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Creatives from across the kingdom, who drew attention to nature as part of a global art festival, have won an award for their community participation and expressive artistic work.
For the past few years, freelance educator, researcher and self-taught artist Dr Anamica Bhattacharya has been organising colourful workshops, talks, presentations and art exhibitions with an array of artists for the Big Draw Festival.
The Big Draw - founded in the UK 22 years ago - is a visual literacy charity that promotes the universal language of drawing as a tool for learning, expression and invention.
More than 500,000 people from around the world take part in the festival every year, with seven prizes awarded to organisations, individuals and schools …and Dr Anamica and her band of creatives have nabbed one of these coveted accolades.
The global charity had only recently announced the winners of the annual Big Draw Festival Awards for 2020 and 2021 as it was delayed due to fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It feels amazing to have won the community and participatory award from The Big Draw, London, and for being recognised for our work on a global platform,” said Dr Anamica, who has also received creative support from UK-based Dr Sarah Clarke, a former Bahrain resident and author.
In 2020, Dr Anamica held a five-month online Big Draw event called ‘Bahrain – India, celebrating Nature through Art’ and in 2021, her event was called ‘Co-creations’.
“Year 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of The Big Draw,” Dr Anamica said.
“The special anniversary year was themed ‘Climate of Change’ to help increase awareness and understanding of the sad situation unfolding across all ecosystems. The theme was related to my research and I have experience working on biofuels, which is an alternative form of energy.
“The universal language of drawing was the perfect narrator to document, report and share thoughts on the seismic shifts in our society.
“It’s an honour for me and our team of amazing artists, creatives, nature admirers and participants from 11 different countries who supported our five-month long virtual event.
“My heartfelt thanks goes out to Dr Sarah, Rekha Utham, Usha Ramesh, Mohamed Taha, Dr Ranjit Divakaran, Bulbul Gupta, Veena Bodani, Sangeeta Kothari, Pallavi Jain andAnil Sharma for their support.”
More than 500 people participated in the event at any given time, aside from 25 artists, and more than 1,000 creations were submitted using different mediums including acrylic, watercolours, crayons, upcycling, recycling art, Jaipur blue pottery, doodling, patterned zentangle art and more. There were workshops and discussions as well on making terrariums, climate change, nutrition, writing children’s stories and the art of creating sets in Indian Cinema.
Participants from around the world created ‘Pieces of Nature’ using various forms of art, including photography, painting, sculpture, stitching, crafting, upcycled and recycled art and, gardening as part of an art challenge.
There was also an art exhibition with the work featured on Facebook as Art for Nature.
Dr Sarah, the author of the popular Baloo’s books and founder of Baloo’s Buddies, had also organised Big Draw events in the past and was the recipient of the 2019 Big Draw award for community engagement. She was thrilled when she heard the news.
“One of my aims in organising a Big Draw Festival Event in Bahrain in 2019 was to mentor and support other artists in the community so that the benefits and joys of mark-making could be shared by all, regardless of their background and abilities,” she said. “I am delighted that Anamica, one of Baloo’s Buddies volunteers, has gone on to organise two successful Big Draw events and won an award for her efforts.”
