Dunedin School of Art art history and theory lecturer Ed Hanfling joined poet and art critic David Eggleton and interim head of the Dunedin School of Art Bridie Lonie for a discussion about art and writing in New Zealand.
About 60 people attended the panel discussion ''The Art of Writing on Art'', which was chaired by University of Otago English department Associate Prof Thomas McLean.
The event was held in the library's Dunningham Suite and was the first in what is expected to be a series of events organised by the Friends of the Library, and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society.
Among the topics they touched on was how they came to be involved in writing about art, how to make art accessible to the wider public, what it was like working in a small country like New Zealand, where the art community was close-knit, and how art was a cultural indicator of the values of the time.
Ms Lonie said in the 1990s she believed art writing changed, becoming ''impenetrable for most people''.
What interested her when she was writing about art was thinking about why a piece was important, what it meant, and what it had to tell the world.
The idea an artist participated in an exchange of values within a society had also always driven her writing, Prof Lonie said.
Associate Prof McLean said he hoped the talk was the first of many conversations about art and literature that would be held in Dunedin.
The University of Otago made the decision last year to end the art history programme in 2020 - giving existing students, who number less than 20, the chance to finish their degrees.
