This October Family Arts Week took over Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Part of the national Family Arts Festival and The Big Draw. The week was run by GO Create!, the hospital’s arts programme, and the Activity Centre.
Patients have been getting involved in a whole host of creative activities, from making inky insects, joining in with a traditional Indonesian music ensemble, writing raps to contributing to The Big Draw.
The Big Draw is part of the international campaign for drawing, which inspires people of all ages to use drawing to make sense of the world around them and to communicate their ideas.
The 2013 theme was ‘It’s Our World, a celebration of our environment’ and GOSH’s Big Draw event ran from Tuesday to Thursday in the Activity Centre.
Artist Tanya Kaprielian worked with children and their families to create a collaborative artwork, transforming a little corner of GOSH into their own world.
On the first day, children made their own unconventional drawing tools, from twigs, corks, tubes and even hair brushes. Five-year-old Drew said: “I liked making all the inventions, it made me feel super!”
They then used their invented tools and created a three dimensional set, dipping them in paint and filling the white space in the set with different shapes and colours.
On the second day, children used frames to look more closely at the shapes and patterns they had created and discovered lots of amazing things in the seemingly abstract forms. In among the splashes and speckles, they spotted flowers, buildings and dragons.
Ten-year-old Molly said: “This looks like a wizard!” While Yasmin said: “I’m going to turn this one into a giraffe.”
On the last day, the children introduced colour and three dimensional shapes. A cityscape emerged, with a giant rhino on one side and a huge skyscraper on the other. The children were given absolute freedom to work independently and to take ownership of the space around them. One patient even wrote a poem about the shapes she could see in her marks.
One GOSH parent said: “The children have come twice this week and have loved it!” While another commented: “This has been a beyond positive experience!” A third said: “Great distraction from being in the ward. He loves the instruments and especially the painting.”
One parent described her amazement that her child, who refused to pick up a pencil before coming along to The Big Draw, was completely transfixed by the experience and spent several hours painting.
Original article from: Lifeline. The Great Ormond Street Hospital children's charity blog.