THE BIG DRAW

THE BIG DRAW Saturday 11 October 2008

The Big Draw is the annual festival to get people drawing. It is held all over the country.

This year over one hundred people, older and younger, got down on the floor here in the Children’s Library and drew things about their home and their favourite things.

The Big Draw was led by artist Heidi Wigmore. She was helped by volunteers Laurence Harding, Rachel McGivern, Sean Petley and Jack Sweetenham. They also took the photographs. Jack Sweetenham made the DVD that you see here.

What people said about The Big Draw
‘You should be doing more of this. It’s really fun.’
‘Children get to be free. They can say what they like.’
‘We use as much paper as we can for everyone to share.’
‘It’s not about who can draw the best. It’s about trying.’

The parents were particularly enthusiastic and inspired, a common comment was about the lack of creative activity in school these days. The children liked the scale of the activity and ‘communal’ feel and freedom to express themselves. Also the fact the piece was to be seen by an audience in public.

Thanks to:
Southend Central Library staff.
Laurence Mathews Art, Craft and Hobby Store on Queen’s Road who provided drawing materials.

Angry Gam3rs Meet Dance Umbrella

Angry Gam3rs Meet Dance Umbrella

Two participants from Focal Point Gallery's Collective Vision project, Tommy Pope and Lewis Wilkes, were invited to use their new skills to make their own film about the creation of a new dance, Overture 2012. Choreographed by Royston Maldoom, 120 young Londoners performed to live music by the London Symphony Orchestra at The Albert Hall on 1 and 2 November 2008.

Evaluation of experience of filming Dance Umbrella’s project Overture 2012
Lewis Wilkes and Tommy Pope
28 November 2008

Our first impressions? “Yeah – work and free travel!”, but also “Oh-Oh: Dancers!” We had the impression before the project that dancers are pretentious, but now we know that they are professional and on the ball the whole time!

The process started out as daunting, overwhelming, because we didn’t know about the equipment. Like “The Zebras” – The Zebra on a camera is a function that helps sort out over exposure. It took a bit of time to get into the flow of things but after a couple of days with the dance workshops we got the hang of what Gerald Fox wanted us to do. He is a cool man.

It was an amazing opportunity working with someone as experienced as Gerald. He thinks a tad differently to everyone else and he knows what he wants and the right approach to put his ideas into practice. He’s an incredibly busy man.

The kids that took part in the project – they had really varied personalities and backgrounds. It was great to see their perspective on the project. They were the participants, we were the watchers. We got to appreciate the dedication, discipline and hard work that was needed.

This was filming our first documentary and we were mentored by a first class professional, for free. And it’s added to our CVs. We’d love to work with Dance Umbrella and Gerald again as documenters.

Contact:
Lewis Wilkes Facebook
Tommy Pope Myspace or http://uk.utube.com/gamingmusiciantom