"Sketching Barcelona", the exhibition.

"From 10 July to 27 September, the Sala Ciutat (C/Ciutat, 2, Barcelona) is holding the exhibition Sketching Barcelona, a collection of city sketches based on the visual creations of various sketchers who participated in the successful Carnets de voyage collection produced by Barcelona City Council.

Under the slogan ‘Barcelona Inspires’, it offers over 200 scenes from the everyday life of 15 neighbourhoods. They are based on the sketchbooks of these contemporary chroniclers who offer a journey through Barcelona based on several personal representation techniques.

The exhibition invites visitors to go round the most characteristic parts of the city's neighbourhoods through the pencil, ink, ballpoint and watercolour annotations and handwritten commentaries from each of the 15 artists.

For each neighbourhood the Sala Ciutat has put on display between 12 and 15 reproductions of double-page spreads from books in the collection. The graphics and typography used in Sketching Barcelona reflects the sketcher's world and the handwriting that characterises it. The sketches are accompanied by annotations taken from the books, which provide commentaries on the sketches.

Prize-winning collection

The travel sketchbook Voltant per Sants, by the Barcelona illustrator Víctor Martínez “Swasky”, received the International Award at the XIII Rendez-vous du carnets de voyage de Clermont-Ferrand in France. This award, from Europe's most prestigious travel book literature and publishers' event, was in recognition of the creativity and innovation found in the Sants neighbourhood volume of the collection published by Barcelona City Council.

The City Council collection had two more nominations at the rendez-vous, one for "Un dia al Born" and the other for "Passejant per Horta".

The Quaderns de viatge collection, which consists of 9 books, has sold 11,572 copies in all. It began in 2009 with ‘Un dia al Born’, which has sold nearly 3,000 copies in three editions. Others that have been very well received are ‘Tombs pel Barri Gòtic’ (2011) with 2,030 copies sold, and ‘Redescobrint l’Eixample’, with 1,149 copies sold. The latest book in the collection is ‘Una mirada a Sarrià’.

The authors, by neighbourhood, are Juliet Pomés (El Born), Stephane Carteron (El Gòtic), Swasky (Sants), Manel Andreu (Poble Sec – Montjuïc), Pep Monserrat (Gràcia), Òscar Julve (Horta), Sagar (Eixample), Imapla (Barceloneta), Santi Sallés (Sant Gervasi), Mireia Zantop (Sarrià), Juliet Pomés (Les Corts), Eduardo Vicente (El Putxet), Lluïsot (El Raval), Miguel Herranz (Nou Barris) and Bernat Cormand

The Sala Ciutat exhibition is the highlight to a year in which the sketcher phenomenon has featured prominently in the city, including workshops on urban sketching with BCN Dibuixa, a programme with numerous public activities to encourage awareness of urban illustration."

Extract from the City Council of Barcelona Press Release  

All Sponsors Announced for 2013 Symposium

***PRESS RELEASE***

For Release June 27, 2013

Urban Sketchers Announces All Sponsors for 2013 Urban Sketching Symposium

In just two weeks, more than 200 urban sketchers will attend the Urban Sketchers’ 4th Urban Sketching Symposium Barcelona. For three days, July 11-13, 2013, over 200 sketching enthusiasts will take sketching workshops throughout the city, exploring themes such as Telling the Story, Seeing the Light, and Expressing Yourself. As part of the event, we are proud and fortunate to be working with the following sponsors, some of whom are providing donated materials for those participating in the three-day event organized by Urban Sketchers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the art of on-location drawing.

Presenting Sponsor

The Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council) is sponsoring the Symposium by offering use of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) as the Symposium Headquarters. Participants will gather daily at the CCCB before heading out into the city to explore and sketch.

Platinum Level

Moleskine has been a sponsor for each Symposium since Portland, OR in 2010, and has also contributed maps of our workshop locations. Moleskine is known for its legendary artist notebook.

Sennelier, a French brand known for their hand-selected pigments, joins us as a new sponsor this year.

Gold Level

Canson, a renowned fine art paper company, is participating as a sponsor again this year. Canson also represents Royal Talens, which joins them in their sponsorship.

Cretacolor, another new sponsor for 2013, is an Austrian manufacturer of pencils and other drawing and writing instruments, specializing in fine art materials.

Strathmore Paper Company is participating as a Symposium sponsor for the second time. Strathmore is a United States company that has been making fine art paper products since 1899.

Silver Level

Stillman & Birn, a long-time USk supporter, creates sketchbooks that give artists a range of choices for their specific techniques.

Tombow/Pantone, two leading brands donating specific fine art materials.

Bronze Level

Laloran, a Portuguese sketchbook company, joins us as a sponsor again this year.

Chartpak Inc., has donated Ad markers for use in specific workshops.

Miquelrius, a well known Catalan company producing among others excellent sketchbooks.

