Words Inspired by Art

Words & Art

Workshop inspired by Soo Sunny Park’s “Unwoven Light”

Words & Art is a workshop and reading series inspired by Art in Houston.  It was based on the installations at Rice University Art Gallery from 2010 until the gallery closed permanently in 2017.  Now, Words & Art is at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.  For more information about upcoming readings and how to participate, see the blog and contact page.

Testimonials

Words & Art translates art installations into poetry or writing that is as thought provoking, diverse, and open to interpretations as the original art. While the art installations are eventually disassembled and removed from the gallery space, the poems that take off as surrogates, gain an existence of their own, and a permanence that compliments but is also delightfully divergent from its source.
Saba Husain
Poet
Words & Art is contributing in a significant way to saving the arts for everyone, and to making poetry and art accessible to more people in our community.  
Susan Blevins
Poet
Words & Art is bringing together communities of people that would not normally be together in a conversation about art and language.
John Milkereit
Poet
I think Words & Art asks gallery visitors to observe an installation in minute detail, to truly experience it, to let it wash over their spirits. Then, it invites them to reflect on its physical, visual presence as well as their emotional responses and search for the words to express those reflections: to see both the concrete and the metaphors it offers. 
Sandi Stromberg
Poet
Of course, from this one starting point there are many directions out. I enjoy discovering that genealogy, that history and record of thought that the Words & Art writers trace.
Gerald Cedillo
Poet

video and Radio

Words & Art reading inspired by “Wheel of Everyday Life” by Gunila Klingberg.

Words & Art workshop and reading inspired by “Marshland” by Gaia.

Click here to listen to Catherine Lu’s interview with Words & Art featured reader Vanessa Zimmer-Powell and Words & Art creator Mary Wemple as they talk about Ekphrastic writing for Arts Appreciation Month on Houston Public Media.