Big Draw The Big Draw Olney's Cowper and Newton Museum took part in the national 'Big Draw'. The campaign tries to encourage everyone to have a go at drawing. This year theme was 'Nature & Evolution – Celebrating Darwins 200th Anniversary'. More than 1000 venues, from village halls and nursery schools to national museums and castles, participate in the event to show that drawing can be an enjoyable public activity as well as a private passion. Local Event At the museum, visitors were able to sketch dinosaur bones and some of the many fossils found at Emberton. There was also offered the chance to learn to drawer or sketch with local artists. Budding artists were also asked to have a go at drawing the Georgian Town house, re-create both the interior and exterior and how it may have looked in 1768 when William Cowper moved in.
National Campaign The Campaign for Drawing was launched in 2000 by the Guild of St George, a small charity founded by John Ruskin, whose writings on art, architecture, natural history, social and economic issues helped to shape Victorian cultural life. The Guild initiated the Campaign to celebrate Ruskin's centenary and to promote his belief that drawing is a key to understanding and knowledge. The Campaign sees drawing as a basic human skill useful in all walks of life. It is hoped the words 'I can't draw' can be dropped from our vocabulary. Now an independent charity, the Campaign raises the profile of drawing as a tool for thought, creativity, social and cultural engagement. It has developed two programmes to encourage the use of drawing by professionals and others: The Big Draw and Power Drawing http://www.thebigdraw.org.uk/
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