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Every year, usually in October, the National Campaign for Drawing promotes ‘The Big Draw’ – national and international drawing events to encourage people to draw. This gallery features images from the Newburgh Big Draw 2007. It may take a minute or two to load depending on your connection speed.
Fife Arts Co-op has been running the Big Draw in Newburgh for the past three years, and this time round a sub-group of the FAC, in consultation with Newburgh Community Trust, came up with the idea of focusing BD 2007 around the burning of a derelict wooden fishing trawler, which had been rotting on a slipway beside the River Tay. NCT are in the process of fundraising for the repair of three small piers on the Newburgh waterfront, and they agreed that burning the old boat was the quickest and cheapest way of dealing with it. So why not make a big event of it?
The original intention was to stage the burning on Guy Fawkes night, but for various reasons Saturday Nov 10th was eventually chosen. NCT hired a marquee and floodlights, arranged for plenty of food and drink to be available and posted and leafleted the town and beyond.
It was decided to turn the boat into a pirate ship, complete with gun ports, flags, pictures of pirates and sea-monsters, a big sail emblazoned with the Jolly Roger and ten life-sized cloth and paper pirates, who were to be the ship's last crew. Children from the local primary school, with the help of some parents and FAC members, set to work on this with a will, and made a fantastic contribution to what was to prove a memorable night.
It was a fair-sized boat, and for health and safety reasons NCT sought the advice of our local fire brigade, who took overall responsibility for organising the spectators, starting the fire and making sure the event passed off without incident.
Around 400 people came along to enjoy the "Big Burn". It was the biggest fire some of us had ever seen.
Click here to see a short video of the burning boat captured by local boy Calum Gunn on his mobile phone!
To young children, drawing is as natural an activity as running and playing but, as we grow and develop, in general we drop the drawing – why? It’s sad that so many people lose this ability: for me drawing has always been a natural form of expression.
Gerald Scarfe, Cartoonist, Campaign patron
The Big Draw is a terrific way to encourage people to ‘have a go’ and to make art part of their lives. Like a lot of the best ideas, it’s so simple.
Sir Christopher Frayling, Chairman Arts Council England
