One of the more amazing parts of the Paper Dress exhibit includes an origami paper dress exchange. A friend of mine summed up what a printmaking exchange is really nicely for those who are not printmakers–it’s like a cookie exchange. You make your “cookie” and then you get other “cookies” from everyone else who participated. … Continue reading
The dresses keep arriving. Along with stories, and conversation. We hope you join us for much of the same next Thursday night, September 25th from 6-9 pm for the last DownStreet Art night of the 2014 season and the opening of Paper Dresses. We are previewing some of the dresses in one of our windows … Continue reading
VAWA. While it is not some fancy letterpress acronym, it is an important one that we at PRESS are acknowledging partially because of our upcoming Paper Dress exhibit, and partly to raise awareness of the importance of this act. VAWA = Violence Against Women Act. It was signed into law on September 13, 1994 by President … Continue reading
PRESS hosted many of our paper dress artists Saturday. What fun we had experimenting with tyvek, printing, paper and more. Ideas are percolating. Research is abundant! Check out our collective Paper Dress Board on Pinterest to see some of our ideas. We started to consider how the performative element might change/influence our ideas. And if … Continue reading
Saturday we hosted a great preview of What’s your Mantra? An Exploration in Academic and Creative Identities by visiting Hardman Family Endowment scholar and artist Alke Groppel-Wegener. Alke made her famous chocolate marzipan pistachio cake. Conversation flowed. Guests created stamped compositions. Over the next few weeks we will invite visitors to the exhibit to contribute … Continue reading
PRESS invites you to meet our first EVER artist-in-residence, Alke Groppel-Wegener. Preview her exhibit and join us for cake and conversation SATURDAY, MAY 24TH at 4 pm. Alke is based at Staffordshire University in the UK and visited MCLA in January and May. Her visit was made possible through the generosity of the Hardman Family Endowment. … Continue reading
One of the fun things we do at PRESS is host different student groups from time to time. Recently a group of young women from Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield came to print. They each came with a word and created a typography collage using wood type from PRESS. Here they are in action. Continue reading
Last week we welcomed Sarah Platanitis at PRESS for a Berkshire Festival of Women’s Writers workshop entitled Press Ready. Workshop participants will be coached by a seasoned journalist and award-winning teacher to gain a better understanding of how journalists work. Learn the secrets to writing the perfect press release, how to prepare press and media … Continue reading
Mid-February found me traveling across the state to New Bedford, the whaling center of Massachusetts to participate in their version of Downstreet Art, their Aha! Night. It was part of their Big Read Project, Stark Raven Mad. In addition to printing with my mini-presses at the Aha! Night, the Aha! staff put me in touch with … Continue reading
What are you thinking about this week? This semester, PRESS has an artist-in-residence. In January Dr Alke Gröppel-Wegener came over from Staffordshire University in the UK for two weeks to work with students on visual ways of integrating writing into a number of subjects. As part of her stay, she also ran a number of … Continue reading
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