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On Sept. 8, Lafayette’s Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI) will celebrate 10 years of bringing the art of fine printmaking to the cultural forefront. The birthday celebration is one of many recent events marking EPI as one of the up and coming printmaking establishments in the country.
Curlee Raven Holton, director of EPI and professor of art, explains EPI’s mission and significance.
“We want to make printmaking a prominent visual arts language and give it value as a creative means of expression,” he says. “This fits with Lafayette’s mission of excellence, creativity, and achievement.”
The program offers an open studio concept where students work together with professional artists in the areas of paper-making, digital image printing, and book-making. Throughout the year, EPI provides exhibitions, visiting artists, international exchanges, and workshops.
“EPI is the only workshop of its kind in the United States that brings renowned artists and students together to experiment with the printmaking medium in a research and educational laboratory setting,” Holton says.
The birthday celebration will begin with an open studio from 1-4 p.m., inviting students, especially those in their first year, to come and make art with visiting artists and community members. From 4-7 p.m., partygoers can share birthday cake and listen to the music of the Rocking Horse Band featuring special guest Bernie Worrell of the Parliament/Funkadelic.
EPI will acknowledge numerous special guests and supporters during its celebration. Mr. and Mrs. Harold Tague and Christopher Tague ’00 will be recognized for setting up the EPI Residency Fund. Dr. and Mrs. Robert Steele also will be honored for setting up a new printmaking resource library and providing an internship program for Lafayette students at the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland. Additional honorees include Faith Ringgold, for the Artist Residency gift; Riley Temple ’71, secretary of Lafayette’s Board of Trustees and partner in the law firm Halprin and Temple, for the Temple Artist Residency; and Diane Shaw, special collections librarian, for the Skillman Book Arts Program.
A reception will follow the awards, and dinner will be held 7 p.m. in the Foundation Room, Marquis Hall. For more information, call (610) 330-5592.
Celebration events actually began earlier this year. In April, EPI created the longest print ever made, allowing artists, students, and members of the community a chance to be a part of history. This summer, art major Sara Smith Katz ’07 (Stroudsburg, Pa.) acted as student curator of the More Than a Book exhibition. The exhibit, which featured work from numerous students, opened May 15 in Costa Rica and will move to Mexico City and then to Manchester University in England.
Also this fall, a selection of prints will be placed in the permanent collection of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, a program established by the Tague family. Other EPI works have been placed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, High Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and Allentown Art Museum.
There will be printmaking exhibits around campus, held in the Williams Center for the Arts and Skillman Library. In March, EPI will hold the Symposium of Printmaking.
Holton has mentored many Lafayette students in printmaking, bookmaking, drawing, and painting. As part of the Community of Scholars program, he oversaw the completion of a mural three students created for installation in Farinon College Center. He has participated in several residencies and special projects and has served as curator for a dozen exhibitions. He is the author of Faith Ringgold: A View from the Studio, a book published in conjunction with an exhibition of Ringgold’s art at Allentown Art Museum. He had etchings selected for inclusion in the collections of the Library of Congress and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.