Well, THAT was a big year.

Reflection & anticipation & some much needed sleep.

Hi friends, happy all-the-things! What a year it’s been.

As we come to a close on 2021, there’s a lot to reflect on, a lot to be grateful for, a lot of sleep to catch up on. So we are taking a little hiatus. DrawTogether is going to chill out till the new year. After all, part of drawing is not drawing.

Before we sign off for the holiday, I want to recap a few DrawTogether highlights from our year together. You are part of this journey. I hope as we look back that you feel proud of how far we’ve come, drawing one line at a time.

• In the midst of Covid, working as an extraordinary, committed, quick-learning, heart-fueled team, we built a hand-made set, self-produced an entire 12-episode season of DrawTogether on the thinnest shoestring ever - and distributed it all FOR FREE to support kids and families during the pandemic.

  

  DrawTogether set! Photo by Alanna Hale.

  We drew rainbow gardens, tugboats, butterflies and treehouses. We embraced big mistakes with Samin Nosrat, learned the importance of practicing with Thao Nguyen, and explored symmetry and individuality with LoveIs Wise. We learned to draw, look and love. Art Assistant Caroline remained shy, and Suso mostly slept.

• When we learned educators were using DrawTogether with their students, we launched our non-profit, DrawTogether Classrooms, to deliver DrawTogether shows, curriculum, posters, art supplies and educator support directly to schools that need art and social-emotional learning (SEL) programming.

Nothing stops a DT Classrooms kid from making a pencil mustache!

Our DT Classrooms pilot program is happening RIGHT NOW in 100 classrooms in 30 states around the country! With Kate Levitt at the helm, DT Classrooms has distributed educators guides, art activities, posters and frames created by world-renowned illustrators to classrooms to over 100 classrooms, and we’re getting ready to sent out thousands of DT Art Kits to kids! (You can support the DT Classrooms initiative here, and help us deliver DT Art Kits here! Every dollar is tax deductible.)

• We launched the DrawTogether Podcast, the world’s first drawing podcast, here on Substack, and continue to grow our readers/listeners/drawers. Join the adventure! New episode in your inbox every Friday!

• We created and installed the first interactive DrawTogether Studio in the Indianapolis Museum of Art. (It’ll be up for a year. ROAD TRIP!!)

  

  Our first “DrawTogether Studio” inside Indianapolis Museum of Art

• Also PBS Newshour came to visit! Stay tuned…

There’s a bunch more awesome stuff coming up we can’t share yet (one of them is literally a “top secret mission”) but I promise you’ll be the first to know.

For now, thank you for being part of this grand adventure. DT’s mission is, in short, to help young people connect with the world, each other and themselves through drawing. With you and the DT community, we’re well on our way.

Finally, I want to give a HUGE end of year shout out to the DrawTogether TEAM!! The folks who make the show, the podcast, DT Classrooms, and the special partnerships all possible… Caroline, Kate, Patrick, Ishita, Bryan, Jon, Shannon, Becca, Gregg, Tina, Wandee, Megan, Katie, Leo, Edlyn, Thao, Alvaro, The Marsh Theater, Little Giant Lighting, Amy, Chris, Shawn, Dan, Anne, Matthew, Sandro, Intersection for the Arts, and so many more folks, including *our visionary funders*. We are because of you.

Okay, have a wonderful, warm, safe, healthy and restful break and a fantastic new year. Can’t wait to draw, look and love with you in 2022.

xo, w