Dave Machacek, Executive Director, ArtOrg

Since 2008, ArtOrg has printed for over 6500 kids and adults at over 75 events with a little steamroller in an ongoing project we call the “Thousand Print Summer”. This year is rather special, as we received a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board which funds 15 events for the Latino Community. The grant award was for $61,699 and is from the Arts Access program. The page we have devoted to this year’s events is located here.

We started at the big Cinco de Mayo Festival in Rochester, Minnesota, and continue this weekend at Art-A-Whirl in Minneapolis where popular artist Xavier Tavera will be in residence for the event. Events are also being scheduled at El Colegio Charter School in Minneapolis, Centro Cultural de Fargo Moorhead, in addition to some of our regular venues which will see us for the fifth time in five years. We take photos and videos at each event, so check out the great art as the summer progresses.

Occasionally we are able to complete new projects made with the old print blocks from the Thousand Print Summer events that we squirrel away. The Big Print was the largest such project, and included all 1180 blocks from the 2008 summer. The nearly 5000-square-foot work was displayed at Buntrock Commons at St Olaf College, and was featured in Issue 44 of the journal Public Art Review. We created two other print mashups called The Peace Caterpillar and the St. Cloud Cult Print.

The grant award was from the Arts Access program. This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the State’s arts and cultural heritage fund with money from a vote of the people on November 4, 2008.

ArtOrg‘s collaborative projects often center on printmaking, and this post shows a few equipment additions to the print shop. The new equipment includes a large contemporary printing press for lithography, graining sink, exposure unit, set of flat files, and three inking rollers. This set of equipment is large and is able to work with “full sheet” sized paper which measures about 30 inches x 44 inches. We are excited about this increase in capability and ramifications on future projects. A photoset of some of our equipment is here.
The lithography press was constructed to the specifications of Tamarind Institute alumna Judith Solodkin and includes a 1″ thick aluminum press bed in addition to the typical rock maple bed. It measures 46 inches wide and 96 inches long, and is motorized. Judith’s fine-art printmaking business called Solo Impression used this press wonderfully for projects including from the artist Louise Bourgeois. The press is painted in a custom color with black pin-striping, which ArtOrg will maintain. A photoset of our trip to New York City to pick up the press is here. Former Northfielder Tom Cox gave us a hand loading up the press in New York City.
Also, ArtOrg Director Dave Machacek has been accepted into the month-long Summer Workshop at the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The workshop is a boot camp for using aluminum plates for fine-art lithography printmaking. ArtOrg is excited about the potential impact of this learning on the use of the new equipment (especially the press which is very well suited to plate lithography).