✂️Upcoming Symposium - Words as Pictures, Collage as Text at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2026✂️

⚡️Upcoming Symposium - Words as Pictures, Collage as Text at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2026⚡️
Friday, 2-3pm (CDT), June 12th, 2026,
At: Cafe Istanbul, 2372 St Claude Ave,
Room 252, New Orleans, LA 70117,
United States.

This year I am really honored to be presenting at Kolaj Fest 2026 on the rich interplay of literary and collage techniques within my creative practice. I will speaking of how together they inform core elements of several major projects and how we can “change creative channels” to come unstuck; driving new inspiration and discover unexpected paths of exploration. This will be my part of a symposium on “Words as Pictures, Collage as Text” alongside other amazing writers and collage artists, Kirk Read, Christine Karapetian, Astrid Bant and Trish Crapo.

Check out a note below from the organizers about the Symposium and my part in it:

”For COLLAGE::BOOKS which took place in October 2025 in Montreal, Brooklyn, New York collage artist Jennella Young wrote, “Publishing is more than documentation. It is itself a creative act that shapes how ideas are assembled and carried. It’s almost its own form of collage. Artist books and zines are not secondary to exhibitions for my art work—they are exhibitions in their own right—the kind you can carry and share and hopefully treasure.” Not simply illustration, when artists pair writing and artwork, an alchemy occurs where the words can become pictures and the collage can become text. Visual literacy and textural literacy mingle and build a new world for viewers and readers in the cosmology of the contemporary art project. During this panel, we will hear from collage artists and writers with overlapping, integrated practices.” 

Writing and publishing has consistently flowed through Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland artist, writer, and integrative psychotherapist Anthony D Kelly‘s practice. At Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2025, he presented the project, “Lexicon of Wonder” which will soon be published as a book. For each of the collages in his “Rare Monster Sighting Archives,” Kelly writes a fictional “Recorded Sighting” report. He collaborated on the children’s book, Fleadom Flea Circus, with Marta Janik. He has also been an active contributor to Kolaj Magazine and Kolaj Institute’s Collage Illustration and PoetryxCollage projects. Kelly will speak about the role writing plays in his collage practice. 

For more about the Symposium itself CLICK HERE.

To learn more about about the wondrous Kolaj Fest and to download the festival events program
CLICK HERE.

For more from the Kolaj Institute and Magazine CLICK HERE.

✂️⚡️Upcoming Roundtable Discussion - Writer's Corner at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2025⚡️✂️

⚡️Upcoming Roundtable Discussion- Writer’s Corner at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2025⚡️
Friday, 3.15- 4.45pm (CDT), June 27th, 2025,
At: New Orleans Healing Center Suite 250,
2372 St Claude Ave,
New Orleans, LA 70117,
United States.

In addition to the aforementioned symposium, I am delighted to be hosting this roundtable discussion with the great Kirk Read and Erica Trabold.
This informal workshop is a space for those with a writing practice to connect with one another.

Author and collagist Kirk Read (Portland, Oregon, USA) will kick off the space with an exercise centered on visual and word practices. He wrote, “We will explore how these language and visual practices inform each other, how they compete and argue and agree in our minds and hands. Using generative writing experiments, we will create titles, move past stuck places and animate our personal writing. We will use fast collage paste-up to breathe life into our writing practice and quickly tap into the weird parts of our creative landscape.”

In the past year, Erica Trabold (Lynchburg, Virginia, USA) has been using prompts to take her practice to unexpected places. “One collage prompt even resulted in an entire series I wouldn’t have other wise made,” she wrote. “As a writing professor, I assign and use prompts constantly—but I had never explored them in the visual art space.” Trabold will share what she’s learned.

Anthony D Kelly (Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland) often uses the cross activation of collage practices and literary mediums to spur on new moments of inspiration and to deepen the experience of both for an audience. He believes in both words and images as seeds which can give rise to each other and that by “changing channels” between these modes of expression we can nurture unexpected and exciting new works. Kelly will invite participants to consider this concept and lead a short playful visualization exercise along these lines to free up the imaginative process.

For more about the Roundtable Discussions at Kolaj Fest 2025 CLICK HERE.

To learn more about about the wondrous Kolaj Fest and to download the festival events program
CLICK HERE.

For more from the Kolaj Institute and Magazine CLICK HERE.

Image: “A Dream of the Awakening Spring” (2020) - Digital Collage - Anthony D Kelly

✂️Upcoming Symposium - Curiosity, Wonder, Joy, & Portals at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2025✂️

⚡️Upcoming Symposium- Curiosity, Wonder, Joy, & Portals at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2025⚡️
Saturday, 2-3pm (CDT), June 28th, 2025,
At: Cafe Istanbul, 2372 St Claude Ave,
Room 252, New Orleans, LA 70117,
United States.

I am really honored to be presenting research and work on my upcoming Lexicon of Wonder project at Kolaj Fest 2025 as part of a symposium on Curiosity, Joy, Wonder and Portals alongside the amazing Breasia Hayes, Savannah Greene & C.Joi Sanchez.

I have been formulating the Lexicon of Wonder project over the last number of years and it is soon to be completed and released in the form of exhibitions and a publication. The first iteration of the Lexicon of Wonder exhibition will take place at Áras Inis Gluaire later this Summer with details coming soon.

Check out a note below from the organizers about the Symposium and my part in it:

”With its roots and history in the Surreal, collage is a well-built path to exercise curiosity. What happens if I put these two things together? Collage’s ability to bridge time and geography makes it a vehicle to explore new realms. During the Symposium at Kolaj Fest New Orleans, we will hear from Anthony D Kelly, Breasia Hayes, Savannah Green, and C. Joi Sanchez, each who are engaged in projects that explore wonder and joy and how life experiences take one down creative paths.

Anthony D Kelly is an artist, writer, and integrative psychotherapist from Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. “At the beating heart of my art practice are both wonder and play. Collage is a way for me to connect with myself, my community and the world around me,” wrote the artist. “I often hold a concept, word or idea in mind until an image coalesces and presents itself internally. I then sit and begin to sift through materials both digital and analogue for something that resonates.” Kelly will present his project, “Lexicon of Wonder”. He wrote, “Wonder and Awe are complex emotions arising in response to experiences of profound beauty, connection, natural phenomena, or through bearing witness to the incredible capacities, courage or talents of other human beings. They can also arise at times of great personal crisis or fear such as witnessing the raw power of nature at a time of natural disaster.” Kelly will speak about project origins, his ongoing research into the emotional states of wonder and awe, the role poetry plays in the project, and his plans for an exhibition and publication.”

For more about the Symposium itself CLICK HERE.

To learn more about about the wondrous Kolaj Fest and to download the festival events program
CLICK HERE.

For more from the Kolaj Institute and Magazine CLICK HERE.

Image: “Communications Bananatron” (detail) by Anthony D Kelly
21″x9″; Digital Collage; 2024.