The Big Draw Festival 2019: Drawn To Life was another roaring success for Big Draw Organisers across the globe, bringing people - young and old - back to the drawing board for another year! Whilst some Festival organisers are still preparing the finishing touches for upcoming events outside of October, many are now kicking their feet up and reflecting over their events' successes...
On the 15th and 16th of October, the University of Lincoln ran a series of workshops for Primary and Secondary School students. From Kaleidoscope patterns to Life Drawing and Product Drawing, there was a huge range of fantastic activities that everyone could get involved in. We were lucky enough to steal a few moments with Brian Voce, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lincoln’s College of Arts, to find out more about this year’s events at the University, as well as his opinion on the importance of drawing, visual literacy and more!
Hi Brian! Can you explain to our readers a bit about the University of Lincoln, its history and your work there?
I’m a Senior Lecturer in the School of Design where I am responsible for leading Year 2 BA (Hons) Graphics. I’m also involved with our outreach programme and help with workshops for schools and their visits to us here in the School of Design. I also lead the Visual Expression Module for Year Two on the course. This module is very much about developing creative thinking skills, being brave in your creativity, and exploring a diverse range of approaches to solving visual communication problems.
Before I worked at the University, I was involved in Further Education, Community Arts, Schools Workshops, and Offender Learning. In all these situations drawing played a key role in my approach to teaching art and design, forming the foundation from which students could progress.
In its current form with its "new" main campus here in Lincoln, the University is relatively young, dating back to October 2001 when the Brayford Campus was built. Originally part of a group of institutions forming Humberside College of Higher Education, in 1992 it became a full university as the University of Humberside. The University was renamed the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside in January 1996. (Her Majesty the Queen opened the first University of Lincoln building on the Brayford Campus in 1996). However, its roots are far deeper than that and in the School of Design we can trace our origins back to 1861 and the Hull School of Art. The University also acquired The Lincoln School of Art and Design in 2001, which dates back to 1863. We have a long history of involvement with the creative arts!
One of the main components of our work here at The Big Draw is promoting the influence of visual literacy. We believe that it is crucial to a multitude of industries and disciplines, not just within the visual arts sector. What is your opinion on the importance of visual literacy in all walks of life?
Drawing seems to be a fundamental human activity, innate to even the youngest children. As such, it’s an incredibly universal language. Young children across the Globe create similar drawings regardless of their many diverse cultural backgrounds! The ability of drawing to transcend spoken language and culture makes it an extremely effective communication tool which we all respond to. Visualising ideas can communicate so much more than words alone; the choice of line, the medium, colours, technique. All these things contribute to our ‘reading’ of the work and influence how we respond. So many times, I’ve listened to a student speaking about what they intend to do or make but it’s only when they draw out an idea that I really understand their intentions. Drawing out an idea firmly ‘nails it’ (after this, we’re both on the same page)!
We believe that drawing can be life changing; it is an amazing tool for creativity, invention and discovery. We hope that The Big Draw Festival gives people an opportunity to embrace their mistakes, and not be afraid of imperfections in the creative process! Do you believe in such a thing as a ‘happy accident’, and the power to learn or develop from our mistakes?
In Graphics, the core of ideas development on our course is visualisation; ‘thinking with the pencil’ (as one of my colleagues succinctly put it). We embrace risk taking, mistakes, and the ‘happy accident’ across all three years, although our students often take some convincing of this! In year 1 (and also sometimes even in year 2) they often have a preoccupation with neatness and creating presentation books rather than just ‘pouring’ out ideas onto the paper with a pencil ‘warts and all’.
