Prints and Community Practice


For more than 500 years prints have functioned as a public form of art, using the multiple to propagate ideas to reach broad audiences and shape public opinion. This session will involve three presentations that address (1) the role of a Chicago-based print collaborative in supporting the work of printmakers and their collective efforts to engage with their community. (2) printmaking as a form of community-building by an artist who is a Director of Engagement for a university museum, and (3) socially-engaged printmaking as part of university-level teaching. This session will ask how we frame our understanding of the social and political role of prints, especially the hand-printed multiple. What is the role of printmaking for museums and other cultural institutions as they seek to engage the community? How does the print serve as a tool for educational, cultural, social, and political engagement with a public that traditionally does not go to museum or other cultural institutions? Does printmaking, which often involves collaboration and working in shared facilities have an intrinsic social orientation? How does printmaking, which is often situated in educational and community-based shops engage with their local communities, as well as use the portability of the multiple to connect local to global communities? The session will be structured so there is ample time for discussion, as well as to share prints from community-engaged projects.

Field of Study:






Chairs:
Beauvais Lyons,University of Tennessee - blyons@utk.edu and Steve A. Prince,College of William and Mary - onefishstudio@yahoo.com

Taking it to the Streets: The Art of Social Justice
Steve A. Prince, College of William and Mary