"DRAWN 2009," July 18 to August 8, 2009, Various venues, Vancouver
1 of 4
"No Polutions Please"
Shuvinai Ashoona, "No Polutions Please," 2007, pencil crayon and ink on paper, 25.5" X 19.75". At Marion Scott Gallery.
2 of 4
"Summer Landscape Drawings"
Ann Kipling, "Summer Landscape Drawings," 2008, permanent pen on paper. At Douglas Udell Gallery.
3 of 4
"No Polutions Please"
Shuvinai Ashoona, "No Polutions Please," 2007, pencil crayon and ink on paper, 25.5" X 19.75". At Marion Scott Gallery.
4 of 4
"Untitled"
Brian Boulton, "Untitled," 2008, graphite and pastel pencil on paper. At Winsor Gallery.
DRAWN 2009
Various venues, Vancouver
July 18 to August 8, 2009
By Beverly Cramp
“Drawing is really important and should be recognized in and of itself,” says Vancouver-based curator and art history professor Lynn Ruscheinsky. “For a long time, drawing was considered something done by artists as a planning activity for paintings, sculpture and other larger artworks. But drawing is gradually being accepted as an important art form.”
Ruscheinsky is one of the co-founders of Drawn, the new Vancouver festival of drawing which will make its debut this summer. She’s working with Robert Kardosh, curator at the Marion Scott Gallery, on a program of multi-venue shows, public events, artist talks, symposia and family programs to showcase the medium of drawing.
By springtime, the co-founders had substantial parts of the festival underway — they had signed three public art galleries and more than a dozen Vancouver commercial galleries to show drawing exhibitions. The drawings of legendary B.C. artist Bert Binning, and modernist David Milne will be at the Burnaby Art Gallery. The Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia will host a drawing collaboration between two conceptual artists, including rising international star Brian Jungen.
Twenty drawings from Dutch masters will be showcased at the Vancouver Art Gallery, along with drawings by Emily Carr and Jack Shadbolt. The festival will also include a performative drawing event in Gastown, combining music, graffiti and acts of drawing by a large group of artists.
Kardosh and Ruscheinsky are still in the planning stages on a few other ideas — a new award for drawing that will be similar to the RBC Painting competition for emerging Canadian artists, and a Children’s Drawing Network in North Vancouver, both of which they hope to have in place by next year.
Pulling it all together is an ambitious undertaking, and Ruscheinsky points to Toronto’s Contact photography festival as a model for Drawn. “They now have over 150 venues for viewing photographs,” she says. “Vancouver may eventually reach that size.” She hopes that eventually the festival will include visits to artists’ studios.
“Most of us have drawn as children, and this medium is more accessible than others,” she adds. “If we can get more people to come out to our festival, then we can introduce them to the greater art world too.”
Galleries confirmed for Drawn include Bau-xi Gallery, Diane Farris Gallery, Douglas Udell Gallery, Elliott Louis Gallery, Equinox Gallery, Gallery Jones, Jeffrey Boone Gallery, Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Marion Scott Gallery, Monte Clark Gallery, Petley Jones Gallery, Winsor Gallery, the Burnaby Art Gallery, the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Opening night will be at the Roundhouse community arts centre in Yaletown on July 17, and the festival will continue until August 8.