In the Spring of 2021, students from the Seamus Heaney Centre and Trinity University in Texas were invited to write new poems in response to A Unique Silence: The Rembrandt Etchings, an online exhibition at the Ulster Museum. They met for a series of online workshops led by Dr. Stephen Sexton and Professor Jenny Browne. 

We invite you to join us for the reading and performance of these poems, which were filmed and recorded earlier this summer, as we premier them simultaneously online and in-person. The live event will be introduced by Dr. Stephen Sexton and Curator of Art Anna Liesching. 

Featuring poems by Elizabeth McIntosh, Matthew Rice, Ciara Keogh, Emily Youngerman, Logan Muzyka, Leah Taylor, Shelby Sperling, Cait Phenix, Jessie Metcalf, Maddie West, Mackenzie Cook, Ruby Walker, Liam Caldwell, Hannah Hsu, Sorcha Ní Cheallaigh, and Jamie Field. 

The pamphlet is available to download from the Seamus Heaney Centre website.

This annual Ekphrasis project builds on the long history of interdisciplinary dialogue between writers and artists in Belfast. Through a series of workshops and discussions, students develop new work in response to artworks from the Ulster Museum's Collection. They have exclusive access to collection files and expertise of the curatorial team at the Ulster Museum, as well as the Seamus Heaney Centre creative writing staff. Their new work is published, and performed at special gallery tours twice a year alongside the artworks themselves.