Turner Prize Drawing Sessions – Run by Marc Renshaw for the Top Draw and Picture Box Art Groups.

Top Draw is an artists’ collective based in their current studio at Cromwell Road Day Centre. Formed in 2009, the group specialise in drawing and use a variety of media. The main aim of the group is to focus on individual strengths, interests, spending social time together and most importantly to have fun.

Group facilitator Marc Renshaw: ‘There is really positive atmosphere within the group. Top Draw members have shown work at Grimsby Library, 20:21 Visual Arts Centre Scunthorpe and in our day centres. I view Top Draw as a starting point or hub for art which also link into the other creative groups that I facilitate including ‘Picture Box’ on Tuesday’s at our fantastic new Open Door venue and ‘Mapwalk’ based at Weelsby Woods on Wednesday’s – a group which combines walking, writing, social time and art.

David: ‘Top Draw is a friendly group.’

The current art installation on display at the entrance of the old build at Cromwell Road Day Centre uses a variety of drawing-based media and has been made in collaboration with both the Top Draw and Picture Box groups and is inspired by the current Turner Prize exhibition on show in Hull. Individuals have used a variety of media to create their own exhibition inspired by the Turner Prize.

What makes the Turner Prize special as a showcase for cutting edge contemporary art?

The tradition of the Turner Prize for the artist often involves breaking new ground, following an idea through and seeing how it develops and evolves. In the drawing related workshops, run at Cromwell Road Day Centre for Top Draw members and the new venue of Open Door for the Picture Box Group, participants were encouraged to experiment with a variety of drawing related media inspired by the Turner Prize 2017 at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull as part of the City of Culture.

Community support facilitator Marc Renshaw: ‘There has been a lot of positive participation during the sessions, individuals have really got involved with produced some good responses to the Turner Prize. I’m looking at some of the group members making a visit to The Ferens before the show finishes in early January 2018.’

He continued,

‘We considered what makes an artist tick and question how the act of doing can often produce surprising and unexpected results. An artist may spend many hours making mistakes, trying things out in the studio before sharing the results with a wider audience.

The aim of the workshops were to offer an open-ended, artist studio experience taking the form of an experimental drawing activity incorporating multi-media, print, 3D and drawing. There are no wrong ways of doing things.’

Like this year’s Turner Prize artists, the two groups based within Cromwell Road Day Centre pushed their own boundaries and gained unexpected results - discovering great potential for their artwork through drawing.