Experimental Ekphrasis: audio guide as poetry workshop with Emma Bolland

This workshop explores poetic methods for communicating and transmitting different experiences of artworks. Traditional audio or other gallery guides—particularly for disabled visitors—often assume that we all experience an artwork in the same way, and the voice of the audio guide is assumed to be neutral and objective in the way that it describes a work.

In this workshop we will embrace subjectivity and creativity to craft short pieces that speak from and to the works. We will value the differences in our writing, voices, and experiences and listen to the spaces where difference resides. The word Ekphrasis means ‘description’, and is used in poetry to mean an imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on art. We will be writing in the gallery in response to works in the exhibition Another Way of Seeing and sharing the work in an impromptu reading at the end of the session.

No experience in creative writing is needed. Bring materials or devices to write with and a smartphone for short voice recordings. Booking is essential.

Access information

The workshop takes place in the central court, on the 1st floor of Leeds Art Gallery. Step-free access is via the lift in Leeds Central Library next door, then through the adjoining art library.

Leeds Art Gallery access information: https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/access-at-leeds-art-gallery-s4q2

Emma Bolland is an interdisciplinary artist and writer. Theywrite across disciplines, both critically and creatively, and have translated screenplays from French to English. Their ‘poetry as audio guides’ have been commissioned in the UK and internationally in relation to differently abled experiences of art and exhibitions. Their monographs include Instructions from Light (JOAN 2023) and their work has been included in many anthologies including Best British Short Stories 2021(Salt Publishing). They are co-editor of intergraphia, a small press publishing at the intersection of text and image and have devised and taught courses for The Poetry School’s international programme.

Another Way of Seeing is funded by Leeds City Council through the Leeds Cultural Investment Programme.