On September 25 at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts , Susan Edwards Richmond, will read from Increase: Poems Inspired by the Harvard Shaker Community and will kick off the Call for Poets, sharing details and deadlines at the Wayside Visitor Center at Fruitlands at 1 o’clock.
In partnership with the Concord Poetry Center, Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts, invites poets to seek inspiration in a landscape rich in natural and human history. Site of the Alcott’s utopian experiment, and Clara Endicott Sears’ wide-ranging collection of Shaker and Native American artifacts and American paintings, Fruitlands has also become a center for contemporary art and culture.
Plein air poems about Fruitlands and its landscape
The poems are to be Plein Air poems, meaning that anything that can be seen or experienced on the 210-acre property from outside the museum buildings is an appropriate subject.
Richmond, Fruitlands 2007 Poet-In-Residence, says, “I was inspired by the idea of site-specific art installations and Plein Air painting, both of which are being featured at Fruitlands this year. I thought why not with poetry? Let’s invite poets to create work specifically grounded in the landscape in the same way museums have been asking artists to.”
The contest is another venture where the visual arts and poetry are coming together, much as they did at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival with the events sponsored jointly by the Festival and the Peabody Essex Museum.
Guidelines
Poets should be aware that some sculptures or other objects on the grounds may be removed and others may appear during the season. All are potential subjects. Fruitlands is soliciting original poems written about and on the museum grounds during fall and winter of 2011-2012. Poets may submit one to three poems drawing on a specific place, object (living or nonliving), building, or vantage point at Fruitlands.
For a poster and more on the guidelines, see Flyer for poets
Ten to fifteen poems will be selected by a jury of poets and museum staff. Submissions will be judged on quality and connection to the museum site. Poets whose poems are selected will be invited to read their work at a Plein Air Poetry Celebration at Fruitlands on the afternoon of Sunday, May 6. Selected poems may also be compiled in a chapbook and/or audio recorded.
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