Draw-a-thon: “This Is Not Just Drawing… This Is Art Come To Life.” June 19, 2009

The Chelsea Art Museum (CAM) is proud to present Michael Alan's Draw-A-Thon Theater: A 5 hour monumental and ground breaking experience which combines theater and live art making. From 7pm-12am, CAM's main floor will be filled with performers, costumes, theater, in which, characters interact in imaginative environments for new work to be created by hundreds of artists. The performance invites the audience to interpret through drawing, painting, writing, and all other creative processes. This is the first show in a museum where artists gather and make work inspired by theater. The Draw-A-Thon Troup is a collective of artists, musicians, performers, and art models who collaborate through improvisation, handcrafted props and live music, drawing participants into a creative community.
This year Draw-A-Thon will be performing 'The Factory,' a satire with twenty or more performers, where an environment under slave, sweatshop management will be built inside the museum. The factory is controlled by paint splattered floor managers along with Michael Alan's mother, who will dictate and choreograph a repetitious and senseless building of sculptures, costumes, boxes and paper piles by an assembly line of the robotic art slaves. The event will be accompanied by the music of Epileptic Peat: an 8-string bass playing wonder, The Bones of Davey Jones: a one man army of folk and bluegrass, and House of Waters: a trio emitting the sounds of folk and afro-beat.
Draw-A-Thon Theater is a performance art happening that was started by visual artist Michael Alan in New York in 2005. It has morphed into a full blown artistic spectacle that incorporates music, performance art and the viewer. Draw-a-thon is an extension of Michael’s pursuit of integrating seemingly inconsistent styles and creating hybrids and crossbreeding within art. In addition it is a reaction to art school and the tradition of figure drawing. It restructures the typical context of drawing the nude creating a naked theater troupe that will push all boundaries and hopefully set a new mark as a drawing subculture. In an article in the New York Times Michael explains the goal of the Draw-a-thon is to "To recapture what has been lost and update it with a huge splash of paint."

“Go to the Draw-A-Thon” NBC the Today Show
"A rare chance to draw models staged in unusual theatrical poses."
-Village Voice

Please contact Carolin Wagner for more information:
carolin@chelseaartmuseum.org, (212) 255 0719 ext 111

Official Website: http://www.michaelalanart.com/drawathon.html