EASTON, Pa. October 27, 2009- The Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI) has started a new program for its supporters, called “The Ink Club,” headed by alum Sara Smith-Katz ’07 and research and documentation intern Mildred Gonzalez ‘11. Because EPI is a non-profit organization, it relies on support from art enthusiasts and others to keep it running.
“Our mission is to raise funding to help support the initiatives already in place at EPI such as the visiting artist and artists in residency programs,” said Smith-Katz. “These help to allow students to become involved personally with well known artists while helping to create their artwork. It also helps to promote diversity in a very unique way.”
“The Ink Club” will offer patrons the chance to support EPI through donations. There will be different levels of patrons, named for different types of prints, a collaborative idea from Smith-Katz, Gonzalez, and current artist-in-residence, Maryanne Miller. These are woodcut ($25), serigraph ($100), intaglio ($500), and poshoir($1,000. The higher the donation, the more intricate the print name is. Gonzalez says it is a way for patrons to feel like they are a part of the work that goes into creating a print.
“The Ink Club” will host EPI’s annual Christmas sale event, their first. Cookies, decorations, and music will accompany the show and sale for three weekends in December (3 & 4, 10 & 11, and 17 & 18). They also will be sponsoring workshops in an effort to educate the artist community and our surrounding community with various printmaking techniques.
Smith-Katz graduated in 2007 magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in art. Her final project included studying the history of book arts and creating, from research, her own artist books. Now a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, Smith-Katz was an Excel Scholar under EPI’s director, Curlee Raven Holton, as well as his teaching assistant. Smith-Katz traveled to San Pedro, Costa Rica, with Holton to serve as student curator of the More Than A Book exhibition at the Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano (Costa Rican-American Cultural Center) and worked on the longest print, created at Lafayette in 2006. She represents the college as an Alumni Admissions Representative.