Mayor Jack Crompton announced the winners of the 2021 Poet’s Pause competition at this week’s council meeting. A public reading of the winning poems was also held.
- Kirsten Pendreigh’s “Tiny Tourist” was selected for the theme Listening.
- Vanessa Dy Teves’s “To These Eyes That Sting” was selected for the theme Togetherness.
The two winning poems will be displayed at the Poet’s Pause sculpture sites in Alta Lake Park over the upcoming year. “To These Eyes That Sting” will be displayed alongside the giant Adirondack chairs titled Lakeside Couple at the south end of the park, and “Tiny Tourist” will be displayed with the large metal chimes titled Lost in Sound at the north end. The winners also receive a prize of $200 each.
This year marks the ninth annual Poet’s Pause poetry competition. In February and March each year the Resort Municipality of Whistler invites the public to submit original, unpublished poems for the themes of Togetherness and Listening. The program is part of a public art concept created by the late Joan Baron, an artist who developed the two Alta Lake Park sculpture sites with the intention of inspiring creativity.
This year’s competition received 40 poems from 32 poets residing in Whistler, the Sea to Sky corridor, the Lower Mainland and beyond. The jury selected the winning poems through an anonymous judging process, and the winning names were submitted the month before the council meeting.
To read this year’s winning poems and view past winners, visit whistler.ca/poetrycompetition
Public Art Program
Whistler’s public art program involves 56 public and private art pieces in various locations throughout Whistler, including Whistler Village, public parks and the Valley Trail. The public art program was established in 1996 and includes periodic calls to artists to submit proposals for specific projects, the Poet’s Pause poetry competition and the Street Banner Art program. In addition a local artist recently completed a large mural on the newly built Whistler Olympic Plaza public washroom buildings as part of the public art program.
