Workshops to create poetry for Bermuda Biennial to be held
A series of poetry workshops to help to create works for the Bermuda Biennial is to be held by the Department of Culture and the Bermuda National Gallery.
The Bermuda Biennial was set up to celebrate the visual arts but this year it has been expanded to include poetry for the first time.
Ernest Peets, the Minister of Youth, Culture and Sport, said: "This is a significant year for the Bermuda National Gallery.
“It marks 30 years since the opening of the gallery and 40 years since its genesis, the Bermuda Fine Arts Act, was passed in Parliament.
“We are delighted to partner with BNG on this workshop and to encourage poetry submission.”
A spokeswoman for the culture department said that the Bermuda Biennial, the 15th of its kind, was a “unique cultural cornerstone for our contemporary artists” and put an international spotlight on the country.
She added: “It is also a critical platform for our island's living artists and, with it, a celebration of 30 years of contemporary Bermuda art.”
The spokeswoman said: “As part of the department's writer-in-residence programme this year, writers, whether fresh to poetry or accomplished poets, are encouraged to participate in workshops to create new works for the biennial.”
The workshops were designed to be stand-alone events focused on a range of topics from how to generate new work to how to refine already-written pieces.
Chris Astwood, Paul Maddern, Andra Simons, Alan C Smith and Yesha Townsend, all Bermudian writers, will lead the workshops, to be held on Zoom between January 7 and January 29.
Ms Townsend will run workshops on January 7, 14, 21 and 28 between 12.30pm and 1.30pm.
Mr Smith, Dr Astwood, Ms Simons and Dr Maddern will lead workshops on January 8, 15, 22 and 29 between 10am and noon.
To register for a workshop, visit https://bit.ly/bdawinr2021 or contact Catherine Hay, the folklife officer, at cghay@gov.bm for more information.
The biennial is open to Bermudians at home and abroad and residents who have lived on the island for at least six months.
The biennial theme for 2022 is “A New Vocabulary: Past. Present. Future” and artists can submit up to five works across different disciplines before the January 31 deadline.
For more information and for application details, visit www.bng.bm
Need to
Know
2. Please respect the use of this community forum and its users.
3. Any poster that insults, threatens or verbally abuses another member, uses defamatory language, or deliberately disrupts discussions will be banned.
4. Users who violate the Terms of Service or any commenting rules will be banned.
5. Please stay on topic. "Trolling" to incite emotional responses and disrupt conversations will be deleted.
6. To understand further what is and isn't allowed and the actions we may take, please read our Terms of Service
