Poetry Competition

Poetry brief

Art and Law Projects is a new initiative which aims to invigorate our buildings and public realm with arts projects and commissions which respond to our values.

Newcastle Law School is seeking to commission a poem for our garden which articulates our values and makes a positive statement supporting the Law School’s vision to be ‘globally connected, locally rooted and a compassionate community.’

2023 marks 100 years of teaching law and 60 years of Newcastle Law School graduates and the poetry commission will help celebrate and mark these milestones.

A copy of this brief can be downloaded: Law School Poetry Brief (PDF, 1.06MB)

Our aim is to site the poem on the two brick wall panels in the Law School Garden.

Entries should be submitted on a Word Doc to artsandlawprojects@newcastle.ac.uk. The closing date of the competition is 2 December 2022. 

Background

• The Law School is developing a number of arts commissions to improve its built environment and enhance the student experience
• The Law School has pledged to ‘embrace diversity and advance social justice by addressing contemporary and future challenges’ and the arts proposals will aim to support this with interventions throughout the building.
• Each of the arts proposals helps to communicate the Law Schools values of: Social Justice. Compassion. Wellbeing. Excellence. Responsibility. Respect. Challenge

Themes

The Poetry commission should respond to one of the themes highlighted below:

• social challenges and ethical issues
• celebrate women in law
• make a visible statement about anti slavery and the role of lawyers

Design and fabrication

There are two brick framed wall panels which could accommodate the poem. The illustrations below aim to demonstrate an approximate word count and font size with two bricks (10 lines) equals 24 words, or one brick and a half (12 lines) equals 41 words.   

Following the selection of the winning poem the writer will be involved in the design process with the text design and poem fabrication managed by curator Matthew Jarratt with Founded Design.

How to apply

1. The prize is open to writers who are studying or teaching at Newcastle Law School or The School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics and Newcastle Law School Alumni.
2. The competition is free to enter and the winning writer will receive £500
3. Entries should respond to the brief and project themes and can be written in any style or form. 
4. All poems must have a title, should aim to fit the available wall space and be written in English.
5. To ensure the winning poem will fit on the panels, poems should be between 24 and 41 words and 10 to 12 lines per panel. If your poem is across both panels then it should be 48 to 81 words and 20 to 24 lines. 
6. Poems must be the original work of the author. Entries cannot have been previously published anywhere. This includes on social media such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, as well as in anthologies, magazines, solo collections, school prints, on any website, including blogs and online magazines. Poems cannot have been broadcast on any regional, national or online TV station or via any radio platform, nor been placed in any other competition.
7. All entries will be judged by a selection panel including staff from Newcastle Law School and School of English Literature, representatives of the Law School student body and Law School Advisory Board.
8. Entries should be submitted on a Word Doc via email to artsandlawprojects@newcastle.ac.uk
9. The closing date of the competition is 2 December 2022.