Shakespeare exhibition at Parliament House showcases top visual artists

So it was perhaps inevitable that Bell Shakespeare will hold an art exhibition dedicated to the playwright in the building.

Rather than showcasing his prose on the stage, The Art of Shakespeare, opening on Thursday interprets the wordsmith's genius through 14 artworks inspired by one of his lines, speeches, characters or plays.

Commissioned to celebrate Bell Shakespeare's 25th birthday, the exhibition features the work of leading Australian visual artists including Ken Done, Nicholas Harding and Wendy Sharpe.

Bell Shakespeare general manager Gill Perkins said the exhibition's Canberra venue fulfilled the company's mission statement: to provide easy access for all Australians to Shakespeare's work, as well as the work he inspires.

"We didn't want to have it stuffed away in a gallery; in Canberra it's in Parliament House, while we finish in the Sydney Opera House's western foyer," she said.

"If we could, we would have had them made it to billboards but, of course, cost made that unviable."

Since starting in 1990, Bell Shakespeare has presented various works across the artistic spectrum to schools, theatres, community halls, prisons and detention centres.

Perkins said the company had far exceeded the expectations of John Bell when he first founded it with the simple idea of producing Shakespeare's plays in a way that would excite and interest Australian audiences.

She said the broad instructions given to artists before creating their works reflected not only the last quarter-century at the company, but also Shakespeare's influence over the past 400 years across the world.

"We weren't prescriptive [with the exhibition's terms] and we wanted to approach Australian artists at the top of their game," she said.

"What we got was a really eclectic mix of work and nice diversity. But from Shakespeare we've had the inspiration for plays, operas, compositions and films over the years."

The result sees Sophie Cape's abstract I Am In Blood Stepp'd In So Far hang alongside Tamara Dean's forest-oriented photograph A Midsummer Night's Dreamscape.

All works in the exhibition are for sale, with the proceeds intended to support the artists and help the wider industry.

But historic anniversaries have not slowed Bell Shakespeare's experimentation.

The company's creative development group, Mind's Eye, is working on a string of new performances and other endeavours for the 2016 season.

"If you think back to 1990, how can you imagine [Bell Shakespeare] would be here in this way today," Perkins said.

"We can all share in that – artists and audiences."

The Art of Shakespeare opens on Thursday, October 8 and will run until Sunday, October 25.