THIS WEEKEND ‘Picture the Poet’, a major touring photography exhibition featuring images of some of the most celebrated poets working in Britain today, begins its visit to Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens.
Running from Saturday 19 September until Sunday 29 November, the free photography exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery collection, features over fifty portraits of some of Britain’s leading living poets. Featured poets include Poet Laureate and children’s writer, Dame Carol Ann Duffy; former Poet Laureate and writer, Sir Andrew Motion; poet and novelist, Ben Okri; acclaimed children’s poet, Michael Rosen and dub poet and musician, Benjamin Zephaniah.
Organised by the National Portrait Gallery in collaboration with Apples and Snakes and the National Literacy Trust, the exhibition aims to encourage and inspire thousands of young people to engage with poetry and develop their literary skills. Since opening in May 2014, over 2000 young people and school children have taken part in bespoke workshops, taking photographs, writing poems and performing live, in response to the portraits on display.
Many of the featured poets have been lending their support by contributing to the workshops and performing at special events at each of the tour venues.
Councillor John Kelly, Sunderland City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Public Health, Wellness and Culture, said: “Our city has a growing reputation for hosting culturally significant exhibitions and we are proud that Sunderland is once again a venue for such a prestigious national tour.
“This is the latest in a long line of significant shows to be hosted at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens. Previous events have included the Grayson Perry tapestries, Victoria & Albert Museum ‘War Games’, and the National Portrait Gallery’s BP Portrait Award. Most recently around 90,000 visitors have seen the Canaletto masterpiece A Regatta on the Grand Canal from the National Gallery.
“I hope people of all ages come along and make the most of the opportunity to see this exhibition in our city.”
Britain’s leading performance poetry organisation, Apples and Snakes, have developed a series of engaging workshops at each tour venue, enabling young people to work with artists and poets and create their own work.
The National Literacy Trust is providing extensive expertise for schools in each region to enable them to develop highly engaging, effective and creative routes into teaching literacy, as well as working with venues to arrange school visits to the exhibition.
Liz Smith, Director of Participation and Learning at the National Portrait Gallery, London, said: “With the expertise of our project partners, we are enabling young people to develop their cultural literacy skills by working with photographic portraiture in different ways, and supporting teachers in taking forward exciting ways of teaching in the classroom.”
Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with the National Portrait Gallery and Apples and Snakes to bring Picture the Poet to children and young people across the UK. We hope that schools will seize this opportunity to raise pupils’ cultural literacy skills by allowing them to explore and delve into the wonderful worlds of some of the UK’s most inspiring poets. Good literacy skills lay the foundation for children’s future success and with poetry now centre stage in schools, innovative projects like Picture the Poet are crucial to heighten pupils’ enjoyment of reading, writing and communicating.”
Lucy Crompton-Reid, Director of Apples and Snakes, said: “Picture the Poet is an exciting project that is enabling people across the country to visit this fantastic collection of images of living poets. We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with museums and galleries across the UK to create hands-on workshops that encourage even more people to engage with the photographs while developing their creativity, self-expression and literacy skills, through writing and performing their own original poems.”