A public reception of the "Tallahassee Proud" art exhibition begins at 6:00pm on Wednesday, March 4 in the City Hall Gallery, and lasts until 7:30. It will include a public poetry reading from the poets participating in the Poems on Panes project.

Poems on Panes is a community building initiative that engages local writers and business owners along with readers in discovering poetry in public places.

The project features the work of local poets in street-visible locations in an effort to bring poetry to a wider audience. In collaboration with the Downtown Improvement Authority (DIA), the Council on Culture & Arts (COCA) invited area literary artists to create new works with "Tallahassee Proud" as the writing prompt.

The poetry submissions were juried by a volunteer review panel and eleven poems were selected by the following poets: Michelle Acker, Doug Alderson, Jan Godown Annino, Terri Carrion, Katie Clark, Cynie Cory, Donna Decker, Carol Lynne Knight, Gordon L. Magill, Anne Meisenzahl, and Penny Young.

The selected poems have been printed onto clear vinyl window clings and will be publicly displayed from Jan. 29 - April 13 on storefronts of the following participating downtown Tallahassee businesses: Sachs Media Group, The Advocacy Group at Cardenas Partners, TCC Center for Innovation, Florida Education Association, Adams St. Advocates, Nic’s Toggery, SKD Consulting Group, Capital City Trust Company, Downtown Improvement Authority, The Council on Culture & Arts, and the Visit Tallahassee Visitor Information Center & Gift Shop (sponsored by The Southern Group).

Each business paid a participation fee which serves as an honorarium to each selected poet and covers the costs of printing the window clings.

The Poems on Panes project will run in conjunction with a fine art exhibit at the City Hall Art Gallery titled "Tallahassee Proud." The exhibition is curated by COCA in partnership with and on behalf of the City of Tallahassee as part of the Art in Public Places Program.