Huge Success For The Brilliant Poetry Project
Posted on 27 Jun 2013
A poem for a Monday morning…
What better way to start the week, wherever you are in the world?
Every week, since January 1st 2013, The Poetry Project has been uploading a poem and accompanying video artwork, in celebration of Ireland’s literary and visual creativity. Week by week, over the past six months, readers have been able to follow the work of leading, and emerging artists and writers, and discover Ireland through different eyes. If you missed any of the weekly updates, a full list of links is available to browse at www.thepoetryproject.ie.
The Poetry Project is absolutely free and was devised by the Kinsale Arts Festival in partnership with Poetry Ireland and the Royal Hibernian Academy, to create an online event of art and poetry as part of the Culture Programme for the duration of the Irish EU Presidency.
Poems are selected by Gerard Smyth, Poetry Editor of The Irish Times and Joseph Woods, Director of Poetry Ireland. Video works are selected and commissioned by writer and curator Gemma Tipton, and Patrick T. Murphy, Director of the Royal Hibernian Academy.
At it’s launch in November 2012, Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, said, “Through the ages, our poetry preambled Ireland. It remains our global herald. Of late, our film craft too announces us as creators of some renown and in a relatively new medium. A cohabitation of poetry sound and video image in this unique project is a frontier and daring teasing of the boundaries of these art forms. It is another unique example of the gently persuasive powers of arts combined.”
Now with over 50,000 visitors in 118 countries – this unique and groundbreaking project has now been extended for another ten weeks. Knowing how challenging it can be to incorporate poetry and art into busy schedules, The Poetry Project’s decision to bring deliver poems directly to reader’s inboxes has been a winner: just one click and you can stream a piece of Irish video art straight to your desk, sofa or even bed, or sit back and read an Irish poem. For some it serves as a potent reminder of the Ireland they have left or visited, for others it provides a more enriched view of Ireland and its contemporary culture
To celebrate it’s success and extended run, The Poetry Project are running ten weekly competitions, the first of which offers the chance to win a Friendship to Kinsale Arts Festival worth €150, plus tickets to see Leontia Flynn reading at the Festival on July 9. Enter simply by emailing an image inspired by the line “The Irish Poem Is…” to info@thepoetryproject.ie. The closing date is June 30, and another competition will be announced on July 1.
Poem and competition details are emailed to subscribers (it’s free to subscribe at www.thepoetryproject.ie) each Monday, or find more information on their Facebook page.
There will be a special screening of the project at the Kinsale Arts Festival, Ireland’s arts festival by the sea. July 6 to 14.
As The Poetry Project say, “Be moved, inspired and enthralled” by fabulous words and images – married with new technologies, this innovative combination really is bringing Irish poetry directly to readers.