Interactive Event & Workshops Invites Community to Make its Mark

Draw all over the walls (and the floor and the tables) at the Art Garden’s first annual 12-hour Hilltown Draw Around! Creative types of all ages are invited to participate in art making, community-building, and creative free play all day long!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to draw all over a room? The Art Garden is offering families exactly that opportunity! The first annual Hilltown Draw Around is a 12-hour interactive community art-making extravaganza held in a paper-covered gymnasium. Families can drop by between 12noon and midnight on Saturday, April 11th for a day filled with drawing workshops, community building, creative free play, and endless opportunities to draw anything and everything. And it’s not just for self-proclaimed artists – anyone and everyone is welcome to come and explore the creative materials available and make their own mark on the event.

A variety of volunteer-lead workshops throughout the day offer participants opportunities to learn new drawing-related skills or to participate in special projects – and many workshops use drawing as an entry point for interdisciplinary learning. A mathematical drawing workshop will teach participants about fractals, geometry, and the Golden Ratio, while a synesthesia-based drawing experience will help participants make connections between spoken language, color, and art, as well as teaching about the cognitive phenomenon that is synesthesia.

In addition to workshops, which will be scheduled to take place at specific times throughout the day, Draw Around participants can explore shadow puppets, learn to play the game Exquisite Corpse, draw clothes for their own paper dolls, add a self portrait to a community portrait wall, and draw their own flowers onto a drawing of the Bridge of Flowers. Additionally, an artist-powered Drawing Machine will stand in a corner of the gym, producing art much in the style of a vending machine. Visitors can feed the machine ideas for drawings and small donations, wait patiently, and receive an original drawing in return!

The Hilltown Draw Around is a fundraiser for the Art Garden’s ARTeens program, which offers support to young artists living in rural communities in Franklin County. Families are asked to make a donation upon entering the event, and can participate in up to 12 full hours’ worth of art making. Food will be sold at the event for hungry artists, and all ages are welcome!