First Writer in Residence Inspires Poetry from Spring Fling Visitors
Spring Fling is welcoming its first writer in residence and inviting visitors and other writers to create their own poetry and prose.
Poet Marjorie Lotfi Gill will hold free workshops in ten of the studios, all around Dumfries and Galloway, which are taking part in Scotland’s premier open studios visual art and craft weekend.
Visitors dropping in at the studios where she is working from 23 to 25 May will also be encouraged to make their own contributions.
Marjorie, who is based in Edinburgh and is poet in residence at Jupiter Artland, hopes people will use the art and craft they see as the inspiration for their own writing.
She said: “The weekend and the workshops will be great fun – a really good chance for one set of creative people to spark off another.
“I love the idea of people responding to visual art or craft and using it as the starting point for their own creativity.
“Some people might want to explore the story behind a painting, while others might see a piece and use it as a springboard for something entirely new.”
The workshops are not only for writers but for anyone wanting to have a go at looking at and exploring the art in a new way.
The residency, which is a collaboration with Wigtown Book Festival, has already seen Marjorie and others produce a series of new poems. Among them are pieces inspired by cabinet maker Daniel Lacey, painter Ceri Allen and jeweller Terri Campbell. These can be seen on the Spring Fling Writers Blog (https://www.spring-fling.co.uk/blog/writers-blog/).
Writing created over the weekend will also be published on the blog and the best writing will be selected and presented at Wigtown Book Festival 2015.
Leah Black, Spring Fling Director, said: “We have a superb tradition of collaborating with the Wigtown Book Festival to have an artist in residence, but this is the first time we have had a writer in residence.
“Spring Fling is all about giving people the chance to interact with artists and makers by visiting the places where they work and speaking to them about what they do. This is a really exciting development because it takes things to another level by giving people the chance to engage with the art in a whole new way.
The weekend features 94 studios and is expected to attract many thousands of visitors from across Scotland, and far beyond to see everything from paintings, photography and original print to ceramics, jewellery, sculpture and textiles.
Marjorie co-founded and runs Open Book, a charity that organises shared reading groups for vulnerable adults, and takes those groups to linked events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Her poems have been published by a variety of anthologies and journals in the US and the UK, including Rattle, Ambit, Gutter, The North, The Reader, Mslexia and Magma. She was given first place in the National Galleries Inspired? Get Writing! competition and has been shortlisted twice for the Bridport Prize.
The workshops
The free workshop spaces are limited so it is best to book in advance
Saturday 23 May
• Wigtown, Davy Brown Studio 8, and Sarah Stewart Studio 7, 11am – 12.30pm
• Gatehouse of Fleet at Jermey Carlisle Studio 13, 4pm – 5.30pm
Sunday 24 May
• Clarebrand, Hilary McElderry’s Studio 41, 11am – 12.30pm
• Kirkgunzeon, Ceri Allen Studio 63 and Heather Davies Studio 64, 2.30pm – 4pm
• Moniaive, Silvana McLean Studio 67 and Sarah Keast Studio 68, 6pm – 7pm
Monday 25 May
• Auldgirth, Denise Zygadlo Studio 65, 11am – 12.30pm
• Langholm, Lisa Rothwell Young Studio 87, 3pm – 4.30pm
Places are free and can be booked online at spring_fling.eventbrite.co.uk
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