The Big Draw: STEAM at Smallwood
WaPS were thrilled to have the opportunity to run a Big Draw at Smallwood School Primary School on 15th November. The Big Draw is the world's biggest drawing festival - participants are diverse and from all of the world. Its all about celebrating the pleasure and importance of drawing and promoting creativity. - All values that we support to at the Scrapstore! The theme for this year was STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths - and this inspired Jayson Singh, one of lovely artist collaborators to develop an idea...
On a typical day at Smallwood Primary School, artist Jayson Singh created an installation composed of two tents, some large sheets of white PVC and lots of kitchen foil sited in the centre of a spacious assembly hall. This was to help form the invention of a budding astronaut called Robyn and her dream-powered flying machine designed to journey to the moon. In order to help fuel Robyn’s engine, school children of 4 to 11 years were presented a scenario that encouraged them to draw an image of their own dreams which could be an ambition or something really surreal. To help the children imagine what they could draw, Jayson invited them to wear a dream transmitter on the head, which was modeled by Robyn inside the installation. After closing eyes whilst wearing the contraption for a brief moment, each child shared their dreams/ambitions to the group which ranged from becoming a rockstar to being chased by a lobster.
A short guided tour of the installation followed, which presented other opportunities to draw massive fruits and vegetables growing in the garden to provide food for a long journey, gears for the working parts needed for the engine room, cooking utensils required for the kitchen and sports equipment for the games room because you can get bored in space. The tour also included a chance to meet Robyn’s pet cat called Rosebud, who also likes to dream and hence provided the opportunity to draw things that a cat might dream about.
Armed with a vast array of sharpie pens, boys and girls drew vertically around the cross-section of the flying machine. Jayson was on hand to inspire and assist in some colour mixing techniques/ideas. The whole day included a lot of joy, fun and excitement, ensuring a pleasant voyage to the Moon and establishing the power of dreams taking you to amazing places. Jayson would like to thank all those who participated, the teachers and staff. With so much enjoyment on the day, a sequel to Robyn’s adventures is surely on the cards!
