Brushed Strokes

Brushed Strokes is a creative collaboration between the International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc and the Estuary Artists. Fourteen poems with a focus on Te Reo, in response to New Zealand’s Maori Language week in September were presented to artists, who created artwork inspired by these poems.

International Writers Workshop was formed in 1976 and is based on Auckland’s North Shore. Its members come from all across New Zealand.

The group co-ordinates one of New Zealand’s leading poetry competitions – The Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems. As well as poetry, the group writes across numerous genres. In 2019, the group held competitions in Romance writing, travel writing and a children’s story. In 2020, the group’s program is equally diverse with a Mystery story, a Play and a formal essay alongside the poetry competitions.

International Writers Workshop meet twice a month and the writers are men and women ranging in age from their 30's right up to some members in their 90's. IWW’s funding comes from an annual grant by the Kathleen Grattan Trust and members’ subscriptions. The group does not receive any funding from local or governmental agencies.

We believe this combined exhibition is valuable to members of IWW, to the public who visit the gallery and to the wider public who read the positive press that will result from the exhibition.