What a night! The Tideland: Art + Word launch on Friday 28 February at @SECCA was a huge success with positive poetic energy and a large, enthusiastic audience open to what the intersection of performance, art and words can create.

Bega Valley creatives Gabrielle Journey Jones, Rae Kennedy and Nick Whittock (& co) performed rhythmic and reflective spoken word pieces in response to artworks exhibited in TIDELAND.

SCWC Chair Peter Frankis announced the poems selected out of over 130 submissions to the Ekphrasis Poetry Challenge. The selected Ekphrasis poems from 11 poets are displayed alongside the artworks they reference in the TIDELAND exhibition exploring a cross-artform conversation of meaning, allusion and shared interpretation.

Ronald Arana Atilano
Erica Chester
Eileen Chong
Mark Friend
Pamela Goddard
Julie-Ann Henninger
Siân Lim
Brittany Riley
Paris Rosemont
Nathan mudyi Sentance
Roger Vickery

An anthology 'Material & Ephemeral' from the 2024 Ekphrasis: Writing About Art Group was also officially launched and the open mic session was a crowd-pleaser!

TIDELAND is on at SECCA until 26 April 2025 so make sure you get there to read the poems displayed alongside the artworks. Entry is free.

The Tideland: Art + Word project is brought to you by Bega Valley Shire Library with @SECCA and the South Coast Writers Centre. This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, provided through Regional Arts Australia and Regional Arts NSW.

Images: Chris Sheedy Photography.

Tideland: Art + Word

South Coast Writers Centre at Headlands and Berry Writers Festivals

The South Coast Writers Centre acknowledges the Wodi Wodi people of the Dharawal nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work, and we offer our respect to elders past, present and emerging.