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We were delighted to catch up with Sarah Staton, tutor on the Sculpture programme at the Royal College of Art and Reader in Social Aesthetics, to find out all about her long-standing love of drawing, and the thinking behind 'Spooky Skies' - the RCA’s Big Draw Festival event at its Battersea campus in October 2025. From cloud-spotting and drawing side by side to creating welcoming spaces where people can simply sit, talk and make together, Sarah reflects on the joy of shared creativity and the importance of connection through drawing.
For those who might not be familiar, could you introduce the Royal College of Art and your role within the institution?
The Royal College of Art is a small, specialist Art and Design University based in London, that is future facing, with a unique, iconic history. Since its inception in 1837, RCA has produced an incredible alumni of artists, curators, designers, architects, and fashion creatives, and continues to do so. I work on the Sculpture programme, which sits within the School of Arts and Humanities. I co-run a research cluster called ‘Spatial Value’ that looks at conviviality and the contemporary city through a sculptural lens, and I am Reader in Social Aesthetics.
Last October, the RCA hosted a ‘Spooky Skies’ Big Draw event at your Battersea campus. What inspired you to take part in The Big Draw Festival, and how did you come up with the idea behind your event?
You could say that drawing was my route into becoming an artist and at the RCA we have a huge Hanger space in our Battersea campus that can be used for public events and seemed like the perfect place for hosting a “drawing together” event. Our community engagement lead, Hannah Lambert, got behind the idea, and really made it happen. We decided on the theme of ‘Spooky Skies’ because sky gazing is a long held favourite activity of mine; I often use cloud motifs in my drawings, and I like to research various stylistic cloud imagery from different cultures and histories too. Sky gazing, day or night is available to everyone who can get outside, and is a beautiful, accessible activity, for all of us who are free to lift our eyes up and dream. As Oscar Wilde reminds us; ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars’.
Playing around with a scan of one of my recent drawings - reversing the black into white - gave me the idea of the Halloween theme. We held the workshop on October 31, and Spooky Skies emerged as the title.
Could you tell us a bit about what participants got up to on the day? Were there any highlights or moments that particularly stood out?
We set up a convivial situation in the RCA Hanger with two very long refectory tables covered in sheets of paper of varying sizes, drawing equipment, pumpkins and other spooky paraphernalia. My students from Sculpture got started on their own drawings, and when visitors arrived, we welcomed them, talked them through the set up and invited them to select materials and a place to sit. Some drew with a committed focus, and others found this a space to draw and talk - there were no rules! We made the Hangar space feel more intimate by hanging a giant cobweb from the mezzanine that students had woven from pale cotton string that morning.
What stood out was the rich demographic of our visitors. This included a few parents who came with their laptops and worked as their children drew; Gerard, our security man, who drew an excellent pumpkin, as well as staff and students from the RCA community. The youngest participant who joined us, told his father that the day had been the best Friday of his life, which was an incredible honour, and I hope he will have many more “best Fridays” in his life!
The Big Draw’s 25th anniversary theme in 2025, 'Drawn Together', celebrated creativity, collaboration, and connection. How does this resonate with the RCA’s own approach to art and design education?
The RCA is a unique community of artists and designers, and our student cohorts learn from each other across disciplines, and the staff in turn, learn from them. Culture at the RCA is formed through social exchange that grows and blossoms into the wider world.
Looking ahead, are there any other upcoming projects, collaborations, or public events at the RCA that you’re particularly excited about?
Yes, absolutely. I work on a collaborative teaching module called ‘Spatial Value’ in which we work with our students to produce public-facing events. We do this by looking closely at the public spaces that are near our campus, and in collaboration with our neighbours, Foster + Partners. Our next, and third module begins in early 2026, with a focus on water in the city. We can never predict the outcome of this module, as the teaching process and the interactions between each cohort will lead us to different places.
Every year that we have been teaching this module, exciting work has been produced and is always full of unexpected joy. For example, in 2025, we created a giant flowing Shamiyana (a traditional South Asian ceremonial tent or canopy) from fabric, making a tent space within the Hanger and were delighted when some months later, another Shamiyana was constructed on the lawn of the Serpentine Gallery. We celebrated this coincidence with a farewell picnic there, as a beautiful goodbye to last year’s MFA group! And in 2024, one of our MFA students created a public badminton game adjacent to the Thames across from our Dyson Building. On this site, low granite benches mark hidden transitions between private and public, the benches became the badminton nets and the shuttle bounced back and forth across invisible borders, as architects, students and passersby played together.
The RCA has been ranked the number one university for Art & Design in the world for 11 consecutive years by the QS World University Rankings by Subject - quite the achievement! What do you think makes the RCA’s approach so distinctive and successful?
The RCA attracts incredible staff and students, many of whom are active in their disciplines outside of the university. We have the privilege of working with international cohorts, and such a long history of producing extraordinary students. It is exciting to be part of this.
Thank you, Sarah!
To find out more about The Big Draw Festival and how you can get involved, click here.
