International Event ‘The Big Draw’ Makes Its Mark Locally

MARIA GRISWOLD
CHERRY VALLEY 

Fresh apple cider and donuts were provided on Saturday, November 1 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. as 14 participants joined in on a drawing marathon at The Old School, 2 Genesee Street.

The Big Draw was formerly known as “The Campaign for Drawing” when initiated by the Guild of St. George in London in 2000. As an arts education charity, The Big Draw is devoted to enhancing the reputation of drawing as a tool for wellbeing and mindfulness, as well as a social and cultural activity. 

This year, The Big Draw celebrates its 25th anniversary. The global theme of The Big Draw’s Silver Jubilee is “Drawn Together: Connection and Collaboration.”

Jonathan Pincus, MFA, is a Cooperstown-based artist and professor of drawing at Hartwick College in Oneonta and Pratt Munson College in Utica. Earlier this year, the Community Foundation of Otsego County awarded Pincus a grant to help bring the international art festival to Otsego County. 

Last month, Pincus collaborated with the Klinkhart Hall Arts Center, a community arts organization based in Sharon Springs, and facilitated two custom events for the Connections at Clark Sports Center program of the Otsego County Office for the Aging, where attendees played a game called Tableau Vivant, and posed to recreate the impressionist painting “Luncheon of the Boating Party.”

On November 1, Pincus facilitated the first drawing marathon in the area for The Big Draw Festival. Models—both clothed and nude—arranged themselves in a variety of poses. 

“It was an honor to participate, especially in a locale so close to home,” said Colin Weeks, who took part in the drawing marathon. “Jonathan Pincus, Marc-Anthony Polizzi and Angelica Palmer deserve much credit, not just for securing such generous funding to make this happen, but also for proving that small, rural areas can do and have thriving vibrant communities of artists and creatives.”

Another attendee, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “In the Big Draw at Cherry Valley, I picked up a pencil and found connection; not just on paper but with everyone around me.”

Each fall, coordinators from around the world organize various Big Draw events, from hands-on workshops to sketch crawls. The festival encompasses 38 countries across six continents. According to Pincus, this event is the first of its kind to be hosted in rural America. While North American festival events have been held in Calgary, Toronto, and on the West Coast of the United States, he said, this event has never been held in a rural American town, marking Otsego County as a pioneering site for rural arts programming. 

“We are not just participating in a festival; we are reshaping how rural communities see themselves and are seen by others, through the radical act of inclusive creative expression,” Pincus said. “We are transforming Otsego County into a model for how the arts can enrich civic life outside large, urban centers.”

Pincus hopes that this approach to the arts embraces drawing as a language of connection, accessible to all. 

For more information about The Big Draw, visit https://www.thebigdraw.org/.

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