The Mudgee Readers’ Festival has run an exhibition series bringing literature and visual arts together: Art for Poetry’s Sake, Art Now with Text Classics and Art in a Flash.
Gulgong potter Chester Nealie’s work, featured in Art for Poetry’s Sake.
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This exhibition series encouraged audiences to consider writing and reading in a different way — as well as enabling writers and artists to consider their work in a new and sometimes challenging way — and provoked discussion and appreciation of both literature and visual arts. The exhibitions allowed curatorial team Sam Paine and Portia Lindsay to work with talented and diverse regional artists, and showcase the strong visual arts community in our region.
Images from the opening of Art for Poetry’s Sake, 2016.
The story:
1.
The gorgeous Art for Poetry’s Sake exhibition, where a number of talented artists from across the region offered their interpretation of contemporary Australian poetry, was officially opened by Arts Minister Troy Grant and featured the work of: Charles Smith, Toni Behrens, Warwick Behrens, Margot Stephens, Sam Paine, Ruth Gobbitt, Chester Nealie, Kay Norton-Knight, Nigel White, Chris Stephens, Denise Faulkner and Rachel Melchers.
In Poets Aloud, the poets who had work featured in Art for Poetry's Sake responded with readings of their own work. Ellen van Neerven, Fiona Wright, Alison Whittaker, Luke Carman and Jorie Ryan, offered powerful and entertaining readings in an event hosted by Geordie Williamson. This lunchtime event was followed by a robust discussion of the Australian poetry landscape; hosted by Luke Carman.
2.
Our 2017 exhibition saw a range of talented artists from across the region offer their interpretation of scenes from classic Australian literature. The exhibition was opened by Fiona Wright and sponsored by Text Publishing. The exhibition was accompanied by an MRF Book Club, in which Fiona Wright led a discussion of Barbara Baynton’s Bush Studies, a collection of short stories devoted to the dangers of the Australian bush. Famous for its stark realism, Bush Studies was first published in 1902.
3.
Our third annual art and reading exhibition allowed a range of talented artists from across the region offer their interpretation of a selection of snappy stories from Seizure’s Flashers series – fiction under 500 words that can be read in a flash! This exhibition included the winning entry from the MWRC Youth Week Flash Fiction competition.
