The Big Draw

Big Draw Day is this Saturday 9th October and numerous planned events are happening across the region.

‘October 2010 is Big Draw month in twenty countries and on five continents. Launched in 2000, this annual initiative has grown from 180 events in the UK to over 1500 worldwide. The Campaign aims to use drawing to connect visitors with museum and gallery collections, urban and rural spaces – and the wider community – in new and enjoyable ways.’

Quentin Blake, the famous illustrator of Roald Dahl’s children’s books is a founder patron of the Campaign for Drawing the organisation behind the Big Draw.

Some events in Portsmouth are:

Blue Reef Aquarium – Become an artist for the day as part of The Big Draw event. Sketch a seahorse, paint a puffer fish or create your own fishy work of art inspired by the amazing variety, patterns, colours, shapes and sizes of marine creatures.  Pictures will be entered into our Young Marine Artist of the Year competition.

Elm Grove Library, Elm Grove, Southsea – 10 Sketchbooks will be available to sign out and use with the title ‘Making your Mark on the Future’. This will be part of the ‘Visual Libraries Project‘ a collaborative international visual project that examines the creative use of sketchbooks in public libraries. From 8th November until the sketchbooks are full.

St Thomas’ Cathedral – Year 7 pupils will be working in conjuction with Artist-in-Residence, Pete Codling, to create a large scale drawing of Noah’s Ark in the Cathedral. From 1st-3rd November.

Aspex – 11am-3pm on 9th October. A free creative drawing workshop with artists Ilse Black and Melanie Rose.

Making Space – Havant – 10-3pm 30th October. A Halloween theme to get creative.

The School of Art Design and Media at The University of Portsmouth have turned the corridor at Eldon Building, Winston Churchill Avenue, Portsmouth into a large blackboard  and welcome everyone in the Faculty and beyond to come along and respond to the theme of the moment. Coloured chalks will be provided to draw with.
They plan to photograph it daily and when its full rub out and start again!
This for everyone to enjoy students, staff, visitors alike its your board for the rest of the month!

Alien Invasion Exhibition has landed

Ever wondered how thrilling it would be to come face-to-face with a Martian? Or how about Darth Vader, or even The Predator?

Well, visitors will find out when they attend the remarkable one-off “Alien Invasion” exhibition, which brings together an army of famous – and infamous – aliens, monsters, props and costumes from some of Hollywood’s biggest sci-fi blockbusters.

26th June 2010 until mid-January 2011, at the City Museum and Records Office

Sifer Design have also been involved in creating some great vinyls in Guildhall Square to advertise the event.

Portsmouth Green Fair 2010

Portsmouth Green Fair 2010 is on Sat 17th July from  11- 4 in Portsmouth Guildhall Square and Victoria Park. The event is part of the Green Week Campaign and organised by Portsmouth Climate Action Network.

The current action packed line-up includes:

• 2 stages with 15 live bands powered by Electric Pedals bicycle generators organised by the Portsmouth coalition.
• DJ Danny Turbo.
• A bicycle powered cinema showing some of the latest eco activist films.
• Steam Boat Willy pedal powered hovercraft, where YOU can fly by pedaling.
• The Interdimensional Wizard who will show you some amazing sun powered energy machines.
• Clowns and Street entertainers doing workshops on juggling etc.
• Lodge Arts giving spray painting workshops and showcasing entries for the Big Green idea for Portsmouth
• Green motor show including vehicles which run on waste gas (Organic Power) waste oil (Veggiepower) and electric vehicles
• Healing Area including massage, reflexology,reiki etc
• Talks on permaculture, environmental gardening tips ,money saving guerrilla gardening etc.
• Portsmouth Beekeepers association where you can find out how to keep your own bees and buy some local honey.
• Art Displays and competitions from local schools
• Children’s games and activities inc building a monster using recycled materials, bouncy castles and Face painting. Also roundabouts and children’s rides. And story-tellers
• Bicycle maintenance demos + Trick bike display and skateboarders.
• Live broadcasts by Express FM and filming by Portsmouth Live
• Demos of green technology plus information and campaigning stalls
• Green Crafts inc Cob ovens and woodworking
• Pedal powered smoothie maker.
• Farmers Market for local Organic fruit and vegetables etc.
• 4 cafes selling local Organic fair-trade food and drinks including a cafe in a yurt.
• + almost 100  Stalls selling local produce, inc. clothes, eco-gifts, arts and crafts

They are currently looking for cyclists to power the generators – contact chriskennett01@hotmail.com to find out more. There are also other opportunities to get involved.

PRIMARY – A Phoneography Exhibition by Strong Island – Call for entries

This coming new year we will be proud to announce our latest exhibition PRIMARY, a Phoneography exhibition by Strong Island and we are even happier to announce that it’s open to you, the readers.

With the continuing increase in impressive camera technology in mobile phones and the ability to alter, tweak, post process and upload the photos to social media networks and websites like Instagram, the popularity of Phoneography has never been greater.

The ‘of the moment’ ability to take a photo at almost any time and any place by most people has really driven the fact that the camera does not make the photographer. By which I mean, you don’t need an expensive camera to take outstanding photos.

Agreed, the quality of the physical image may not stand up to the big guns, but new learnings in composition, style and aesthetic by a new generation of camera users via online media has really driven this popularity, and encourage people to go beyond a ‘quick shot’.

PRIMARY invites you to get out and about around Portsea with your mobile phone camera and take photos of anything and everything based around the three primary colours red, yellow and blue. What you photograph is entirely up to you, but submissions will only be accepted if they stick to the theme.

The call for entires has now begun and the deadline is the 31st of January 2012 with the exhibition being held in March of 2012. Photos can be taken on any mobile phone model and we ask that a maximum of 3 photos per applicant are sent in to primary@strong-island.co.uk.

Please submit along with your photographs your name, photo title, phone model, location of photo on the island and any post process apps you used, if any, to achieve the final shot.

We look forward to seeing all the entries, and the final installation will be something special using every photo submitted in a slightly different fashion from your average photographic exhibition. CLICK HERE TO PRINT YOUR OWN POSTER

Poster by Tristan Savage & Photo by Paul Gonella

It’s going to be a Strong Movember – Closed at £725

Righto chaps, it’s time to clean shave your boat race and get that mighty moustache on the grow in support of Movember for The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. For 30 days of November you can help support and raise awareness through selflessly parading your top lip for charity.

You can sign up yourself, as I’m sure many of you already have, or you can join the Strong Island team and seek out sponsorship as a team. Through the Strong Island Movember page you can ask people to join the group, make donations, upload photos and post updates via the MoSpace page, Facebook and Twitter.

Head over to www.mobro.co/StrongIsland if you would like to get involved and grow a Strong Moustache to help raise awareness, or simply head over to www.uk.movember.com and sign up to personally raise money.

The funds raised in the UK support the number one and two male specific cancers – prostate and testicular cancer. The funds raised are directed to programmes run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together, these channels work together to ensure that Movember funds are supporting a broad range of innovative, world-class programmes in line with our strategic goals in the areas of awareness and education, survivorship and research.

Poster: Tristan Savage