Drop in Drawing - Here to Stay!

Drop in Drawing is now a permanent programme at the Auckland Art Gallery!

Session times:

Tuesdays 12-1pm

Sunday 2-3pm
FREE with all materials provided, no booking needed

Ask at the front desk for locations on the day.

http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/learning/adults

Lots of people ask me why we are doing Drop in Drawing. It's a really good question. Drawing in a gallery is not a new concept or idea by any means. You can walk through galleries all over the world and see people sketching or even painting. But the purposes behind why we do this programme is something I think is unique. Some of the reasons we do this programme are:

• Because it is not about learning to draw, but about drawing to learn
• Because it helps people connect with the artwork
• Because it is purposeful and flexible
• Because it is about a process as well as a product
• Because it celebrates and validates our visitors experiences 

A Visitors idea of what happens next in one of the Victorian paintings.

Through Drop in Drawing visitors experience each element of the Creative Process. They...

EXPLORE an artwork more closely

EXPERIMENT with mark making, and the process of drawing

CREATE something of their own

SHARE the experience with others taking part
 

What visitors saw above eye level in our North Atrium.

Prompts we have challenged visitors with so far have been:

• Draw something above eye level
• Draw with your pencil in your other hand
• Draw what you think happens next in the artwork
• Memory game - look at the artwork for 20 seconds then turn around and draw from memory
• Never take your pencil off the paper
• Clothe the nudes
• Caption this artwork
• Hold your pencil in your elbow
• Guess my scribble
• Change the background
• Reconfigure the composition of an artwork

We have used historic works, contemporary installations, modernist paintings, and the architecture and spaces to provide inspiration to visitors.


A visitors work who took on the challenge of continuous line drawing.

As you can see from the prompts, the focus is on being social, close looking, engaging with the artwork, and a process, not a polished end product. We have very consciously decided that these are not technical drawing sessions.

Visitors have expressed appreciation of the challenges, because sitting in front of an artwork and just being told to 'draw' can be overwhelming and intimidating. Two feelings we want to eradicate from peoples experiences with art making! If there is a prompt,challenge, or type of artwork you would like to experience in Drop in Drawing let us know, we love suggestions on how to further push and extend this concept.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in this programme so far and for all the positive feedback and suggestions you have given us. So far over 260 people have taken part in these drawing sessions in the past eight weeks! We cannot wait to watch this programme grow and are really excited to have it in our Learning Programmes family. 

A creature that began as a scribble and morphed into something the artist never predicted.

Guess my scribble

I was met with some unusual glances from adults who participated in a recent drop-in drawing session. Looking at Jae Hoon Lee's Residue, I invited people to make a random scribble on their piece of paper, or I could do it for them, the challenge being that they then needed to turn it into something.

The choice of the work and the abstract pieces in the surrounding galleries seemed ideal for this challenge because we all see something different in the lines, shapes, and patterns that contemporary art confronts us with. This was truly a challenge that embraced multiple perspectives and interpretations.

Visitors created works reminiscent of Kandinsky or Klee, whereas others created undersea kingdoms, mythical creatures and surrealist looking sketches that could have harked from a 70s album cover. While the challenge could have seemed silly, what ended up happening is people let go of that feeling of drawing something that we see, and became really creative and free – their drawings often ending up as something they never predicted.

Keep an eye out on our website and Facebook page for details of upcoming drop-in drawing events.

- Selina Anderson, Senior Gallery Educator

Drop-in drawing takes off

Drop-in drawing sessions are brand new for us here at the Gallery and even after only two sessions, it’s exciting to see people getting involved and hungry for more! The hour-long drop-ins are focused on a work in the gallery spaces with a prompt to get you started and encourage looking. No booking is required and all materials are provided.

The purpose behind these sessions is to explore, interpret, create and participate, using the artworks as a catalyst to experiment in a fun, informal atmosphere, with enjoyment at the forefront. These are not technical artist-run sessions (absolutely no drawing ‘skill’ is required) – they are not about learning to draw, but about drawing to learn. 

So far, participants have been challenged with a memory game using Tony Cragg’s Glass Stack – they observed a part of this artwork for 30 seconds then turned around to draw it from memory. We have also used Andreas Gursky’s Ocean III as inspiration, not to draw what is in front of us, but to draw what is reflected in the image. The results have been inspired, and varied.

We have had visitors of all ages, from fourteen years and up. Those keen to participate have included overseas visitors, young students and office workers, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. They have enjoyed taking time to look at one image (for up to an hour), see things in a new way, and to try something new. And as one visitor commented, this is a way ‘to not just look but to see’.

We can’t wait to see what people create next week. Keep in touch via our Facebook page and our website for details of future drop-in drawing sessions.

- Selina Anderson, Senior Gallery Educator