Artistic Leeds school pupils win plaudits during international Big Draw contest

Sharp Lane Primary School, in Middleton, has been named among 10 winners of the annual Big Draw Awards, which encourage hundreds of thousands of people to draw worldwide every year.

The school’s project involved pupils of all ages and teachers taking part in a week-long whole school drawing event inspired by British Art Show 8 at Leeds Art Gallery last October.

Following the varied drawing sessions, Sharp Lane’s entry was named as the Primary School Award winner from thousands of submissions from as far afield as Argentina, the USA and Australia.

Elsewhere, John Jamieson School, near Oakwood, won the Big Draw’s Secondary School Award and North Yorkshire County Records Office won the Community, Participatory and Libraries Award.

Holly Wilson, specialist art teacher at Sharp Lane, described the school’s win as an “amazing creative achievement”.

She said: “We are very excited and proud to announce that we have just won – for the third time – The Big Draw creative schools award.”

Founded in 2000, The Big Draw is an arts education charity funded by the Arts Council, which promotes visual literacy and drawing.

The charity hosts an annual Big Draw Festival which encourages people to engage in free drawing activities every October.

Kate Mason, director of The Big Draw, said that this year’s winners have “once again demonstrated the power of the universal language of drawing to break down cultural barriers, to build connections across generations and to serve as a tool for learning, expression and invention.”

For further information on The Big Draw visit thebigdraw.org.