Doodles are being set free from the margins and allowed to live large in The Lanes for the Get Creative Festival on May 9th.
Dance Ahead will be taking over the unit formerly home to Hawkins Bazaar at the Carlisle shopping centre inviting allcomers to ‘Do the Doodle’ and take a pen for a dance over the walls.
“People can draw or dance, dance and draw or just come to see this great community artwork unfurl,” said organiser Zoe Leigh-Gadd of Dance Ahead, the Carlisle-based collaborative arts collective.
The drawing will begin as part of a live radio broadcast with Caroline Robertson on BBC Radio Cumbria from 9am till 12pm on Thursday, May 9.
The doodling then continues throughout Friday & Saturday, starting with black lines then cracking-out the coloured pens to fill-in the artwork.
“We’ll have several doodle zones for people to express themselves in,” said Zoe. “You can have a Dance Doodle, seeing what marks emerge when you let dance moves lead your pen.
“A Body Doodle with paper dolls and paper hair-dos so everyone can draw their dream look. There’s also a digital Doodle in the changing rooms painting with light using your projected reflection.
“And of course the classic Doodle Doodle, drawing those designs that normally fill the margins of our notebooks but letting them loose on the walls of the Lanes, filling an empty unit with everyone’s art.
“It’s about celebrating the well-being generated by creative expression.”
David Jackson, Commercial Director at The Lanes Shopping Centre said: “The Lanes are delighted to welcome this national event to Carlisle and support the arts community. We would like to encourage all our shoppers to take part, get creative and have fun!”
The free event is part of the Get Creative festival which aims to shine a light on all the great cultural activity that takes place right across the UK on a regular basis, encouraging people to try their hand at something new and creative.
Over 1,000 events are expected to take place nationwide giving everyone the chance to get actively involved in a creative activity in their local area.
The BBC is a Get Creative partner promoting events on local radio and producing supporting programming including BBC One’s Celebrity Painting Challenge and BBC Four’s Dance Passion.
As part of the festival, community groups and organisations across the UK are invited to showcase their creativity and welcome new people to join them from 11 – 19 May 2019. It is a great way for people to find out how to get creative on their doorstep and try something different with hundreds of hands-on events on offer.
People can add events to the website at www.getcreativeuk.com and ahead of the festival, anyone wanting to get involved can see what’s on in their area via the festival map.
Events in Cumbria include Do the Doodle as well as a paint-along Penrith with a screening of television painting legend Bob Ross on Saturday May 18th and at Kendal Library a mass-participation Pixel Portrait of John Ruskin.
On Sunday May 12th in Ulverston they’re making a cardboard human rollercoaster to ride at Another Fine Fest, an arts & comedy festival on June 15.
The creativity celebration begins with pens-off at 9am, May 9 with Caroline Robertson, live on BBC Radio Cumbria in a show which will also hear from leading Cumbrian creatives and feature an intergenerational dance-off as part of the Festival of Creative Aging which runs alongside Get Creative, swapping a floss for a foxtrot or a dab for doble.
To warm up their drawing hands for do-the-doodle, Dance Ahead are also inviting people to create a mascot for the event and ‘Doodle a Poodle’.
To take part snap a picture of your doodled poodle design and email by April 26th to [email protected]. The winning design will be animated as part of the display in The Lanes.