Viarco, a small Portuguese pencil factory, and one of the oldest pencil manufacturers in Europe, joins us as a new sponsor this year.

Barna Art, a fine arts material shop in Barcelona very much appreciated by local artists.

In addition to providing materials for participants, most of these sponsors contribute funds that go toward airfare and lodging for instructors and staff, all of whom volunteer their time to the Symposium.

Symposium participants will gather for over 20 hands-on sketching workshops, demonstrations and lectures in Barcelona. Sketchers will gather at CCCB and will attend lectures at Sant Lluc. The workshops are led by an influential team of local and international artists, listed on the Symposium site, bcn2013.urbansketchers.org.

Urban Sketchers is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing; promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel.

Feel free to contact us with any questions.

CONTACT

Symposium website:

http://bcn2013.urbansketchers.org/

International media requests and sponsorship opportunities

Elizabeth Alley

elizabeth@urbansketchers.org

Local media requests and sponsorship opportunities

barcelona2013@urbansketchers.org

General questions

symposium@urbansketchers.org

Urban Sketchers site:

http://www.urbansketchers.org

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Symposium Sponsor Profile: Moleskine

Moleskine has been a sponsor for each Symposium since Portland, OR in 2010, and has also contributed maps of our workshop locations. This year Moleskine is contributing Japanese-style sketchbooks, but specially made with watercolor paper.

The Moleskine Japanese sketchbook is a unique design influenced by traditional Japanese horizontal emakimono scrolls. This book was specially designed for the 2013 USk Symposium with one sheet of watercolor paper folded into accordion pages, and still features traditional Moleskine elements such as an elastic closure and expandable inner pocket.

We’re happy to be continuing our partnership with Moleskine!

Visit Moleskine on Facebook and on Twitter @moleskine!

Symposium Sponsor Profile: Canson

We are so happy to be continuing our partnership with Canson, who will be sponsoring the Symposium again this year. Canson, is a renowned paper company that has been producing the world's finest art papers from mills in France since 1557.

This year, Canson will be providing re-positionable mix media books. These are great spiral books for sketching, because the sheets can be removed and replaced without having to tear them out of the book.

In addition to Canson products, attendees will receive materials from Royal Talens, a company represented by Canson. Royal Talens will be providing Brunzeel Design Aquarel pencils, Royal Talens van Gogh watercolor pocket boxes, and pencils.

We’re excited about the variety of products we’re able to offer Symposium attendees, and look forward to trying these out!

Follow Canson on Facebook and on Twitter @cansonpaper.

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Symposium Sponsor Profile: Strathmore

Strathmore is once again participating as a sponsor of the Urban Sketching Symposium. Strathmore has been making paper products in the United States since 1892, including fine art papers since 1893. Check out their Art Blog, where you can find more information about their products, plus updates about fellow sketchers who use Strathmore products.

We’re excited to be getting 400 Series Watercolor Artist Trading Cards from Strathmore. These cold press 140 lb. cards are 2.5” x 3.5”. Imagine the fun we’ll have making and trading tiny sketches in Barcelona!

Visit Strathmore on Facebook and on Twitter @strathmoreart!

Symposium Sponsor Profile: Stillman & Birn

Stillman & Birn has been a generous sponsor of Urban Sketchers for years, and is again sponsoring our annual Urban Sketching Symposium. This year they are providing us with a Gamma Series sketchbook with ivory paper. The sketchbook is embossed with the logo for the Barcelona event!

Visit Stillman & Birn on Facebook and on Twitter @stillmanandbirn!

Symposium Sponsor Profile: Cretacolor

This year we have another new sponsor, Cretacolor! Cretacolor is an Austrian manufacturer of pencils and a variety of other drawing and writing materials including woodless Graphite Monolith and Aqua Monolith pencils.

Cretacolor is providing each Symposium attendee with a sample card containing one each of Cleos graphite pencils, Marino water-soluble colored pencils, and Aqua Stic oil pastels (which are also water-soluble!), as well as one Primo drawing set containing six fine art pencils.

It will be such a treat to try out all of these sketching materials as we’re sketching our way through Barcelona! Thanks, Cretacolor!

Follow Cretacolor on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cretacolor and on Twitter @Cretacolor.

Symposium Sponsor Profile: Sennelier

We are excited to announce that Sennelier is a sponsor of the 2013 Urban Sketching Symposium in Barcelona! Sennelier is a French brand originally started in 1887 that produces many types of art supplies, including oil paints, watercolors, gouache, india ink and other mediums, and they invented the oil pastel!

For our Symposium they are providing each attendee with a USKbook, a handmade book great for pencil, pastel, watercolor, acrylic, gouache and even oil. Sennelier is also providing other materials and additional information about their brand and products.

We are happy to be working with this renowned brand, and hope to continue our collaboration of promoting the art of on-location drawing.