You might not know it, but the RA is teeming with artists – not just Academicians, but our staff too.

As Family Programmes Officer, I invited RA staff members to submit a drawing inspired by our Anselm Kiefer exhibition. The response was fantastic, and at the start of October (the beginning of this year’s The Big Draw festival) we tweeted a drawing each day leading up to the workshop on October 19. You can view all 19 of the images here on our Storify page.

On the day of the workshop, artists Becky Jelly and Kay Harwood and a brilliant team of assistants led a uniquely collaborative event, where the drawings created by staff were re-imagined in an immersive workshop space full of drawings and sculptures.

Hundreds of people joined in completing the collaborative drawings, using charcoal, graphite and drawing inks as their tools. In an adjoining workshop, amongst an enchanting field of Kiefer-esque sunflowers, artists Phil Goss and Erica Parrett worked with families to change sunflowers into murals, using golden inks and atomizers.

I was really impressed with the huge amount of enthusiasm from all the families participating, as they drew, and transformed canvas, paper and cardboard into a colourful and expressive array of drawings.

This will all be brought together in an exhibition of work from ‘The Big Draw at the RA’ at the Centre for Recent Drawing, from 21 – 23 November.

Gwen Ramsay is the RA’s Family Programmes Officer.