Draw Jams aiming to promote creativity within community

Long sheets of tan paper run the length of the tables, which participants use to draw whatever pops into their heads. For this project there is no end goal, you just enjoy the company while you draw.

“Just go for it. Once we are done, we will put this in the recycling and then it’s on to a fresh piece,” said graphic facilitator and founder of Brave Space, Marguerite Drescher. “It’s not particularly about keeping it. It’s about practising, getting inspired about what other people are doing, finding different ways of doing something and having fun.”

This event was a Draw Jam sponsored by design firm Brave Space, held at Alteregos Coffee House on Wednesday.

Drescher founded Brave Space in 2013 and now has four employees.

The company provides services such as:

• hosting and creating visuals for meetings, conferences and community conversations
• providing programs for female leadership opportunities
• creating illustrated products for physical and/or web-based media

This idea of offering education through visual learning also applies to the Draw Jams. Attendance at the Draw Jams is free and Drescher says they have never been about money or promotion. The goal is to promote creativity within communities and provide an environment with the tools to work alongside more established artists at Brave Space.

The goal is to promote creativity within communities and provide an environment with the tools to work alongside more established artists at Brave Space.

“There’s no promotional purpose, there’s no financial purpose. So, in some ways, I don’t think we care about it growing. We just want to make it available,” said Drescher.

Brave Space used visuals for communication in its collaboration with the political education project Springtide Collective.

In the introduction video about the project, Drescher describes how the company uses “public conversations” and specializes in turning “complex ideas into simple images.”

The initiative with Springtide’s Mark Coffin produced a series of videos titled 3 Minute Citizen. These videos seek to explain complicated political ideas with whiteboard drawings.

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People of all ages are encouraged to participate, past Draw Jams often have children collaborating with adults.

The number of participants varies, on Wednesday more than a dozen showed up. This time, three-year-old Oliver was the only kid present, this being his first time attending a Draw Jam.

“He loves to draw and loves to be around people, so we came by,” said Oliver’s mother Sally-Jo Gallant. “We thought it would be fun.”

Future jams

After the winter series is completed, Drescher isn’t sure whether they might continue but is hopeful they do in some form.

“I would like some version of it to continue, but I have no idea what that would look like,” said Drescher.

Meanwhile, all are encouraged to meet up before the end of the winter series so you can add your own creativity to the group-fueled doodle fest.