Sunday 23 November 2014

The Big Draw at ZSL London Zoo / 'Boo at the Zoo' - October 2014

During the October half term I was lucky enough to be invited to stay in the Black Widows Lair at London Zoo. While I was there, the Zoo allowed me to curate a very large, amazingly bugtastic collage in the B.U.G.S. house as part of ‘the Big Draw’. The collage was made using artwork created by the thousands of children who visited the Widows Lair to take part in the ‘Boo at the Zoo’ activities. We had everything from millipedes and fen raft spiders, to honey bees and scorpions. There are even three tiny frogs, a rat, and a couple of praying mantises to look out for! I was delighted to see so many children take up the challenge of drawing from life in the B.U.G.S house, it was wonderful to see them really looking at the animals and engaging with them. I was also amazed by the creativity of the children (and adults!) drawing in the Black Widows Layer. I enjoyed meeting you all and seeing your wonderful works of art. We were very lucky that so many children were happy to donate their artwork to our B.U.G.S collage, but it did mean there was a tremendous amount of cutting and sticking to do. Luckily I had help from some of the Zoo’s volunteers and staff, particularly Jen, who helped me in the Widows Lair for the entire week. I’m really proud of the finished collage and hope it will inspire others to take a closer look at all the wonderful animals inside B.U.G.S. This month I’ve also started using my Twitter account. I have to admit, I’m not overly convinced, but it does seem to be quite a good way of keeping in touch with that other artists and organisations are up to! Follow me at @ali_limentani.

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