ARTlines is ongoing at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  To make the most of this singular alignment of art and poetry, please download the free ARTlines guide as well as text of the collected poems.

It was a fabulous event at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in April 2012!  Many thanks to the Society of the Fifth Cave, and to Poets & Writers for their generous support of this program.

Readings by winners Kelly Ellis, Adamarie Fuller, Jeannie Gambill, John Gorman, William Marabella, Anne McCrady, Lisa L. Moore,  Lorena Parker Matejowsky, and by jurors Jan Seale (2012 Texas Poet Laureate, Dave Parsons (2011 Texas Poet Laureate), Paul Ruffin (2009 Texas Poet Laureate),  Carmen Tafolla (2012 Inaugural Poet Laureate of San Antonio), Van G. Garrett and recordings sent by Barbara Crooker and Pattiann Rogers made for a  great afternoon of poetry.

By dialing 713-481-2813, you can listen to recordings of any of these poets, as well as the Honorable Mention winners Tia Black (Arlington, TX), Elzy Cogswell (Austin, TX), Joshua Gotlieb-Miller (Houston, TX), Carol Munn (Houston, TX), Donna Pauley (Manvel, TX) Jacquelyn Reppond (Missouri City) and David Ray Vance (San Antonio, TX).  Wait for the prompt and enter the three-digit code followed by the # sign.

Links to the museum’s web site where the poems and artwork are shown together willl be available by Friday, April 27.

Yes!  We have our winners!  273 poems were submitted to this statewide juried competition, which attracted entries from all over Texas.  Eligible ex-Texans residing in Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, and Utah participated as well.

The ARTlines competition will be showcased at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on Saturday, April 21, 2012.  At 3 PM, a program featuring each of the nine winning poems as well as contributions from the jury panel will be held in the Brown Auditorium. If you’re interested in knowing a little more about some of the art, short docent tours will be offered subsequently.  There’ll also be a museum reception afterward to celebrate.  These events are  free with general admision.

Additionally, poetry will continue to have a presence at the museum after ARTline’s April activities.  The museum will display the nine winning poems as wall labels* so visitors viewing the art can read and consider the poets’ responses.  All the poems are being recorded and, standing near the selected pieces, anyone can use a cell phone to hear the poets’ voices.  Words and art will also come together in PDF format on the web, with links from Public Poetry as well as on the MFAH’s site.  And more!  The web pages will be printed and bound as a resource book (but not for sale) that teachers, students and parents can check out from the Kinder Foundation Education Center.

Here are the winners:

Kelly Ellis (Houston, TX); Adamarie Fuller (Houston, TX); Jeannie Gambill (Houston, TX), John Gorman(Galveston, TX), William Marabella (Galveston, TX), Anne McCrady (Henderson, TX), Lisa Moore (Austin, TX) and Lorena Parker Matejowsky (Orlando, Florida).

 Honorable mention goes to:

Tia Black (Arlington, TX), Elzy Cogswell (Austin, TX), Joshua Gotlieb-Miller (Houston, TX), Carol Munn(Houston, TX), Donna Pauley (Manvel, TX) Jacquelyn Reppond (Missouri City) and David Ray Vance (San Antonio, TX).

ARTlines is a poetry competition organized by Public Poetry in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH).  The museum’s curatorial staff selected nine works of art from different areas of their collection to inspire original poetry. A five member jury panel, including three Texas State Poet Laureates, chose the winners and honorable mentions.