Eleven artists answer one poem in The Blind Leading the Seers, free at Stoneleigh Arms on Clemens Street until 8 November, with a free poetry night on 7 Nov.

Eleven artists have each made new work in answer to a single poem, and the result, The Blind Leading the Seers, is on at Stoneleigh Arms Arts Space, 31 Clemens Street, Leamington Spa, until Sunday 8 November. Entry is free. The show closes with a free night of music and poetry at 6.30pm on Saturday 7 November, which the curator, the poet Charlie Caldecott, wants to bring Leamington’s blind, partially sighted and sighted communities into the same room.

The quick answer

  • What: The Blind Leading the Seers, a group exhibition curated by Charlie Caldecott.
  • Where: Stoneleigh Arms Arts Space, 31 Clemens Street, Leamington Spa, CV31 2DP.
  • Until: Sunday 8 November.
  • Open: Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm. Closed Mondays.
  • Price: Free, and so is the closing night.
  • Closing night: Saturday 7 November, 6.30pm, music and poetry with the poet Fraser Logan. RSVP to charliecaldecott@gmail.com.
Charlie Caldecott standing beside a framed photograph of a garden on the gallery wall, with a plaster head on a plinth below it
Curator Charlie Caldecott at The Blind Leading the Seers exhibition at the Stoneleigh Arms. Photo: supplied by BID Leamington

One poem, eleven answers

The starting point is a poem Caldecott wrote about an abstract painter in Dorset who worked outdoors at night. According to the gallery, the painter used black bitumen, straw and the land around them, and let touch, instinct and the physical act of making lead the work rather than sight alone.

The poem imagines “the blind” leading “the seers” across a dark moor, where the usual ways of seeing and understanding start to come apart. The artists were not asked to illustrate it. Each took its ideas into their own practice: darkness, landscape, material, instinct and the edge of what the eye can tell you. The question the show puts to visitors is whether a landscape can be met through memory, movement, texture or imagination, and whether losing sight of the familiar might help us see differently.

The eleven artists are Sarah Pager, Louisa Mahony, Jo Casling, Dougal Kirkland, Emma Coop, Helen Goodwin, Rachel Bird, Amy Rosenthal, Rose Arbuthnott, Michael Bury and Andrew Boyd. The exhibition opened with a private view on Saturday 10 October, according to the Stoneleigh Arms website.

Caldecott said:

“I wanted to ask what happens when we stop relying on what we think we know. The artists have taken the poem somewhere I could never have predicted.”

Charlie Caldecott smiling behind a display shelf of hand-painted slates, a wire sculpture of a horse and small framed paintings
Charlie Caldecott inside the Stoneleigh Arms, behind a shelf of work for sale. Photo: supplied by BID Leamington

A closing night for blind, partially sighted and sighted visitors

The last Saturday of the run is an evening of music and readings tied to the poem, open, in the poem’s own spirit, to people who can see and people who cannot. The special guest is Fraser Logan, a poet the gallery describes as known for “typing for strangers” in local parks and gardens.

“For the closing night, I hope to bring Leamington’s blind, partially sighted and sighted communities together through music and poetry, so that everyone has a chance to experience the work, and the poem, in their own way,” Caldecott said.

“I am also delighted to welcome Fraser Logan to what promises to be an inspiring and heart-warming evening.”

Entry is free, but the organisers ask people to RSVP so they can plan for arrivals: email charliecaldecott@gmail.com.

Charlie Caldecott and Maddie Webb on the pavement outside the green-fronted Stoneleigh Arms building on Clemens Street, its name in large letters above the windows
Charlie Caldecott and Maddie Webb outside the Stoneleigh Arms on Clemens Street. Photo: supplied by BID Leamington

Stoneleigh Arms Arts Space describes itself as a community-led arts space offering exhibitions, workshops, artist memberships and events, with the aim of making the arts welcoming to everyone whatever their experience or background. Its founding director, Maddie Webb, is a painter with an MFA from Falmouth University and more than twenty years in arts education, cultural programming and community work.

“We are thrilled to welcome this inspiring collaboration between Charlie and eleven remarkable artists,” she said. “Creativity has the power to transform people, places and communities, and my hope is that everyone who walks through our doors feels inspired to make, connect and belong.

“This exhibition and Charlie’s closing night plans embody those ideas, so please pop in during the show, and join us on the closing night to experience it for yourself.”

Updates are posted on the Stoneleigh Arms Instagram and Facebook pages and on Charlie Caldecott’s and Fraser Logan’s Instagram accounts. More at stoneleigharms.com.