ARS POETICA IV: A Juried Exhibition

October 3 - November 12, 2026 | Alexander Community Gallery

ARS POETICA III First Place Winning Visual Art and Poetry

Horace, the Roman poet whose Ars Poetica gives this exhibition its name, famously argued that painting and poetry are kindred pursuits—parallel languages for evoking experience, emotion, and meaning. Now in its fourth year, BRAHM, the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum, continues to explore the collaborative potential between visual art and the written word through ARS POETICA.

More than 200 works of art and poems were submitted for this year’s exhibition. From that remarkable response, jurors created pairings through shared imagery, tone, subject, intuition, and unexpected resonance. Brought together, these works reveal how image and language can shift, deepen, and expand one another, creating meanings neither might produce alone.

BRAHM is proud to present ARS POETICA IV in the Alexander Community Gallery and through this accompanying digital catalog. We thank the artists and poets whose work makes this ongoing exchange possible and invite visitors to read, look, and listen across the spaces between word and image.

Exhibition Details:

• Submissions accepted between April 13 and July 6, 2026.

• Physical exhibition open October 3 - November 12, 2026, Alexander Community 

• Digital exhibition will go online on October 3, 2026

• Public voting goes until 11:59 pm on Wednesday, November 11, 2026

• Reception at BRAHM on November 12, 2026

Meet our Judges this year:

• Poetry: Hilda Downer

• Visual Art: Daniel Rich

Prizes:

• First Prize: $500 per person

• Second Prize: $350 per person

• People’s Choice: $150 per person

Vote for your favorite pairing by clicking the button below!

View this year’s catalog of work!

---