The Communications Hall Gallery at Northampton Community College’s Bethlehem campus is pleased to present two concurrent exhibitions organized in collaboration with the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop at the Elizabeth Foundation in New York.

On Friday, November 21, while the exhibitions are on-view, join us for a small-group workshop in the Communications Hall print studio with Booker and Sanz. Featuring the printmaking technique, Collagraphy, this workshop will take participants thorugh building their own printing plates and then making prints using NCC’s intaglio presses. There will be a morning session from 9-12 and an afternoon session from 1-4. Sign-up is required and space is limited to 20 participants per session. While everyone is welcome to attend, priority will be given to NCC students, faculty and staff. Each participant is limited to one session.

Climate Imprints features works by Rie Hasegawa, John Andrews, Sarah Sears, Essye Klempner, Ethan Tate, Anna Fiacco, Tara Sabharwal, Chakaia Booker, Justin Sanz, Edward Fausty, Yasuyo Tanaka and Shervone Neckles and is curated by Chakaia Booker, Tara Sabharwal and Justin Sanz.

Witnessing the increasingly evident signs of the destruction of our livable environment weighs heavy on the minds of many artists. As environmental and agricultural issues worsen, all people are forced to rethink their current situations to survive. Climate change is seamlessly linked with migration, much of the cause of the other.

Artists collectively reflect the culture and thoughts of a society and printmaking has historically been a medium that reflects on pressing current events. In this exhibition artists examine their responses to the climate crisis through various printmaking techniques.

Selected Works from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Archive features works by Elizabeth Catlett, Robert Blackburn, Seung-min Lee, Chakaia Booker, Ayana Evans, Faith Ringgold, Juan Sanchez, Romare Bearden, Al Loving, Betye Saar, Devraj Dakoji, Maren Hassinger, Mel Edwards, Raque Ford, Robin Holder and Reuben Kadish.

The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York, NY was founded in the 1940s by Blackburn, an artist with the goal to create a space for other artists to learn to make prints regardless of financial access and technical abilities. According to their mission, “It is with this spirit of openness and inclusion that Robert Blackburn’s vision of sustaining this welcoming, creative environment continues to serve as the backbone of the workshop today.” A broad range of emerging to highly established artists have made artworks at the RBPW. This exhibition showcases this breadth of reach the workshop has had by highlighting works made at the RBPW from the printshop’s archive.

Communications Hall Gallery
Northampton Community College
3835 Green Pond Road
Bethlehem PA 18020

For questions contact:
Rachael Gorchov, rgorchov@northampton.edu; Jillian McLuhan, jmcluhan@northampton.edu.

Image Caption:

Left: Chakaia Booker and Justin Sanz working together at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Right: Collaborative collagraph print and plate by Chakaia Booker and Justin Sanz. Students at the 11/21 workshops will learn this technique.