Barnard Castle is one of seven towns chosen to be a Beacon Town for the cultural olympiad's Winning Words project.

The project aims to encourage local communities to celebrate 2012 by participating in the creation of poetry installations across the UK.

We are delighted to be leading the project on behalf of Barnard Castle Vision CIC and are putting together a steering group made up of representatives from local school and community groups to organise a poetry competition and workshops to produce a textile poetry installation.

NeST has a history of working with local poets and most recently Mudfog Press to promote the gallery as a 'surprising space' for poetry.  This fits in with the aims of the Winning Words partnership who hope to carpet the nation with poetry.  As Barnard Castle has a tradition of carpet and cloth production it seems fitting to produce a textile installation for the locality.

The project runs from now until October 2012, culminating with a celebration event on National Poetry Day.  Anyone wishing to be involved in the project can contact co-ordinator Judith Lesley Marshall on admin@barnardcastlenest.org.uk or tel: 07413 10101014.