The Poeta Project: Bringing It Home!

The Poeta Project: Bringing It Home!
Writer/Artist/Instructor: Karen Eckert
Fee: $24 members and $34 for not-yet members
The workshop is in-person held in the BPAC Reception Area
Space is limited

The Poeta Project originally started by Karen Eckert in 2018 as a response to a lack of inspiration and drive in her own writing. Currently in its second phase, TAG, Poeta connects the two mediums of poetry and art and uses this pairing to generate inspiration and creation in both. 

This workshop will explore the journey of The Poeta Project and allow participants to replicate a version of this in their own work. By utilizing poetry and art, we will touch on new ways to find inspiration, discuss how to find comfort in collaboration, play with the concept of how and when a work is completed, and practice working under time constraints to increase productivity. All of this will be explored while we play with the concept of The Poeta Project in our own artwork. 

We will begin by focusing on the origin of The Poeta Project and the journey of the first show that was held at Buffalo Arts Studio in 2019. After a visual walkthrough of the second round of The Poeta Project, TAG, we will use this to explore new avenues of inspiration by creating a work of art based on a poem reading. The work can be any size and any medium that you prefer. 

We will share out what we have created and where the inspiration led us. We will explore the concept of how and when a work is completed and how working under time constraints can actually help productivity. We will end the workshop with a 10 minute game of creative tag!

Materials Needed
2 sheets of Paper to create on (artists choice of materials and size)
Paints, pencils, markers, crayons to create artwork (artists choice of materials)

Karen Eckert is the founder of The Poeta Project as well as a writer and educator at the high school and collegiate level in Buffalo, NY. Her book, Echo Through Me, went into publication November 2020 through Rock, Paper, Safety Scissors Publishing. Her poetry has been featured at Buffalo Arts Studio, Castellani Art Museum, and the Burchfield Penney. She has been teaching high school English since 1996 and writing creatively since she was a little girl. Having won the Buffalo News short fiction contest in 2010, Karen has continued to write and participate in poetry readings while raising her 3 children, 4 canine children, and one feline child. She is an avid gardener and reader while maintaining a passion for the arts and human rights.