Ekphrastic Poetry
Adult jumpstART Workshop | Registration opens Monday, July 6, 2026 8:00 AM EDT
Explore the creative dialogue between visual art and the written word in this ekphrastic poetry class. Students will be guided through a series of slides displaying works of visual art in order to create verbal sketches of our own reactions to them (like "croquis" but with words). We will review several examples of creative writing about art and utilize a variety of questions to help reflect upon how the artwork provokes us as viewers. In the conclusion of this workshop, students will be invited to share their work and reflect on the process as a group. Writers of all levels are welcome.
- Please bring along a favorite writing utensil - pen, pencil, or both - as well as looseleaf paper and/or a favorite notebook. We'll have extra paper and writing utensils on hand as well.
Sydney Coffin
Sydney taught high school English in Philadelphia for 25 years, also coaching slam poetry teams for a decade. Mr. Coffin coordinated a Modern Poetry Seminar for the Teachers Institute of Philadelphia at UPenn’s Kelly Writers House and developed a curriculum unit with the Penn Museum to support the teaching of Native American poetry in public schools.
The Ekphrastic poetry exercises here come out of 5 years as a National Fellow at Yale University, and are designed to heighten students’ awareness of the details in visual art and how they can provoke us through symbolic imagery.
Sydney is the Facilities Coordinator during evening classes at Fleisher and was a student here as a teenager; he encourages parents to attend with their children in order to share in the creative process together.