Click an image to view the Writing

Beginning on Thursday night, September 4, 2003 a group of twenty five enthusiastic poets, fiction writers, essayists and art lovers gathered in the North Gallery of the Kresge Art Museum for a five week workshop designed to help them observe, appreciate, and write about works in the Kresge Art Museum's permanent collection. The series of five Thursday night workshops began with an introduction by nationally known poet, Professor Anita Skeen about the relationship between art and literature, and a look at the various ways famous and not-so-famous authors had responded to works of art they found compelling. This was followed the next week by a talk and slide show presentation by Professors Leonora Smith and Dick Thomas, both well known writers and poets, where workshop participants considered various ways of responding to works of art. The assignment was given for each participant to select a work of art, write a rough draft responding to it, and bring the draft to the workshop the following week. For the next two weeks Professor Skeen led the participants, a group which consisted of students,faculty, staff, and members of the community, in readings, discussion, and revisions of the manuscripts in progress. The workshops culminated in a final Thursday night reading, open to the public, of the finished pieces.

Besides resulting in some evocative pieces of writing, the workshop brought together a very diverse and inter-generational audience and fostered new friendships and conversations about the role of art in our culture. While the products of the workshop are impressive, the process of creating them, a very transitory work of art in itself, was significant and rewarding for all involved.

It is with pleasure that we present some of the results of the workshop and the art objects considered in this virtual exhibition.

Anita Skeen
Professor, Department of English
Michigan State University