Come and draw

On 3 September, The Big Draw 2005 will stretch out from Macquarie University across Australia and involve workshops and events at museums, galleries, heritage sites, libraries, schools and community centres.

The Big Draw is part of the community outreach program of Drawing Australia, which performs major research and teaching projects.

Making meaning through drawing

“The Big Draw is about encouraging people who are interested, and opening doors for those who may not have thought about how they use and enjoy drawing,” says Dr Margaret White, Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie University, and initiator of the project.

“There’s huge interest at the moment in drawing as a way of making meaning. In our visual culture, drawing as a means of perception, communication and invention across disciplines is increasingly important. Developing the ability to look closely is vital.”

White is helping develop projects and research topics in areas such as drawing and story-telling, and the ways it is used in different cultures, both in childhood and by adults.

“We’re discussing a joint project with a heritage centre,” she says. “There are many opportunities for postgraduate students to become involved in partnerships with museums and galleries, to look at the ways drawing is being used in different sectors.”

Drawing and work

Many disciplines, such as mathematicians, architects and artists, already use drawing as an integral part of their work. During the 2004 Big Draw at Macquarie, the Museum of Ancient Cultures set up tables for people to draw from reproductions of significant archaeological pieces. These were later exhibited at the Library under the title Who draws at Macquarie? This year a group of scientists will be running a workshop at the Melbourne Museum, looking at ways drawing is part of scientific research. The Australian Academy of the Humanities has also taken Drawing Australia under its wing.

Eileen Adams, the charismatic British educational leader of the Campaign for Drawing in the United Kingdom, will launch the Australian Big Draw 2005. She will also run seminars and participate in workshops in Sydney, Melbourne and at the University of South Australia.

“Drawing provides the means for learning to see,” Adams says. “It’s an extraordinarily versatile tool in many subject disciplines, ranging from tiny sketches containing big ideas to whole sets of drawings that give all the information necessary for building a house or an aircraft.” 

Effective learning for visual literacy and communication is a basic skill, she believes.

Margaret White sees Macquarie, with its unique environment of galleries and museums as an excellent place to stage the Big Draw events. In 2004, a workshop mapped people’s experiences of their day crossing and re-crossing the campus. Another workshop invited participants to have their body outline drawn on a large sheet of paper, and then enhanced with paint or marked with found materials. The works were then laid out on the 100-plus tall gum trees in the main quadrangle.

Every person who participates this year will be given a free drawing notebook, and organisers of events and workshops around Australia can submit documentation of what they’ve done for an Innovation Award.

For more information, contact Margaret White at margaret.white@mq.edu.au, or go to the Drawing Australia website at www.aces.mq.edu.au/drawingaustralia

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