Words in Flow: Poetry and the Art of Shen Wei

The Pollack Family Learning Center is a hands-on art making space that transforms throughout the year with new installations, projects, and materials that extend and deepen the gallery experience. This spring visitors will see poetry created by participants in KMA’s Building Bridges: Prison Arts Initiative and Thinking Through the Arts programs.

Ekphrasis Behind Walls at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Ossining, NY 

Through the winter, a group of men incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility met for 10 weeks to reflect on and respond to the art of Shen Wei through poetry. Led by KMA writer in residence Pamela Hart, writers explored the rhythms, contrasts, and textures of artworks featured in the Museum’s exhibition Shen Wei: STILL/MOVING (on view at the Katonah Museum of Art from October 19, 2025 - April 19, 2026). Through guided prompts, close readings of model poems and discussion, the writers translated Shen Wei’s visual movement into poetry, letting image and imagination spark unexpected connections. “Art is everywhere,” said one participant. Another writer spoke about the impact of writing, noting how everyone in the room is a creative genius of one kind or another.  

Ekphrasis Behind Walls is part of the Katonah Museum of Art’s Building Bridges: Prison Arts Initiative. This program is delivered in collaboration with Rehabilitation Through the Arts, which for 25 years has brought arts education to six New York State correctional facilities. 

Moving Pantoums: Poetry from The Rosemarie Ann Siragusa School, Yonkers, NY 

As part of the KMA’s Thinking Though the Arts program, fifth and sixth grade students visited the Museum, toured the exhibition Shen Wei: STILL/MOVING (on view at the Katonah Museum of Art from October 19, 2025 - April 19, 2026), and then selected an inspiring artwork to write about, connecting their lives to Shen Wei’s dynamic paintings through poetry. 

Students wrote pantoum poems, which date to 15th century Malaysia and feature a pattern of repeating lines. The form offered poets an opportunity to think about repetition and word choice and to consider how paintings contain movement and energy along with lines, shapes and colors. They connected their experiences, ideas, and emotions to Shen Wei’s visual artworks. 

**This exhibition will be closed to the public from May 25 – June 11 due to installation.