Campaign for National Parks supports 2020 Big Draw Festival
25 February 2019
Campaign for National Parks, the only independent charity dedicated to all the National Parks in England and Wales, is supporting the 2020 Big Green Draw as it announces its’ theme: a climate of change.
2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the Big Draw. The Big Green Draw Festival #ClimateOfChange focuses on the relationship between people and our living environments and ecosystems; highlighting how we live today and the ways in which we do and do not harmonise with nature.
Chief Executive of Campaign for National Parks, Corinne Pluchino said: “It is fantastic to join the Big Draw for the 2020 festival. It is crucially important to our present livelihoods and our future wellbeing that we strive to better connect with nature. Art and nature are universal languages. It was the Romantic poets and artists that inspired generations of National Park campaigners and so, after more than 80 years of fighting for the National Parks, it is only right that we join with the Big Draw to encourage everyone to seek their inspiration in the great outdoors.
I would encourage you all to get outside. Go get mud on your boots. Then turn what you see into something you can share, a drawing, a painting or any piece of art that better connects us with the natural world in our busy and hectic modern lives.”
The Big Green Draw is eager to help showcase mindsets and actions that proactively support positive symbiosis between people and the Earth.’ Social justice and cultural capital are the underpinnings of The Big Green Draw with an aim to create a kinder more collaborative society with drawing as a catalyst. Through festival events, organisers will aim to introduce links between drawing and science; promoting the polymathic nature of great thinkers who used art as a tool to understand the world around them. Drawers and doodles across the globe will join in engaging the public realm in a campaign promoting sustainable materials and approaches for healthy built environment & public spaces, subsequently highlighting the impact on this on our wellbeing and productivity.
Director of the Big Draw, Kate Mason said: “2020 is the 20th anniversary of The Big Draw and the campaign which shines a light on the need for drawing – making a mark with meaning – and its role as a tool for expression, creativity, learning and sharing ideas. Drawing – in all its forms, helps us make sense of a rapidly changing world around us. It is a global language which cuts across all barriers of culture, race and identity.
In this special anniversary year, it is apt that we, alongside many other voices, also lend our own voice to help increase awareness and understanding of the emergency situation unfolding across all ecosystems. This universal language of drawing is the perfect narrator helping to document, report and share thinking around the seismic shifts taking place in our society. Everywhere are visual manifestations of positive activism from people wanting to help make change.
We hope this year’s festival will help support all those change-makers – all those interested in advocating for the positive and healthy impact on accessing outdoor green spaces and working ‘collaboratively’ alongside nature. We hope this theme will draw attention to the pioneers and innovators adopting new more sustainable materials and working practises – as well as more holistic ways of living in our cities and urban environments.”