MAKESH!T

Public Acts of Drawing is a real-time, art-making event that merges free-form collaboration with large-scale urban spectacle, happening during Northern Spark 2014 at the Minneapolis Convention Center Plaza. Participants put pen to paper alongside local artists, dignitaries and a few hundred friends. Drawers of all ages, skill levels and styles are welcome. Over the course of the night, the individual marks of many will become a vibrant lattice of interpenetrated doodles, the Hive Mind documented in graphite and ink.

Ground Zero for the project is a spacious drawing table, lit through the night by energy-efficient LEDs. Using a GoPro camera linked to a high-powered projector, the draw-a-thon is simulcast onto the side of the Hotel Ivy, turning each small gesture into a heroic act. 

Schedule of drawing activities

• Draw your dream MSP

  9:01pm - 10pm

  A skeletal map of the Twin Cities gets overdrawn. With special guest Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges.
  Media: Colored pencils and markers.

• Signs & lettering

  10pm - 11pm

  Drawing inspiration from signs and vernacular lettering.
  Media: Letraset, Stencils, calligraphy pens.

• Life Drawing

  11pm - Midnight

  Live models sit for an hour.
  Media: charcoal, pencils.

• Rotation game

  Midnight – 1am

  With a limited set of markers, table participants take turns drawing and continuing lines.

• Solar Slum / Bodacious Barrio / Hippie Haven

  1am - 2am

  A central foundation sprawls into a giant village.
  Media: Hydraulic markers, templates, cut-outs, glue.

• Throwback graffiti

  2am – 3am

  A throwback tagging free for all with a hip-hop soundtrack circa 1985.
  Media: Paint markers, sharpies, subway art inspiration

• Collage

  3am – 4am

  Slice and dice thrifted books and magazines into a big fat collage.
  Media: Scissors, gluestick, laminate.

• Open Drawing

  4am - 5:26am

  A true free for all as we wrap up the night and step into the morning.
  Media: Everything.