Read about our well-versed class on the 4833 blog.
Since 2008, teaching artist Valerie Wallace has taught a Visual Art Poetry Class at the Art Center. And for the last month or sa, Valerie has been publishing some of her students' work on our 4833 blog. Each poem responds to past exhibitions here at the Art Center. Valerie gave us a few insights into her method, teaching style and inspirations:
On encouraging the poetic flow and creating poetry:
I ask my students to think about and honor their obsessions in the world ... We jump right into creating poems in this class - everyone comes away with 5-10 new pieces by the end of the 5-week workshop. I don't give them much time to think about writing before we do it each week, but we do discuss process and form and decisions about the elements of poetry.
On poetry as art:
Poetry and other writing questions, translates, transforms, explores the world - linguistically. ... Writing poetry is an entering-into the world artistically. But it's also work. I think that all artists have this in common - the joy of it, the hard work of it.
On the Art Center as inspiration:
The Art Center has a great vibe, frankly, so there is a special feeling in the air just walking in. I think this is because the Art Center showcases art that takes risks - socially, creatively, technically. This in turn makes a very safe space for writers to explore new territory.
To read past blog posts from Valerie's class, click the links below:
Be sure to check out the blog each week for new poems from Valerie and her class.
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