An Invitation to Make a Written Response

My next project is to enter this interesting opportunity. I had a go last year and I didn't get anywhere but, I really enjoyed the process of using a piece of art work as a starting point. It's free to enter and the details are below.


Under the Greenwood - Present
An Invitation to Make a Written Response

St. Barbe Museum & Art Gallery in Lymington is hosting this exhibition of 33 works by contemporary artists showing how trees in the British landscape are an important part of their creative practice. The exhibition follows on from Under the Greenwood - Past which looks at how artists from John Constable and Samuel Palmer to Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland have used trees in their work. Both exhibitions draw on the ecological, historic and folkloric meanings which trees hold for us.

Each artist brings their own unique perspective and working methods to an age old theme: from the digital manipulations of Dan Hays, Christiane Baumgartner and Katsutoshi Yuasa to the plein air paintings of Kurt Jackson and Michelle Dovey. David Nash's Ash Dome takes on new meaning in the light of the latest fungal threat to our native trees. George Shaw revisits the childhood mysteries of a patch of urban woodland. Ann Arnold, Graham Arnold and David Inshaw imbue the Wessex landscape with a sense of magic and wonder. Hannah Maybank, Mick Moon, Anthony Whishaw and Paul Winstanley explore the threshold where, as the light fades, familiarity and reassurance meet otherworldliness and doubt. This exhibition will run from 12 October to 23 November 2013.

We’re inviting local writers, at various stages in their career, to make their own response to the artworks. Selected pieces of poetry and prose will be brought together and made available to the exhibition visitors for the duration of the exhibition; an anticipated audience of 5,000 people. It is also hoped to produce a booklet containing selected entries that will be sold during and after the exhibition.

If you would like to participate, you can send an expression of interest by email to the Exhibition Curator Steve.Marshall@stbarbe-museum.org.uk. You will then be forwarded two randomly selected images of art work that will appear in the exhibition, including title and artist. You may write a response to one or both, although you are not obliged to continue with the process.

This project is open to writers aged 18 years and over. Written responses may be in the form of poetry or prose. Poems should be a maximum of 30 lines. Prose pieces should not exceed 1000 words. Writers may submit a maximum of two pieces each.

The deadline for completed work, to be sent by email, is midday on Friday 9th August.

A team of Arts and Museum staff will select the writing to be included in the collection, and the writers will be informed. Copyright will remain with the writer.

We hope that you’ll participate in this exciting collaborative writing project and be inspired by the artworks. Thank you. Please do forward to writing colleagues.
For further details of the exhibition see: www.stbarbe-museum.org.uk