Collections, exhibitions and displays in museums and galleries offer perfect inspiration for drawing. Don't just take our word for it, download our free printable resource with activities to encourage your children to draw and engage with artworks in a gallery space.

Museums and galleries continuously present ideas and re-interpret collections from anything as diverse as the natural world, history, geography, science, art, craft and design. They celebrate a wonderful cultural heritage of ideas and artefacts and enable us to experience these personally.

There is no interactive tool better than drawing to enrich a person’s understanding and appreciation of these objects and ideas. Drawing makes thought visible and concrete.

When drawing, visitors stay longer, and reinforce their experience of looking, questioning and remembering your exhibits. Drawing helps people to connect, to see and to remember.`

Drawing is key to exploration and discovery, and helps the viewer focus, concentrate and create a trace of their experience that they can revisit. It is an aid to observing and recording information and ideas, It also develops habits of intellectual curiosity and independent study. Visitors will therefore have a deeper relationship with the exhibit and your venue.

In some galleries the subject matter, scale or materials of some contemporary artwork might not lend themselves easily to drawing. There may be restrictions on the use of media because of the danger of damage to precious exhibits. In crowded galleries, it is not always possible to find a suitable or comfortable place to sit and view. However, it is always possible to have a small notebook to jot down fleeting impressions, feelings and thoughts in annotated sketches.

Watch this video about how a Big Draw event at The British Museum enriched the visitor experience.