Big Draw, Big Make

This year the V&A hosts the launch of the annual Big Draw festival, the world's largest celebration of drawing, with a day of free drawing activities for young and old inspired by the museum's collections. Contributors including Quentin Blake and Gerald Scarfe will give 30 minute talks to inspire visitors to get drawing, designing and creating and Mister Maker from CBeebies will demonstrate how to make a crown. Drop-in, pop-up studios will appear throughout the museum, offering the chance to meet professional artists, designers and makers and take part in various creative challenges, from fashion illustration to designing fountains. There's also the 'Battle of the Cartoonists', with teams from national newspapers, and 'Big Girls Drawers', a contest to create the best cartoon for a topical tapestry in the Raphael Cartoon Court. For kids, a number of children's book illustrators will be in attendance to help young visitors to illustrate their own stories. There will also be a chance to join a 'sketch mob' of artists, architects and engineers on a drawing tour of highlights from the V&A's collections. All visitors are invited to the 'Drawing Exchange', where they can swap their own drawings and designs for someone else's handiwork. We're particularly drawn (sorry) to Richard Seymour's 'Ghost in the Machine' (3.30-4pm), during which the co-founder of Seymourpowell product design consultancy will draw design ideas live on stage, Nicholas Grimshaw's 'Capturing the Concept', an illustrated talk by the architect about some of his major projects, and 'Speaking with Pictures', in which Heatherwick Studio architect Peter Ayres explores how rough sketches can communicate ideas more clearly than any photorealist painting. Sarah Bridgeland's matchbox furniture design workshop to create futuristic furniture using matchboxes and card also looks like fun. Some events, such as the talks, require advance booking.