be a social activity, and notched up two Guinness World records - for the longest drawing in the world (one kilometre) and the greatest number of people drawing simultaneously (over 7000). The Campaign for Drawing's initiatives are winning international recognition and Big Draw events are now planned for New York, Washington, Boston, Vancouver, Australia, New Zealand and Portugal.

Lord Foster, leading architect and Patron of the Campaign for Drawing, 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."

Sue Grayson Ford MBE, Director of the Campaign for Drawing said: "The East End is one of the densest areas of artists' studios and creative businesses in Europe. The Big Draw East seeks to celebrate this unique status and provide all East Enders and other Londoners with the opportunity to experience the joy of drawing. We're lucky to have some of the finest illustrators and creative people in the UK taking part and are predicting that this celebration of East London's dynamic cultural life willbe our most exciting launch event yet .. We've already brought together 32 arts organisations, 20 schools and numerous community groups for The Big Draw East and look forward to the big day!"

Sir Christopher Frayling, Rector, Royal College of Art, commented: "The artist, Paul Klee, once said that drawing means taking a line for a walk. Looked at like that, The Big Draw is a stroll on a national scale!"

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Photo opportunities: As part of the build-up programme for The Big Draw East photo opportunities of children engaging in drawing workshops exist in local schools during September.

Press Information:
http://www.kallaway.co.uk/campaign-for-drawing.htm

Kallaway
www.kallaway.co.uk

Will Kallaway
020 7221 7883
will.kallaway@kallaway.co.uk

Jo Williamson
020 7221 7883
jo.williamson@kallaway.co.uk

About The Big Draw
The Big Draw is the UK's biggest annual free celebration of visual art, with 1,000 events and over 500,000 participants. In last year's national Big Draw launch, 7000 participants celebrated the Amazing Spaces of Somerset House and King's College London with a packed programme of activities - from making watercolours of the fountains to knitting a giant London Townhouse.

About the Campaign For Drawing
The Campaign for Drawing has a simple aim: to get everyone drawing. The Big Draw, its annual October showpiece, proves that drawing can be a public activity as well as a private passion. The Campaign was inspired by the great Victorian writer and visionary, John Ruskin. His mission was not to teach people to draw, but how to see. Each Big Draw season brings fresh opportunities to discover how drawing can connect us to our environment and heritage.

The Campaign's education programme turns its research findings into practical guidance in a series of books, DVDs and other resources. These show how learning through drawing can take place in schools, museums, galleries and heritage sites. Its new Professional Development Programme will be designed to change attitudes to drawing and the way it is used. This will share the knowledge gained over the last six years with teachers and other educators, artists, designers, scientists, technologists and more. The Campaign for Drawing is supported by Arts Council England, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and Foster+Partners.

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