Poetry Reading at The Menil Collection 

On June 12, 2009 Writers in the Schools (WITS) and The Menil Collection debuted new work from their most recent collaboration in a poetry reading titled, Ekphrasis: Poems about Paintings.  The reading was the culmination of a project that used specific works of art as a springboard for creative expression.    

For this project, The Menil Collection staff chose five pieces for WITS writers and their students to use as inspiration for new, original poetry.  The term ekphrasis is used to refer to poetry inspired by art, and while many of us consider ourselves art-illiterate, the musings of young students can show that one is never wrong about art.   Rather, we all see things differently, not correctly or incorrectly.  

The students who participated in this reading all attended WITS Summer Creative Writing Workshops at The Shlenker School, one of three locations where the camp was offered.  The Summer Creative Writing Workshops are cosponsored by WITS and Rice University’s School Literacy and Culture Project.  The Shlenker School is located within Congregation Beth Israel in Houston’s Southwest Corridor.  The Shlenker School is widely known for its commitment to academic excellence as well as innovation in the fine arts, music, foreign language, and technology.    

While on a field trip to the Menil Collection, students from The Shlenker School and their WITS writers wrote poems about the five works of art, including Renee Magritte’s The Glass Key and one of Alexander Calder’s aerial sculptures.

What came out of the collaboration was truly extraordiary.  The musings of the students opened new worlds of understanding for the audience.  WITS writers and their students became tellers of stories that never were; stories that were locked within the fibers of the canvases and tucked into the crevises of the sculptures.  Again, the Menil Collection proved to be an almost magical wealth of inspiration for these youths as well as for their adult teachers.

What began as an experimental collaboration between WITS and The Menil Collection in 1990 has blossomed into a nationally acclaimed, innovative use of art to inspire creative writing.  Every year thousands of WITS students walk through the galleries of The Menil Collection and become fascinated by the space. For many of them, it is their first experience at a museum.