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This topic will explore the impact of community presses from their previous activist roots to the present and the relevance of their past on the artistic culture of today. Community presses by their very nature, are fertile environments fostering innovation and collaboration. In recent years, they have become magnets for some of the most exciting forms within contemporary art world today.
The panel members chosen for this presentation have either founded presses or initiated projects with a "social viewpoint." Each will discuss their roles and how as innovative printmakers themselves, they have been committed to inspiring and fostering printmaking in developing countries or urban culture where their contributions have altered the existing social fabric of the community.
At their very core, both activism and community presses are not only about the collective, but also, about the activist founders, who often are artists themselves and the organizations they have founded or ongoing projects they promote.
Professor Catherine Bebout will moderate this panel and the following presenters include: Eileen Foti, Assistant Professor, Montclair State University, John Philips, Director of the London Print Studio, Phil Sanders, Director, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NYC, and, Melanie Yazzie, Associate Professor of Art at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
The panelists will discuss how the role of the community press has been instrumental towards promoting not only awareness of the medium, but social activism, cultural diversity, and global outreach. Furthermore, they will also address, as well as show examples, of how artists historically have transformed printmaking from its humbler roots as an egalitarian means of visual expression, into the more diverse, artistic medium of today.
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