Winners of The Big Draw Awards 2016 took centre stage at the Grade II* listed Victorian Music Hall, Hoxton Hall, yesterday, as news of their success was revealed at a special awards ceremony. 

_{Image: Artist Tanya Raabe-Webber presented several Awards.}

The Big Draw Awards celebrate the organisers of outstanding events that take place as part of the international Big Draw Festival. A total of ten winners were selected from a shortlist of projects that took place as part of The Big Draw Festival 2015, which celebrated the theme 'Every drawing tells a story' and was launched by author Philip Pullman, and Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell, on September 19 in Oxford.

_{Image: Launch of The Big Draw Festival 2015 at The Western Library, Bodelian Libraries, Oxford.}

The Big Draw Festival is an annual, international celebration of drawing that takes place from 1-31 October and has encouraged over 3 million people back to the drawing board. Around 1000 Big Draw event organisers who took part in the Festival in 2015 were invited to enter the awards. Entries were received from all over the world, including Hungary, India, California, Singapore, and Argentina.

Among this year’s winners are a Records Office from North Yorkshire, a major international centre for contemporary art, two community arts projects from Wales, a festival in the Netherlands, three schools, a university and a museum.

Special guests included award-winning artist, Tanya Raabe-Webber and designer and baker extraordinaire, Frances Quinn, Big Draw ambassador and winner of The Great British Bake Off 2013, who has created a Big Draw themed cake for the occasion.

_{Image: The Big Draw Awards 2016 at Hoxton Hall. Frances Quinn and The Big Draw themed cake.}

Judges included: Kate Mason (Director, The Big Draw), Beth Schneider (Head of Learning, Royal Academy of Arts), Steve Moffitt (CEO, A New Direction), and Sorrel Hershberg (Director, The Sorrell Foundation).

A new Founders Award, selected by and in honour of Sue Grayson Ford, was awarded to Coast Lines, Pembrokeshire.

Other winners include:

• GreatArt Prize for Clubs and Societies: NEATEN and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
• Guest Panellist's Choice: Oasis Cardiff, Wales
• International Award: The Big Draw Nijmegen, Netherlands
• Museums and Galleries Award: Booth Museum of Natural History and The Drawing Circus, Brighton & Hove
• Community, Participatory and Libraries Award: North Yorkshire County Records Office, Northallerton
• Secondary School Award: John Jamieson School, Leeds
• Primary School Award (1/2): Sharp Lane Primary, Leeds
• Primary School Award (2/2): Ben Jonson Primary, Tower Hamlets, London
• NADFAS Young People Awards: Ravensbourne, Greenwich Peninsula, London

Kate Mason, Director, The Big Draw commented:

“The winners of The Big Draw Awards 2016 have once again demonstrated the power of the universal language of drawing to break down cultural barriers, to build connections across generations and to serve as a tool for learning, expression and invention.

We’d like to thank everyone who took part in The Big Draw Festival for their wonderful projects, and we welcome you to join us in October for The STEAM Powered Big Draw Festival 2016.”

Sorrel Hershberg, Director, The Sorrell Foundation commented:

“It was a great pleasure to be a judge for the Big Draw Awards. I was so impressed by the standard of the entries, and how inventive the schools and organisations had been to make their events distinctive as well as truly engaging for their participants.”

The Big Draw Awards reward drawing without borders – activities that extend our definitions of drawing and audiences by being both experimental and inclusive. The prizes are donated by the Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust, which has supported the Awards for 11 years. A new prize has also been sponsored by GreatArt for Arts Clubs and Societies - they have also generously donated £200 GreatArt vouchers for each winning school. NADFAS also sponsors a prize for the best event by, and for, young people.

Over the coming weeks we will be introducing you to some of The BIg Draw Award winners and their fantastic projects, so watch this space!

Also, remember... 

Anyone can organize an event for The Big Draw Festival, and every organizer is eligible to apply for an Award. The STEAM Powered Big Draw Festival 2016 will take place from 1-31 October. Visit www.thebigdraw.org to find out more.