Drawing Marathon Scheduled for Sept. 28

The annual Drawing Marathon, hosted by MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, is set to put pencil to paper on Wednesday, September 28, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The public is invited to this non-stop drawing extravaganza, which will feature several drawing-themed activities, including guided and collaborative drawing, performance-inspired drawing, costumed models, and even a drawing after party.

“There will be people wearing crazy costumes, music, an interpretive dance group, and Sparty may even make an appearance,” said Jacquelynn Sullivan, Outreach Specialist in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design, who is helping organize the event.

All supplies are provided for free. Participants just need to show up and draw.

“Anybody and everybody is welcome to join us,” Sullivan said. “We get a lot of people from the community who come.”

The 12 hours of drawing starts at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at 9 a.m. then moves to (SCENE) Metrospace, 110 Charles Street in East Lansing, at 7 p.m. for the after-draw party, which runs until 9 p.m.

“Drawing is definitely a visual language that resonates with everyone, primarily because it has such an accessible range of materials, but also anyone and everyone can pick up a pencil and draw,” Sullivan said. “This is an opportunity to bring an enormous amount of people together just to commit that creative act.”

All Department of Art, Art History, and Design drawing classes scheduled on Wednesday will meet at the Drawing Marathon on that day as well as some color and design and painting classes. The Broad Art Museum also is providing bussing for local high schools who wish to participate.

Drawing is definitely a visual language that resonates with everyone.

JACQUELYNN SULLIVAN

The Department of Art, Art History, and Design has hosted a Drawing Marathon for several years. It previously was held where the Summer Circle Theatre is located, until it moved to the Broad Art Museum last year.

“We moved it to the Broad to be more visible,” Sullivan said. “Also, the advantage of having it at the Broad is that we can have more activities because we have more space.”

The Drawing Marathon will take place on the lawn outside the Broad, where there will be a 50-foot long, double-sided community drawing board as well as several individual easels. This year, there also will be a food truck. If it rains, the event will move inside.

For the after party, the current exhibition at (SCENE) Metrospace, “Between Two Points,” a drawing exhibition, will still be up. There will be a 30-foot long canvas for people to draw on while Jazzmyn Barbosa, a graduate student in the Department of Art, Art History and Design, will call out drawing prompts based on the work in the space.

Some of the work created during the Drawing Marathon will be placed on display at the Kresge galleries from Monday, Oct. 31, to Friday, Nov. 4.