The Big Draw Festival 2019: Drawn To Life is well underway! As Festival co-creators across the globe work on the finishing touches for their Big Draw events we catch up with the team at Royal Collection Trust to talk history, drawing and Leonardo da Vinci. We were thrilled to chat with Simone Torry to find out more about their incredible packed programme of events for #DrawnToLife throughout October!

All images: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019

Photographer: Will Pryce, Windsor Castle image

Hi Simone! Can you explain to our readers a bit about Royal Collection Trust, its history and its programme of family events?

Royal Collection Trust looks after the Royal Collection, one of the most important art collections in the world, and manages the public opening of the official residences of Her Majesty The Queen.

We strive to offer a wide programme of unique, engaging and fun family events at Windsor Castle on Saturdays throughout the year and during school holidays. These range from art workshops, storytelling and armour and costume handling to large-scale festivals and immersive performance events. Our most recent festival on Saturday 14 September 2019 was called Queen Victoria’s Circus and involved inviting a Victorian circus troupe to perform in the Quadrangle of the Castle. This event paid tribute to the historic events of 28 October 1847, when George Wombwell’s travelling menagerie (exhibition of animals) visited Queen Victoria and her family at the Castle. Overall, it’s an exciting and rewarding job with lots of variety and opportunities for creativity!

We believe that drawing is an amazing tool for creativity, invention and discovery. The Big Draw’s mantra is: ‘drawing to learn, not learning to draw’. With this in mind, do you believe there is such a thing as a “bad” drawing?

Definitely not! Drawing is an excellent tool for creativity, invention and discovery. We are always very keen to ensure that our art workshops have a welcoming, inclusive and informal atmosphere, so that visiting families feel at ease engaging in our arts and crafts, and most importantly have fun!

This year The Big Draw Festival is celebrating ‘Drawn to Life’, aiming to shine a light on the pivotal role that creativity plays in our health and wellbeing. What are your thoughts on the healing powers of art, and how might Royal Collection Trust incorporate this theme in its Big Draw events and programming?

Getting creative in a relaxing and friendly environment can certainly be fundamental to improving our health and wellbeing. This October half-term, our family activities will include some life drawing sessions, led by the Secret Drawing Club. These will be inspired by one of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings in the Royal Collection and will take place inside Windsor Castle’s magnificent State Apartments. We hope that families will enjoy a period of respite during their busy day visiting the Castle, as well as having the opportunity to express themselves in a beautiful setting.

The Secret Drawing Club will also be running some printmaking workshops in one of our Learning spaces. Here, children can get a little messier and have a go at using materials and techniques similar to those used by Leonardo himself. We hope that these workshops will show that art is for all and not something to be daunted by.

What can we expect to get involved with at Royal Collection Trust’s Big Draw events throughout October?

Our October family activities at Windsor Castle form part of Royal Collection Trust’s year-long programme to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The Royal Collection contains by far the greatest collection of drawings by Leonardo, and it is in the Print Room at Windsor Castle that they are cared for when not on public display. 

As well as our partnership with the Secret Drawing Club mentioned above, we will be offering a range of other drawing activities related to Leonardo. Perhaps most excitingly, there is also a performance event linked to this theme. Over the weekends of half-term, families can attend Masterpieces of Motion, a series of immersive performances celebrating 500 years of Leonardo. Using the magic of dance and storytelling, this special event will take audiences on a journey through the life and imagination of this incredible artist. A highlight of the experience will be the presence of the six Leonardo drawings that inspired the performances, displayed for the audience to view up-close!

Big Draw activities will also be taking place in London at the Royal Mews, albeit on a different theme. As the grand finale of the year-long celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, children visiting the Royal Mews will have the exciting opportunity to work with a professional artist to create a joint immersive artwork in the historic State Stables. Budding young artists are invited to bring to life in 3D the different pets that lived with Victoria and Albert at Buckingham Palace, from dogs and cats to parakeets and even cows.

It must be great to have the opportunity to arrange events in the impressive space of Windsor Castle. What are some of your favourite things about running events in the space, and how will you use its unique opportunities in your Big Draw Festival?

The history and beauty of Windsor Castle make it a wonderful space to run events in. We feel very privileged to be able to regularly use the State Apartments and Castle Precincts for our events. On some special occasions, we are also able to hold events in spaces such as the Moat Garden, which surrounds the Round Tower, the vast Quadrangle and St George’s Chapel. It is always thrilling to try and link our events to the spaces they are taking place in. This was very much the case with our recent family festival, Queen Victoria’s Circus, as well as our 2017 festival, Knights in Training Day. The latter also took place in the Quadrangle, where magnificent jousting tournaments were staged over 650 years ago during the reign of Edward III.

As already hinted at, some of our Big Draw activities will take place in the State Apartments, surrounded by beautiful paintings and works of art from the Royal Collection.

As of next year we’ll have another space in which to hold family events at Windsor Castle. As part of a series of projects to transform the experience of visiting the Castle, a dedicated Learning Centre is being built within the Castle Precincts, providing creative spaces for schools, adults and families to learn about the Royal Collection and the Castle.

What motivates Royal Collection Trust to take part in The Big Draw Festival? Is there any advice or guidance you would give to those that are uncertain about registering to put on their own event?

We have been subscribers to The Big Draw Festival for a number of years now. We always relish the opportunity to take part in this national initiative that promotes the pleasure and many other positive benefits to be found in drawing.

All images: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019

Photographer: Will Pryce, Windsor Castle image

Thank you Simone and the team at Royal Collection Trust!

Royal Collection Trust is one of our Big Draw Festival 2019 Sponsor Partners.

Have you been inspired by Simone'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.