Young People’s art competition celebrates the ‘Joy of Drawing’

Drawings by hundreds of young people from across Devon and Cornwall, including three competition winners, have gone on display at The Box.

‘For the Joy of Drawing’ is the end result of a drawing competition organised by the city’s award-winning museum, art gallery and archive late last year.

Young people from across the region were invited to submit their favourite drawings and The Box received over 550 entries across three different categories; Primary, Secondary and 18-25.

A judging panel featuring artists Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings and The Box’s contemporary art curator Nicoletta Lambertucci, had the difficult task of choosing the winners, who are 10 year old Milo Smith (Primary), 12 year old Leah Bach (Secondary) and 20 year old Jainey Pickerel (18-25).

All three were invited to The Box last week to receive their prizes and certificates. Their winning drawings are now on display alongside a selection of many of the other wonderfully imaginative and skilled entries that were received.

‘For the Joy of Drawing’ is inspired by the new series of exhibitions that has just opened at The Box. The spring 2023 programme includes an exhibition of work by artist-duo Quinlan and Hastings, as well as ‘Making Your Mark’ – a beautiful presentation of over 50 drawings from Plymouth’s nationally important Cottonian Collection.

Drawing is also the inspiration for The Box’s upcoming half term activities, which are running on Saturday 11 and Tuesday 14 to Saturday 18 February. The family-friendly sessions are free to drop in to and will run from 10.30am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm on each date. Activities have been designed with everyone in mind and no previous drawing experience is necessary!

You can see the ‘For the Joy of Drawing’ display, ‘Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings: Portraits’ and ‘Making a Mark: Dazzling Drawings from the Cottonian Collection’ until 4 June. Opening hours are 10am-5pm Tuesday to Sunday and selected bank holidays (including Easter and May). Admission to The Box is free and there’s no need to book.

More information is available from www.theboxplymouth.com.