Grace Scott, Engagement Officer, Portsmouth Museums on the value of stopping, studying, and drawing.
Last summer, my colleague and I loaded our backpacks with pencils and postcards (and reward stickers – enjoyed by both adults and children alike!) and ventured to eight different parks and green spaces around Portsmouth. Our mission was simple. . . ask people to draw a tree!
This was part of the museum engagement programme for a new exhibition The Quietness of Feeling, a display of works by Benjamin Haughton – a Victorian artist whose fascination with trees is captured in his extensive works. We sought to provide everyone with the same experience Haughton had, of finding peace and mindfulness in the act of stopping, studying, and drawing a tree.
On various days, we either parked up the library’s electric tuktuk at a site, or approached on foot with colourful backpacks, setting up displays of previous drawings on park benches to encourage people to see what we were up to.
What we discovered was that approaching people with a postcard and pencil raises questions, but following a quick explanation, it is liberating. The number of adults who relished the opportunity to draw or doodle while outside was huge. Parents thinking we were only asking children to participate were surprised but delighted to have been invited to partake in drawing too. Soon we had people sat cross legged on the ground in front of us or at the foot of different trees in the area, sketching, shading, in deep thought or chatting. Children asked questions about how trees look different, the impact of changing seasons, and stories they wanted to create about their favourite tree in the park (many fairies apparently reside in Portsmouth trees!).
It is my belief that simple materials such as cheap pencils and postcards can take away the intimidation from creating art on more pricey materials like sketch books and canvasses. People felt able to fill a small space with a quick sketch and to make mistakes or start again.
We gave participants the option to take home their creations or display them alongside our growing collection which would later be scanned and displayed on a screen outside the exhibition.
Overwhelmingly they chose the latter and soon we had over 600 tree drawings to scan, and many more still in the works thanks to the appointment of an Arts Engagement Officer following a successful Arts Council bid. We have now embarked on a new tree drawing activity – “Ceme-trees”, sketching some of the hundreds of varied species of trees in our local cemeteries, and hopefully unlocking a new type of green space for people to visit while challenging the idea that cemeteries only have one purpose.
The result of these Art in the Park outings is that we were able to break down the physical, mental, and financial barriers to engagement by meeting people in a comfortable and familiar environment with a simple request to draw a tree. The organic conversations that arose from it meant we could discuss the exhibition, the museum, art, and natural history – all on their terms.
Click here to visit the Portsmouth Museum website (opens in a new tab)“Collections engagement can take many forms, but we have found that sometimes the simplest of activities can generate the most meaningful interactions.”
Grace Scott, Engagement Officer, Portsmouth Museums.