Big Draw Festival to beautify Milford

By Craig Horleman
Posted 10/6/21

MILFORD — For the second straight year, COVID-19 precautions have taken a bite out of The Big Draw. But there is still plenty of artful fun to be had throughout October.

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Big Draw Festival to beautify Milford

Posted

MILFORD — For the second straight year, COVID-19 precautions have taken a bite out of The Big Draw. But there is still plenty of artful fun to be had throughout October.

The Big Draw Festival DE was started in Milford in 2019 by local artist Rosemary Connelly. It featured art-related activities all over the city, both inside and out.

Last year, due to the pandemic, activities had to be more home-based but did include a cardboard city, where folks could bring their creations to display at the Mispillion Art League. Approximately 70 submissions were received.

In 2021, plans were a go again, with activities on Saturdays planned in all four wards of Milford, plus classes and more. Unfortunately, COVID-19 and its variants stepped in again to curtail plans just a bit.

“It just became evident that we were not going to be able to do it. We did not feel safe about kids not being able to be vaccinated yet and so many unvaccinated people and just an overall concern about the health and safety of everyone,” said Ms. Connelly, who began the festival after seeing it in the United Kingdom. It started there in 2001 and has grown to include more than 25 countries.

However, all was not lost, and the idea sprang to highlight the month with a costume parade in a recycling theme — similar to last year’s mission of ecology, only adding 2021’s slogan of “Under the Sea.”

“We are asking people to make their own costumes, but with an ‘Under the Sea’ theme, with the intention of focusing on protecting our waters and taking care of the oceans and all these sea creatures. We are trying to give it a new spin this year and a different focus,” Ms. Connelly said.

The socially distanced parade will be held in downtown Milford on Oct. 30, and participants can show off their homemade costumes using recycled or recyclable materials. It will step off at Bicentennial Park (next to Arena’s) and follow the Riverwalk to the farmers market, where all the creatures can trick-or-treat afterward.

A free art kit is also part of the fun, while supplies last. It contains a few supplies and a list of ideas and can be obtained at the Mispillion Art League at 5 N. Walnut St.

“It has a sketchbook in there and some art supplies and a couple little things for kids to pick up,” Ms. Connelly said.

The cardboard city was such a big hit in 2020 that Big Draw organizers are doing it again, keeping the “Under the Sea” idea.

Throughout the month, they need the community’s help to create real or imagined sea creatures and plants to inhabit the city by using materials found around the house and in the recycle bin.

“We’re asking folks to create something out of recycled materials, whether it be a whale or a dolphin or a seahorse or something completely out of their imagination. It can be mermaids or Neptune, all that kind of stuff. It can be fantastical, as well as realistic. They can bring it to the art league, and we’re going to display all of this and, hopefully, create an ‘Under the Sea’ world at the art league,” Ms. Connelly said.

A third aspect to this year’s Big Draw will be a series of author talks. The book world and the art world will come together, as writers and illustrators share insights, ideas and inspiration, along with hands-on drawing opportunities at MAL.

All programs will be 6:30-8 p.m. The schedule is as follows:

  • Oct. 14 — Nancy Carol Willis, author/illustrator of “Red Knot: A Shorebird’s Incredible Journey.” The book is narrated by journal entries from the point of view of a red knot, as it migrates 20,000 miles annually from the Arctic Circle to the Delaware Bay and back again.
  • Oct. 21 — Kathleen Marie Doyle, author, and Marsha Holler, illustrator, of “Blue’s River.” In the book, Old Blue, the great blue heron, loves history and has been the guardian of the St. Jones River for 400 years. There is only one thing he fears more than great horned owls and bald eagles: the destruction of his river.
  • Oct. 28 — Ingrid Wolfenden, author, and C. Mercedes Walls, illustrator, of “The Great Ocean Clean-Up.” Attendees can use pens, pencils and watercolor pencils to create illustrations using printouts of passages from the book. The finished works will be mounted on a large sheet of construction paper, right next to the selected excerpts.

MAL will also offer a slate of Big Draw art classes from beginner to advanced and ages 5 and up. Register here or visit Facebook for more information.

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