I think it’s hard for students to shake off old habits formed through their previous educational experiences. Mistakes are an essential part of the creative process, if you’re not making them then you’re probably playing it far too safe. Inspiration will often ‘pop’ into your head as a consequence of visual risk taking and experimentation, quite often something you’d never have thought of without being brave enough to try things out and being unafraid of making ‘mistakes’. They will be made but that’s okay, learn from them, if they’re not quite right for now, bank the better ones for another time, then move on. My module is really all about creative thinking, experimentation, getting the students to be comfortable with being uncomfortable (taking a few risks in their design practice). I focus on pushing the student’s creativity; this might be through experimental drawing, film, sound, print, or 3D. I’ve been using the analogy with my Second Year Students that solving a creative problem (in whatever discipline) is a bit like untangling a great big ball of messy string. It seems impossible at first as you don’t know where to start. You have to try and work things out, try things, sometimes making mistakes and going back on yourself, but as you slowly untangle it the way forward becomes clearer, and by the end the answer is clear. Creativity often comes from chaos… embrace it.
This year’s Big Draw Festival ‘Drawn to Life’ is all about embracing the incredible health benefits and healing powers of a more creative life. We want to encourage people to shed themselves of that fear so often associated with the creative process, and just ‘do’! What are your thoughts on the importance of creativity for our overall wellbeing? How does this theme resonate with the University of Lincoln’s programming and Big Draw events?
I think that if you’re a creative person and you have no outlet or opportunity for this then you’re going to end up a frustrated, unfulfilled and potentially unhappy individual. All of these things can contribute to a whole range of health problems. For my own well-being, it’s essential that I maintain my creative practice. I rent a studio space from a local farmer where I paint and make prints. If I’m away from it for too long, I start to feel frustrated and tense, so I completely understand how creativity is linked to well-being. I’m also well aware of the fear of empty white space. It’s easy to procrastinate, but you have to just get stuck in and make a start; things usually turn out okay in the end.
Our Big Draw events have focussed on creative self-expression and being open about the outcomes. We want the young people who come to our events to feel unpressurised, free to explore their ideas without the fear of judgement. It is of paramount importance to us that our Big Draw visitors feel a sense of engagement and fun. We want them to embrace the opportunity and in a wider context to aspire to what we can offer them as a university as part of their future education. What is really noticeable is how confident and uninhibited the Primary School Children are in comparison to their older Secondary School peers. The need to closely follow curriculums and exam pressures seem to have knocked the confidence out of the older children who are often very self-conscious about their work. (I think as we get older we all suffer creatively - myself included - from the fear of being ‘judged’).
What advice would you give to someone who would like to pursue a creative career, but fears it isn’t the ‘sensible’ option?
I’d say follow your passion, do what you love. If you are passionate about creative arts but go to study say for example Business Studies instead, just because you think you’ll get a job at the end, you’ll be an unfulfilled accountant always thinking, ‘if only’... There are lots of employment opportunities in the arts for Graduates. If you love what you do, that passion will shine through and you’ll find a creative job you love.
You ran two days of fun-filled Big Draw workshops with Primary & Secondary schools on the 15th and 16th October. Can you tell us a little bit about what the students got up to? Were there any stand out moments for you?
This year I instigated and co-ordinated The Big Draw event here at the University but because of my teaching commitments I couldn’t actually get involved in anything on either day! (I was really looking forward to running the ‘Bug’ drawing workshop but it wasn’t possible in the end, so I had to ask another staff member to run it for me).
On Tuesday the 15th we hosted four workshops for sixty primary school children (every child had a go at each activity). There were Kaleidoscope patterns and drawings, Body Snap (a huge hit from last year so we reprised it - think ‘Twister’ with drawing thrown in). A print and tissue paper collage activity where the children drew images into polystyrene sheets and then printed from this. The fourth workshop was the insect drawing workshop, I bought Locusts and Crickets from a local pet shop which the children observed and drew up as ‘giant’ drawings. (The insects are now all living happily in an aquarium at my house)!
Following this on Wednesday we had 28 Year 12 and 13 pupils who came to Life Drawing and Product Drawing workshops. A fabulous opportunity for them to experience specialist teaching here at the University and maybe get a taste for a career in design.
