PORT TOWNSEND — Photographers, artists and poets at Port Townsend High School are inviting the public to a place-based, collaborative project they will put on free display this Saturday evening.
There’s no admission charge at the event from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Cotton Building, 607 Water St., where community members can explore the students’ original works.
A reading of student poetry will start at 6:30 p.m., and community members will have a chance to talk with the students about their art and verse.
The idea of this project, said Port Townsend High School English teacher Chris Pierson, was for students to write poems inspired by their classmates’ photography and other visual artwork, and inversely, for the photo-taking, art-making students to respond to the poetry.
Port Townsend High’s English, art and photography classes worked together on the project, which features about 50 photos and other pieces of visual art.
“We are really excited for the students’ responses to each other’s work,” Pierson said.
“Poetry is about image and verb, picture and action and reflection, so, in effect, the three mediums really go together more than people sometimes realize.”
Pierson worked on this project with Port Townsend High photography teacher David Egeler and art teacher Michele Soderstrom.
It’s called a place-based collaboration, Soderstrom said, because the students’ work is a way for them to engage with their community.
Having the event at the Cotton Building, she added, invites the public to reciprocate.
The Port Townsend Arts Commission provided funding for the prints and the space rental, while the Seattle Arts and Lectures Writers in the Schools program was also a partner, helping fund this year’s poet in residence at the high school, Matt Nienow.
Northwind Art and the Port Townsend Main Street Program also supported the project.
