Artist Access Grants
Artist Access Grants
Letterpress Graphic Art Project: Request for quality letter press paper, and framing.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Moira Villiard: visual artist, Cultural Programming Coordinator at American Indian Community Housing Organization; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children’s Theatre employee; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community; Christina Nohre: writer and arts advocate.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
Conceptually, the goal of this project is to heighten and/or bring awareness to current social issues through artistic graphic design. I will be using a new medium to me— old-world letterpress tools, techniques and equipment— to explore the limitations of the medium while pushing its envelope and experimenting with the art of letterpress. As an experienced, computer graphic designer, I will be fusing the old and new together, be forced to slow down in the instant gratification print and social media world to produce a collection of one-of-a-kind posters, broadsheets and other hand-printed pieces that will make a lasting impression (literally and figuratively) on the viewer. I will be using this grant to buy letterpress-quality paper and framing materials to showcase my art and display it. The plan is to gain greater understanding of letterpress tools and techniques and fuse this old-world output technique with my extensive knowledge of modern graphic design and computer graphic techniques. Measurable outcomes will be a breadth of work—posters, broadsheets and other printed pieces—that are ready to show by December.
We had a successful debuit of the letterpress products in two pop-up shows. Sales and customer satisfaction was high with those who purchased the products. In addition, I learned a large amount about combining the two mediums of watercolor and ink on letterpress paper and then impressed on a letterpress press. I am extremely grateful to ARAC as this grant allowed me to experiment as an artist on a level I could not have afforded to do on my own, as well as presnt the final work in a professional manner.
Other,local or private