The Big Draw Festival 2018: Play is on the horizon, and as organisers all over the globe prepare their events for your drawing pleasure, we chat to The Big Draw Co-creators drawing thousands of people back to the drawing board and givingthe possibilities of drawing a new lease life this autumn as part of their Big Draw Festival events.

On the weekend of 15 and 16 September some Big Draw Magic will be stirring in Milan, Italy...

For 4 years of our charity’s 18-year history, The Big Draw and world-renowed paper manufacturer Fabriano have collaborated to extend the reach of The Big Draw Festival within Fabriano’s home country: Italy.

The Big Draw Festival is proud to work with talented co-creators and sponsor-partners in over 25 countries worldwide. However, Fabriano is the first ‘Big Draw Anchor Organisation’ collaborating with us to extend the reach of The World’s Biggest Drawing Festival within an entire country, in this case, the beneficiary of this partnership is Italy.

The ambition and reach of this partnership has grown exponentially over the course of the past 4 years, and The Italian 2018 edition of The Big Draw Festival is shaping up to be their most impressive yet…

This year, it all gets going at the breath-taking Castello Sforzesco in Milan on 15 and 16 September 2018, made possible with the collaboration of Comune di Milano. This extraordinary venue, whose courtyards, arcades and interior spaces will provide an inspirational backdrop for the hundreds of budding Big Draw artists who will visit for two non-stop days of free workshops, talks, performances and drawing in all its forms.

#TeamBigDraw is thrilled to be contributing to proceedings on the Saturday with workshops by our very own Sandra Borszcz and the brilliant Anna Bruder taking their places alongside an incredible series of talks, hands-on workshops hosted by artists, designers, illustrators and makers providing ample opportunity to get your hands dirty as part of this year’s #Play2018 theme.

In this age of the instant photo, Sandra’s workshops will invite creators of all ages to take it slow, explore and play with a Botanical Cyanotype Print workshop and encourage you to forget the smartphone and make, design and use your very own Pinhole camera.

Artist Anna Bruder will join with the festival visitors in Milan to create a giant 3D origami installation of Europe, an ambitious new version of #FoldYourCity originally commissioned by The Big Draw and Dance Umbrella as part of last year’s Living Lines Festival.

Visitors will be invited to design, draw and fold their favourite places, buildings or landmarks from a country other than their own. As the day goes on, the giant origami continent grows with visitors’ visions of the gems of the continent, creating our very our collaborative pièce de résistance celebrating a creative, united Europe. In the true spirit of The Big Draw Festival, this is your chance to be part of a collaborative visual monument representing the power of creativity as a force to unite, play and innovate and to celebrate the universal language of drawing.

Many of the launch highlights in for #TheBigDrawMilano are inspired by and dedicated to the launch venue - the Castello Sforzesco, where art, history, tradition and dreams collide. They include: Once Upon a Time There Was a Castle- a workshop encouraging visitors to draw the history of the Castle, from the Visconti to Napoleon, by way of the Hapsburgs and Spanish, giving colour to characters between three-dimensional towers and buildings.

Homage is also paid to the City of Milan with the workshop titled The Hand of Leonardo, putting your skills to the test by writing and drawing backwards just like Leonardo da Vinci himself. A wall of colours, a giant colouring page taking shape during the festival and This Is A Big Draw - the huge collective work giving life to a drawing hundreds of metres long that will grow by the hours thanks to each participants’ unique marks over the weekend.

You can also try your hand at drawing with water by experimenting with Suminagashi, populate an imaginary wood with animals and trees with the frottage technique, take up calligraphy to rediscover Italic writing, narrating emotions on paper, or try your hand at screen printing, or celebrate the The Big Draw Festival #Play2018 theme and create your own version of The Fox and Geese board game!

Once you have caught the drawing bug in Milan, you are bound to be thirsty for more… Good news! Over 300 Big Draw Festival events are taking place in Italy alone until mid October: From Bologna to Cagliari, Bolzano to Palermo, Aosta to Naples. Take a look at the programme here.

Artists presenting workshops at the launch include: Anna Bruder, Anusc Castiglioni, Dario Cestaro, Eleonora Cumer, Maurizio De Bellis, Angelo Gorlini, Massimo Gonzato, Piero Guerriero, Francesco Lucchese, Claude Marzotto, Daniela Moretto, Giulia Orecchia, Alessandro Sanna and Guido Scarabottolo.

Chiara Mediloni, who heads up operations for The Big Draw Italia comments:

“The Big Draw Festival has been embraced by the people of Italy with huge enthusiasm and curiosity. Some years ago I attended a Big Draw launch event in London which has left a lasting impression on me. I was hugely mpressed by the impact of The Big Draw Festival in the UK and increasingly other countries around world, so, 4 years ago in Florence we (Fabriano) began working with The Big Draw to widen the reach of the festival on our home turf, since then it's been growing here (in Italy) phenomenally.

It's as if people were waiting for this to happen, to have someone giving them a pencil and allowing them to go free on a sheet of paper, with no fear and no pressure for performance. Italy has a tradition in the production of art, architecture, design, fashion. Drawing or sketching is vital within these enormous industries, you might say it’s at the heart on them.

These activities are somehow considered the product of an elite, 'gli artisti", "i creativi", as if they have magic superpowers. People like you and me usually stop drawing after primary school age. They should keep it on, even if just doodling, or sketching a garden plan. Drawing allows a person to be in touch with the environment around them, to appreciate details, proportions, to keep alive the link between the hand and making, and the eye and the mind (viewing and reasoning)”.

As we always say, The Big Draw Festival is for those who love to draw as well as those who think they can’t! 

The Big Draw Italy 2018 Launch in Milan will take place 15 – 16 September at Castello Sforzesco, Piazza Castello, Milano, 20121 – all are welcome to attend.

Click here for details and here for the workshop and events brochure. Follow: #TheBigDraw #TheBigDrawMilano #TheBigDrawFabriano #Play2018 on Instagram, Facebook and twitter if you can’t be there on the day!

Fabriano are Big Draw Festival 2018 Sponsor Partners and The Big Draw Anchor Organisation for Italy. If you are interested in becoming a Big Draw Anchor Organisation please contact us for details

Interested in visiting a Big Draw Festival event near you this Autumn? Take a look at our Big Draw 2018 events map here or perhaps you’d like to join our merry band of Big Draw Festival co-creators and organise your very our events?

Visit our Organise an Event page here for guidance on getting started.