Drawing as a protagonist
This Sunday, 24 October, the Museu Picasso will host the first Barcelona celebration of the "BIG DRAW Festival of Drawing”, an initiative that originated in London (and has since spread to a number of cities in the world) that sets out to get us all drawing and enjoying the process as a form of artistic expression and a tool of communication and learning.
I have to confess that I really don’t know how to draw, but very often I can’t explain what I mean other than by doodling with a pencil on paper. And my kids and I play at drawing: it’s a fun way to pass the time and — depending on age — to practice new vocabulary. Or to spark the imagination or capture and retain information, just as lots of adults do in meetings: almost automatic drawings that are also ways of concentrating.
So when Montse Morales introduced us to the Big Draw project, we were immediately seized by the possibility of bringing it to Barcelona. It’s an initiative that makes a great deal of sense in the context of the Museu Picasso: drawing was of enormous importance in Picasso’s work as a whole and within the Museum’s collection in particular. We have the vast majority of the young Picasso’s drawings: the drawings of a child at play, doodles on school books, academic studies from his student years, his early artistic rebellions, signs of increasing confidence as an artist and so on.
We were in no doubt that the Museu Picasso should be the driving force in introducing Big Draw to the city of Barcelona as something central to our programme, a way of continuing to explore the validity of the principal medium of the artist’s training and creative expression.
We also felt it was crucial that the Big Draw offered a further opportunity to undertake a project at the local level, to create a joint venture with other entities in La Ribera and Santa Caterina, which have responded in a spirit of openness and participation. Working in collaboration with neighbourhood organizations and institutions enriches us and strengthens the social and cultural fabric of the district, and brings us closer to the people who are our most immediate public: our neighbours, who have to put up with us and whom we want to enjoy us, too.
The Big Draw’s commitment to approach drawing from a variety of perspectives also prompted us to think about addressing it from the different disciplines that use it as a professional tool, so we have invited not only artists but also designers, architects and illustrators to put together proposals for workshops, most of them open to children and adults alike, who can take part at any time of day.
We hope the event will appeal to you, and we’ll be thrilled to have you take part. Let me encourage you to visit the website — for information about the various workshops and the routes you can take through this wonderful historic district — and, of course, to come along on Sunday and enjoy the pleasure of drawing!
Anna Guarro
Public Programmes
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