Stockport Art Gallery
Where For Art Thou?
Jo Ward - Bronwen Simpson - Nicola Dale - with one of the writer's
Introduction
Whenever we go around a museum or gallery we talk to our companions or
silently to ourselves. We reach for words to point out the things we
see. We seek to express the thoughts the experience stirs up in us and
the way they make us feel.
Most of the time our words are casually chosen and quickly lost. But
there are times when we shape them into a more lasting form. We write an
entry in a diary, email a friend or send them a letter about what we
have seen.
Sometimes our creative impulses take us further. We are inspired to
write something more formal: a poem, a story, a reflective essay or a
personal memoir. We may be moved to write something by recognising a lot
of in a gallery.
This exhibition is a celebration of words and a showcase the work of
local writers and is the result of a writing competition The Write
Stuff. A series of themed workshops took place in three Stockport
museums in Autumn 2009. This provided the impetus for many of the
entries to The Write Stuff. The workshops focused on the theme of
'identity and belonging' which connected the temporary exhibitions at
Stockport Art Gallery, Hat Works and Stockport Story Museum.
Participants worked with professional writers in the museum spaces to
explore how museums could stimulate written work.
The exhibition has been designed and curated by Stockport artist Nicola
Dale. She has tried to uncover the artistic interpretations lurking
beneath the type. In designing this exhibition, Nicola has been granted
access to Stockport's permanent collection and some artefacts have been
used to highlight themes around writing, text and language.
A series of writing and performance workshops accompany this exhibition
as part of Culturefeast, Stockport's arts festival.
Stockport Art Gallery February 2010
Exhibition click
Contents click
Podcast
click here to listen to the sound file
We Shall be Featuring the full word content during the next few weeks