University of Strathclyde and Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery - 18th & 19th June 2013

The relationship between literature and the visual arts has a long and complex history which includes poets responses to iconic works of art such as Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ and notable collaborations between artists and poets such as those between Auden and Henry Moore and, more recently, Philip Gross and Simon Denison. Beyond poetry, the tales of Saki and Vernon Lee and the fiction of A. S. Byatt feature descriptions of fictional works of art.

Writing into Art is aimed particularly at poets and writers in general interested in ekphrasis and at visual artists whose work involves the use of text. While the emphasis will be on practice-led responses to the visual arts, academics with an interest in experimental theoretical models are also welcome.

The conference programme combines critical and creative practice. The afternoon of the second day of the conference will be devoted to two practice-based workshops that will elicit responses to the collections at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, one led by Cole Swensen, the other by a leading British artist.