Collaborative Poem from the Made from Light Tate workshops

Posted on: 2 August 2018 by Philippa Holloway in Ecology and Environment

Writer Philippa Holloway talks us through a collaborative poem that emerged through her writing workshops with members of the public at Tate Liverpool.

"Creative writing is all about making connections; considering multiple approaches to any given subject and generating new knowledge through narrative and linguistic exploration. The workshops  encouraged responses to that which is seen and unseen regarding energy production, focussing on both the writers' personal understandings and feelings and their responses to the exhibition. By sharing their memories, imagery, and bringing multiple perspectives together, participants created some excellent pieces which contribute to the wider narrative on Renewable Energy Production, and everyone, including me, learned something about themselves as well as the issues at the heart of the project.


The fusion poem is a great example of how shared creative thinking, personal experience, sensory responses and future projections can produce new knowledge through literary engagement. The participants tapped into a range of memories and discussed the issues surrounding nuclear energy, before writing individual prose poems. I was then able to make thematic and sensory connections to fuse elements of these two pieces into a poem that tells a new, shared narrative. A truly collaborative experience".