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As a 47-year-old senior, Sara Smith-Katz (Stroudsburg, Pa.) isn’t your average student. Of course, the Experimental Printing Institute isn’t your average academic experience, making the two a perfect match.
At Friday’s ceremony marking EPI’s 10 year anniversary at Lafayette, Smith-Katz seemed a perfect metaphor for the institute’s success.
“As a student I cannot describe the positive experience this has been for me,” said the art major, clad in a smock as she breezed about the institute’s studio off Hamilton Street. “This has expanded my horizons here, it really has.”
Since 1996, EPI has been expanding many horizons. In doing so the institute has emerged as a national force as well as an international presence and ambassador of artistic good will and uncommon innovation.
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.
Along the way the institute’s reach has expanded throughout the country and into other nations.
This summer, Smith-Katz 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.
Well-known artists including David C. Driskell, Benny Andrews and Sam Gilliam have visited EPI to share their knowledge and interact with the students and their erstwhile professor, Curlee Raven Holton, director of EPI and professor of art.
“I met Curlee Holton in my first class. He asked me to consider printmaking,” Smith-Katz recalled. “I had no idea what it was, but now I plan to go to grad school for it.”
Like Smith-Katz, Preeza Shrestha ’08 (Kathmandu, Nepal) has found interacting with noteworthy artists a strong part of EPI’s allure.
“Seeing them doing their artistic work is really great. I’ve been able to learn a lot,” said Shrestha, a double major in art and economics. “I love it. Art is something I feel strongly about.”
Ellen Rose ’09 (Spring Lake, N.J.), a double major in Spanish and art, finds the creative freedom of EPI stimulating.
“We’re really given a lot of independence here. I can make a lot of decisions as to how to move forward with my projects,” she said. “I think that will indirectly translate into what I want to do in the future.”
EPI not only carries strong appeal for students. Faculty members as well have come to the institute for creative help.
Lee Upton, writer-in-residence and professor of English, has worked on illustrated books of poetry with Holton and considers EPI an essential part of the college’s arts experience.
“It’s been fascinating to see what is happening as far as the projects go,” Upton said. “It seems there are always new projects emerging.”
She cited Holton’s “unstoppable energy, inventiveness and generosity” as the driving force behind EPI.
For his part, Holton says the institute provides an unmatched opportunity for art students.
“EPI provides a nontraditional setting, an environment where students create unique visual arts,” he said. “You get to study with older, established artists, which doesn’t happen often enough.”
On Friday, EPI’s studio served as the setting for a daylong series of events marking the anniversary milestone.
The birthday celebration included an open studio from 1-4 p.m., at which students, especially those in their first year, were invited to come and make art with visiting artists and community members. From 4-7 p.m., partygoers shared birthday cake and listened to the music of the Rocking Horse Band featuring special guest Bernie Worrell of the Parliament/Funkadelic.
EPI acknowledged numerous special guests and supporters during the celebration. Mr. and Mrs. Harold Tague and Christopher Tague ’00 were recognized for setting up the EPI Residency Fund. Dr. Robert and Jean 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 included 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 followed the awards, with a dinner held in the Foundation Room, Marquis Hall.
The celebration will continue throughout the year. 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.