April 11, 2021 “Story of Chapters”
Jeewon, Keesung, Jyojin (USK Suwon), Dongsik, Michelle, Jasmin (USK Gyeongju), Charlie Lee (USK Seoul), Anne Taylor (USK Wellington), Murray Dewhurst & Eric Ngan (USK Auckland)
USK Chapters represent the diversity, spirit, and richness of the Urban Sketching movement. In this episode of USk Talks we get to know two countries through the eyes of urban sketchers living and drawing there. We virtually travel to South Korea and New Zealand, two examples of chapters where urban sketching has grown quickly and the sketchers have adapted to the challenge and constraints of the Pandemic world by staying connected and showing their world one sketch at a time.
USK Korea (USK Suwon, USK Gyeongju & USK Seoul)
Charlie Lee started by telling us a little about the history of urban sketching in South Korea. At the moment there are 5 official chapters active, but there are many more.
The Koreans have found that their events play a huge role in the growth of the chapter, even during COVID times. An example of the events they like to share is getting together after the Symposium, so the ones that couldn’t join, could still learn and participate. Another great idea to get the community going, is to invite instructors from abroad. In all of this, they stressed the importance of always getting the right permits, creating a good relationship with your municipality.
Michelle talked about how USK Gyengju organised Sketch Festa during COVID times. They provided masks and were proud to be able to say that during the Sketch Festa there was no infection of COVID-19, keeping in line with every guideline.
USK Suwon had the honor to announce they will be hosting Asialink after Indonesia.
USK New Zealand (USK Wellington, USK Auckland)
Murray Dewhurst (USK Auckland) talked about his experience traveling by bike for 1100km, talking about what his own country has to offer, meeting all the locals everywhere.
Anne Taylor (USK Wellington) shared with us her story of how sketching helped her to create a connection and get involved in her community. One day she was sketching on the beach when she noticed people were picking up rubbish. Moreover, they were registering what they were cleaning up, to be able to act on it: an environmental campaign for litter intelligence. Her sketches were a starting point for a conversation, leading to Anne herself to become a citizen scientist, creating a strong relationship. The sketches help the word on the project get out even more: the sketches help the cause.
Eric Ngan, sketcher and events manager, talked to us about what it is like to produce an event and how to redesign events to be in line with the guidelines and still have impact. He showed us examples of how to integrate sketchers and sketches into events and displays.
Challenge: Creative Contributions to your Community
Post a sketch of a local festival/occasion you drew at, if it’s safe you can go out. If not, just post something from a past event.
Tell us about this event. Think about how you can connect with the event organizer for something that is going to happen in the future and how you can make a creative contribution.
Be sure to share your USk Talks Challenge sketches on Instagram using the hashtags #usktalks and #usktalkschallenge. Tag our guests in your challenge sketches, and follow them on Instagram: @uskauckland, @uskseoul, @usksuwon and @uskgyeongju and of course our host Rob Sketcherman @robsketcherman.
