Artists’ Response To Wordsworth
2 February 2013 – 10 March 2013
Their Colours and their Forms: Artists’ Response to Wordsworth was an exhibition of new work by artists, composers and creative writers responding imaginatively to Wordsworth’s life and poetry and the manuscripts of William and Dorothy Wordsworth displayed in the Museum.
In April 2012, I delivered a paper (with my colleague, Brian Thompson) at the international conference ‘Words on the Page’ held at the Wordsworth Trust. This led to a discussion with the Curator of Dove Cottage, Jeff Cowton, who suggested an exhibition based around the ideas we had outlined in our paper. Further discussions with John Strachan resulted in the exhibition, Their Colours and their Forms.
Their Colours and their Forms was curated by myself. It was an exhibition of new work by artists, composers and creative writers responding imaginatively to Wordsworth’s life and poetry and the manuscripts of William and Dorothy Wordsworth displayed in the Museum. It featured fine art by Tim Brennan, Manny Ling, Brian Thompson and myself, poets David Harsent, John Strachan and Tony Williams, and sound recordist and musicians Robert Strachan and Sam Wiehl .
The exhibition was brought together by the curators with the support and assistance of Jeff Cowton and his colleagues at the Wordsworth Trust and in collaboration with the School of Humanities and Creative Industries at Bath Spa University and W.A.L.K. (Walking, Art, Landskip and Knowledge) at the University of Sunderland. The curators are grateful also for the financial sponsorship of the universities of Bath Spa, Northumbria and Sunderland.