Patrons & Poetry Series

Patrons & Poetry is a series of poetry workshops for anyone curious about poetry. We welcome all levels of writers, creatives and/or poets to participate. The goal is to elevate poetry into the art form that it is – a necessary, life-changing, inspiring part of our creative living!

WHO WE ARE

PATRON & LEAD Laurie D’Alessandro

Laurie D’Alessandro is a mixed media artist and poet working in paint, photography, printmaking, and bookmaking.

Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including: corporate exhibitions at Mercedes-Benz North America and Freudenberg North America, the First Street Gallery, Chelsea District, NYC, the Maryland Federation of Art, Circle Gallery, and artist centers in Toronto, including the John B. Aird Gallery, the Propeller Centre for the Arts, and the Rebecca Gallery.

Laurie received her Bachelor of Fine Arts, Honours Visual Arts degree with distinction, at the University of Windsor in 2011. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts at Wayne State University in Detroit in 2014, and has been Adjunct Faculty at WSU teaching drawing and painting. She has received many visual arts awards including the Board of Governors Medal in Visual Arts and the Dennis W. Knight Award for Excellence in Visual Arts at the UofW, the Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, and was elected to the Ontario Society of Artists in 2013. In 2024 D’Alessandro was given the Patron of the Arts Award, Mayor’s Art Awards, Municipality of Lakeshore, Ontario.

She was on the Board of Directors for the Windsor Endowment for the Arts, and Chair, WEA Awards and Grants committee (2010-12). From 2017 to 2022 she was a member of the Municipality of Lakeshore Arts Advisory Committee, serving as chair of the committee for four years. As chair of Lakeshore’s Mayor’s Art Awards (2019 – 2022) she developed the ‘Artist in a Pandemic Grant’ during the covid crisis in 2020 and 2021 to support local artists.

She currently lives in the community of St. Joachim, Ontario on the shores of Lake St. Clair where she maintains a studio and runs Lakehouse Arts.

Administration & Publicity – Vanessa Shields

Shields is a long-time member of the writing community. She’s a published poet/writer, a teacher and an editor. As the owner of Gertrude’s Writing Room, Shields shares her commitment to the creative arts by organizing literary and creative events.

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN for more information, including our Open Mic event!

THE WORKSHOPS – OVERVIEW

For our first iteration of the workshop series, we are offering four poetry workshops on Wednesdays beginning on September 25. Each workshops costs $15.00 and registration is necessary. To register, please email Laurie D’Alessandro at patronsandpoetry@dalessandro1.ca. Please write ‘Workshop Registration’ in the subject line. Yes, you can register for more than one workshop at a time!