The Gallery at Windsor hosted guests at its annual Finissage, the final viewing of the 2025 exhibition Left Hand, Right Hand: Christopher Le Brun & Charlotte Verity. The cocktail reception also included poetry written and read by student writers who participate in workshops offered by the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation.

The exhibition had been curated by Robin Vousden and marked the first U.S. showing of the married British artists’ works together. The couple’s lives have run parallel since they met at London’s Slade School of Fine Art in 1974 and later married. And, while their artistic styles are distinctive, their works complemented one another perfectly in this exhibit.

The students, ages 7 to 17, had spent several hours in the gallery earlier in the year, observing the pairing of abstracts and nature paintings that themselves are poetic in nature. Letting the colors and composition guide their words, they each wrote poems about pieces in the exhibition that spoke to them personally.

Jane Smalley, Windsor Properties marketing director, explained that the students had participated in an ekphrastic poetry workshop.

“So that, for those that don’t know, is a literary form where a poem is written in response to a piece of art, a photograph or a sculpture,” said Smalley.

From their readings, the artworks appeared to have evoked visions of nature, color, movement and emotion in the young writers – some dark, some light, but all filled with rich, descriptive language.

Sara Wilson, LRJF executive director, said that the nonprofit was founded in 1992, one year after Jackson’s death.

“She wrote in many genres but was primarily known as a poet,” said Wilson. “The foundation was originally founded to preserve her home. It’s what they call a cracker-style or vernacular architecture home. It was built around 1910.”

The home is now located next to the Brackett Library on the Mueller Campus of Indian River State College.

“In addition to preserving the house as a museum, our mission grew over the three decades that we’ve been in existence. And now, in addition to giving tours at the home and the beautiful garden behind the home, we also conduct writing programs for everyone,” said Wilson, adding that their relationship with Windsor began several decades ago with Poetry and Polo events.

Thanks to visitor donations to the gallery during the 2025 public showing of the exhibition, the Windsor Charitable Foundation awarded the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation a grant of $7,000 toward its children’s programming.

Established in 2015, the Windsor Charitable Foundation is dedicated to transforming lives and strengthening the community through philanthropic support in food security, housing, disability assistance, healthcare, children’s education, medical research, environmental initiatives and animal welfare. It also supports Windsor Properties and Club employees facing personal hardships.

For more information, visit WindsorFlorida.com or LauraRidingJackson.org.