USkTalks S2E1: USk Paris - Together Through Lockdowns and Beyond / PART 1

 [ par Urban Sketchers Paris ]

Our chapter is special because we are always aware to create events or to push new projects proposed by Usk. We have an energic team who wants to do things for the community of sketchers.

 

Urban Sketchers Paris was created eleven years ago by Kim Marhon. I (Marion) met the group in 2012 (two thousand twelve) during a sketchcrawl. Straight away, I actively participated in the group's activities, especially the meetings and the blog. Around 2014, I became the leader of the group, the “grand manitou” as Brigitte says! I organized events and exhibitions (musée Carnavalet, cité de l’archi where I met Brigitte, musée Rodin, Usk 10 years anniversary, etc) and 3 years ago, as an official Usk instructor, I organized the Usk 10x10 during two years.
Brigitte: On my side I joined the Usk Paris group in 2013 and proposed mainly meetings with sketchers in famous Parisian bookstores with events like exhibition, publication. In 2019, I decided to get involved in the social sphere and wanted to propose solidarity actions with USK Paris. This common desire with Marion matched with the Urban Sketchers Grant Program.

Two years ago, we started to work with the Secours Populaire, a non-profit association with the mission of acting against poverty and exclusion in France, to create a workshop program for children. I proposed several courses about “CAPTURE THE SPIRIT OF ARTWORK IN A MUSEUM SPACE”. We wanted to take the children (from 6 to 12 years old) to museums and make them discover works through drawing. We would like to create a meeting, a look, and a sharing between children and a cultural place.

After weeks of organization, with six volunteers, we started the project in April 2019, without the grant, with four courses at the Panthéon, an historical place in Paris. It was a good training to learn about this new way of teaching children and we finished the year with an exhibition of children’s works inside the Panthéon: A huge pride for them and their parents!

From that, we went at Musée Guimet, an Asian arts museum, where we celebrated the Usk Grant program with two amazing workshops about Asian art. Early 2020 (two thousand twenty), we were at Cité de l’archi and Palais de Tokyo. We also participated in other events with Secours Pop: distribution of gifts or a day at the sea where we drew these moments spent together. Moreover, we are in the process of making a calendar with Le Secours Populaire which will be distributed to partners and volunteers.

Unfortunately due the pandemic crisis, we stopped this project, twice, in March and in October. To do something anyway, we designed printed newsletters that were distributed with food aid packages. So the children could draw a bit of their home if they wanted to.

We want now to warmly thank our incredible volunteers team : Mat Let, Claire Archenault, Sylvie Lehoux, Tula Moraes, Stéphanie Senez, Elise Robineau, Marta Fonfara, Sai Sai, and Marielle Durand. Carole Charbonnier for the beautiful pictures she made during the workshops.

We want to thank our partners :  Canson paper and Faber Castell France  have offered the drawing material for all the workshops since the beginning. And of course the cultural places who welcomed us.

Watch the Usk Talk on You Tube (-;

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