Junior Explores Relationship Between Visual and Written Art in CIA Workshop

Over the course of three meetings in February and March, Sarah Voss ’22 participated in the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Ekphrastic Poetry workshop. Ekphrastic poetry is writing that engages with visual art such as a drawing, painting, sculpture, etc. It’s meant to inspire different perspectives of a subject as well as different interpretations of its meaning.  

In the exercises completed before their final writings, participants discussed the relationship between written and visual art, talking about the collaborative effort that art demands, and developing their writing styles. 

For their final writings, students used a piece titled “Pasta in the Kitchen” as their inspiration. The artwork, created by a student from Hathaway Brown, won a Gold Key award in the CIA art and writing awards. Sarah’s poem, “Spaghetti Sketches,” is a collection of snippets of ideas inspired by the student’s artwork. 

Sarah says the workshop was a great experience that allowed her to learn so much about her writing.