from the KEY WEST ART & HISTORICAL SOCIETY 281 FRONT STREET, KEY WEST, FL 33040 295-6616 Fax: 295-6649 For immediate release, Aug.17, 2004.
In a special presentation during the Fifth Annual Key Women Artists Exhibition at the Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House, six established Keys women writers will read from their works from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 16. "Along with the many female visual artists there also are a number of very fine women writers living in the Keys," explained Cricket Desmarais, who organized the event. "Art covers a spectrum of creative activity, including literature. We thought why not present women's literature in collaboration with the many fine pieces of visual art? "The Custom House is a stunning space to begin with, and the incredible artwork should really make the literature resonate," she said. Besides Desmarais, whose travel pieces have been appeared lately in the L'Attitudes section of the Keynoter newspaper, the writers will include Margit Biztray, J.T. Eggers, Kelly Everman, Teresa Foley, and Leigh Pujado. Local poet and novelist Rosalind Brackenbury had been scheduled but will be out of town, said Desmarais. "The names of these women are very familiar because all of them have published in local newspapers and magazines," she said, "but they all have done more literary writing as well. And they cover a broad range of styles: fiction, poetry, essays, humor." Desmarais, who participated last year's women's exhibition, started thinking that a collaborative effort incorporating literature from women into the exhibit might be good idea. Thanks to a grant from the Florida Keys Council of the Arts and the help of the Key West Art & Historical Society, she was able to produce the event this year, she said. "Artists, no matter what type, don't work completely in a box. They feed off each other through ideas, images, conversations. We'd like to create a bridge between the visual and literary art communities and we hope a bridge between artists and the public at large." The literary evening, which is free and open to the public, will feature 10-minute readings from each of the writers with a break for wine and refreshments and a chance for the audience to meet and talk with the participants as well as to view the exhibition of almost 100 artworks from women up and down the Keys. The Key Women Artists Exhibition, the largest museum show of women's art in the Florida Keys, runs through Oct. 8. It kicks off Sept. 9 with a Champagne reception at the Custom House from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in coordination with the annual Womenfest Key West celebration, which runs from Sept. 7 to 12. Desmarais said Sept. 16's reading by women writers should be entertaining, informative and "full of surprises." "If it is well-received, we could expand it for next year," she said.
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