The Big Draw Community Event, Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, 2022. Photo: smg photography | Sarah M. Golonka

Celebrating The Big Draw

15 November 2022

Throughout October, Hauser & Wirth held events for The Big Draw Festival 2022 across 8 of our locations around the world. Chillida Leku, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Menorca, Monaco, Somerset and Zurich all offered free creative activities for families, schools and communities that engaged with drawing and responded to the collective theme ‘Come Back to Colour.’ The theme invited participants to rediscover the vitality and vibrancy in everyone’s lives after what has been a challenging few years.

The Big Draw is a charity dedicated to raising the profile of drawing as a tool for wellbeing, thought, creativity, as well as increasing social and cultural engagement. The Big Draw Festival is a worldwide celebration of drawing, connecting people of all ages with museums, galleries, outdoor spaces, artists, designers and illustrators throughout the month of October.

Across our locations in the UK, Spain, Switzerland, Monaco, United States and Hong Kong, Hauser & Wirth’s Big Draw activities recognized the vital role of drawing as a tool for communication, innovation and inclusivity. Hauser & Wirth has been a Big Draw Organizer since 2014 and became a Sponsor Partner in 2020. In 2018 and 2021, we were delighted to win The Big Draw Museum & Gallery of the Year Award.

Chillida Leku This is the third year that Chillida Leku has taken part in The Big Draw Festival. The museum gave families and schools an illustrated worksheet that invited them to respond to and engage with the artworks by Joan Miro and Eduardo Chillida, on view in their current exhibition, ‘Miró at Zabalaga,’ as well as take inspiration from their garden designed by Piet Oudolf.

Hong Kong Inspired by their exhibition, ‘Nicolas Party. Red Forest,’ Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong ran three drawing workshops for children, including those from the Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council. Participants were introduced to the work of artist Nicolas Party and then learnt different pastel techniques to re-create drawings from the exhibition.

The Big Draw Family Event, Chillida Leku, 2022

The Big Draw Children’s Workshop, Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong, 2022

The Big Draw Family Saturday, Hauser & Wirth London, 2022. Photo: Clare Walsh

London Families with children aged between 4 – 12 years, were invited to Hauser & Wirth London to take part in an interactive tour of ‘Amy Sherald. The World We Make’ led by members of our learning team. After exploring the exhibition, the children and parents drew a miniature portrait in pencil, which was then cut out and applied to a monochromatic colored background, before being transformed into a wearable badge.

Los Angeles Inspired by Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles’s current exhibition ‘Martin Creed,’ the arts center  invited participants to take part in an artmaking activity in the North Breezeway. Over 130 participants contributed to this interactive and collaborative artwork, using different paint to apply a singular gestural mark to the canvas.

‘You do not need to draw with a pencil and you do not have to make marks on paper. We can dance the line of a drawing or weave a line in space. Drawings can be messy, experimental or impermanent. Or, they can be calm and reflective and considered. Drawing can be for children and adults. We can draw with our families, our colleagues, or on our own.’—Briony Brickell, Associate Director, Learning

The Education Lab, Hauser & Wirth Menorca, 2022. Photo: Daniel Schäfer

Somerset Hauser & Wirth Somerset ran two separate learning events, one for families and one for locals schools, inspired by the exhibitions ‘Louise Bourgeois. Drawing Intimacy 1939 – 2010’ and ‘Fabian Peake. an eye either side.’ The Family Saturday saw 85 people of all ages participate in a series of interactive workshops within both the galleries and garden that celebrated color, shape and line. This included creating a large collaborative drawing inspired by artist Fabian Peake, mono-prints in the Implement Shed, and paintings inspired by artist Louise Bourgeois in Oudolf Field. Hauser & Wirth Somerset also invited over 100 primary and secondary school students to take part in a series of drawing activities inspired by artists Rashid Johnson, Thomas J Price, Louise Bourgeois, Fabian Peake and Martin Creed.

Menorca The Education Lab at Hauser & Wirth Menorca invited gallery visitors and members of the local community to create blue and black drawings inspired by the exhibition ‘Rashid Johnson. Sodade,’ which then became part of an installation of drawings that were suspended from the ceiling. The Education Lab is the result of several learning workshops with over 350 participants that connected the colors black and blue with emotions and the song ‘Sodade’ by Césaria Evora.

Monaco Hauser & Wirth Monaco held their inaugural Family Saturday in recognition of The Big Draw Festival and was inspired by their current exhibition ‘Roni Horn. SWEET IS THE SWAMP WITH ITS SECRETS.’ This event invited children aged between 6 – 12 years for an interactive and family-friendly tour of the exhibition, which was then followed by a drawing workshop examining the effect and appearance of water.

Zurich Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse hosted a series of workshops inspired by their current exhibition, ‘Richard Jackson. Works.’ These events invited children and parents into the gallery to creatively and imaginatively respond to the themes of the exhibition, assisted by several drawing prompts and exercises.