We had hoped to run an additional day on the Thursday with Drawing machine workshops and a Dance and Draw Activity, but the participating school pulled out at short notice. However, we are looking to reprise these as ‘The Big Draw Lincoln - 2’ early in the Spring of next Year.
All our staff work really hard to deliver the best experiences they can, it would be unfair to pick one activity as a standout event. I think the stand-out moments for me are the responses we get from schools after the event, for example:
“It was so rewarding to have the opportunity to take our students to the University. We teach a lot of students for whom University is not even a consideration when they are thinking about progression to opportunities after sixth form. It means a great deal to us to be able to show them something that is outside their normal field of experience, so to speak. The students have been talking about their experiences and it has begun to broaden horizons for some. They were impressed by the day and really enjoyed themselves.”
“Just a quick note to say how much the children enjoyed The Big Draw on Tuesday. They had a great time expressing themselves freely. One thing which I didn’t really think about was the discussions we had throughout the day about what a University is, how it all works, where do you live, what do you study etc. Thank you so much for the invitation, I’m sure it’s something the children will remember for many years to come.”
With four years’ Big Draw experience under your belt, could you dispense any top tips or words of wisdom to someone (particularly another higher education institution) considering organising their own Big Draw event?
Firstly, I’d say to anyone in Higher Education thinking about running a Big Draw event (especially if you’re looking to involve schools), get a good team around you, there’s a lot to organise. This year, I couldn’t have done it without the tremendous support I had from Maria Morgan, one of our Widening Participation Officers who did all the ‘leg work’ contacting the schools, and Polly Lancaster who processed all the equipment orders, and of course all of the staff who came forward to run the workshops.
Secondly, if you’re participating in running a workshop yourself then have another member of staff as a coordinator on the day (you will need someone to keep the workshops on time and ensure everyone goes where they’re supposed to)!
Thirdly, I’d say start planning your Big Draw in February, have everything in place and the schools ‘signed up’ before their summer break. That way there is not such a rush in September to get everything in place. (Make sure you don’t plan to run your Big Draw in the school half term, as responses from schools are likely to be low).
Finally, have fun. Don’t make it too serious (especially for younger kids)! At Lincoln we want to enthuse and inspire the younger children about the creative arts. For the older participants we hope they’ll take inspiration from the day and the career possibilities open to them through Higher Education here at the University.
What are some of the reasons that the University of Lincoln take part in The Big Draw Festival, and what do you hope to achieve?
The University of Lincoln has an active outreach programme and a philosophy of community engagement, The Big Draw neatly ‘dovetails’ with these intentions. With the recent decline of the creative arts curriculum in schools where they are ‘squeezed’ by the focus on STEM subjects and the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) we consider it’s vital that we all work hard to encourage and develop young people’s creativity if the UK is to maintain its international reputation as a creative leader in the arts. It would be catastrophic for our economy if we were to lose our pre-eminence in this area by letting the creative talents of a whole generation ‘slip by’. Other nations are catching up; if we are to retain our position as a World leader in design and design education then we really need to encourage young people to consider creative careers. The Big Draw is part of our Outreach Programme from the School of Design where we support schools through the creative arts).
As a University we’re also very keen to widen the uptake of Higher Education with our local community and the wider surrounding counties. Historically, many young people from our area haven’t seen University as an option, many going into employment after school or college. (We’re all missing out on a lot of talent that simply passes us by because they don’t come from backgrounds where University is an option). Therefore, for us The Big Draw is a fabulous opportunity for us to ‘open our doors’ and reach out to young people who perhaps lack the confidence to aspire to University.
Thank you Brian and the team at the University of Lincoln!
The University of Lincoln is one of our Big Draw Festival 2019 Sponsor Partners.
Have you been inspired by Brian's interview, and The Big Draw Festival 2019 theme: #DrawntoLife? Why not join our global Festival in 2019? Registration is now open! Find out more about the benefits of becoming an organiser here and other ways to support The Big Draw's mission here.
