History of SGCI
Image credit: Joanna Pass & Court Annuschat, Phylogeny Divided (Detail), Intaglio & Silkscreen, 2024IN 1972 BOYD SAUNDERS, from the University of South Carolina, invited every printmaker he knew in the South to meet at the annual convention of the Southeastern College Art Conference with the intention of forming a printmaker’s organization. (At that time, college and university printmaking programs tended to be small, isolated, and neglected.) The group that assembled in New Orleans for that meeting included Bernie Solomon, John O’Neil and Boyd Saunders. They wrote and approved by-laws and in 1973 the Southeastern Graphics Council was officially chartered by the State of South Carolina as a non-profit organization.
Boyd Saunders served as the first president from 1972 through 1974. Bernie Solomon hosted the first annual workshop conference in 1974 at his home institution of Georgia Southern College. In 1978, as the organization grew in membership, the name was changed to the Southern Graphics Council. Over the next 30 years, conferences were held in not only Southern states, but in New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Membership to the SGC also expanded, and now has a national and international membership. In 2010, the name was changed again to its current SGC International.
A View from the South
SGC International is pleased to share with you the publication of a book about the work of our founding father, Boyd Saunders, written by SGCI Honorary Member of the Council awardee Thomas Dewey.
A View from the South is the first comprehensive examination of the life and art of one of America’s premier printmakers. Thomas Dewey II chronicles Saunders’s work as a printmaker, painter, sculptor, illustrator, author, educator, amateur musician, and sometimes horseman. With great care Dewey exposes the common thread that runs through Saunders’s visual expressions: his intriguing tales that reveal his heartfelt devotion to the people and places of the American South.
His art is exhibited throughout the world and is included in many private and public collections, including the Boston Public Library, the U.S. Wildlife Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Shanxi University in China. Thomas Dewey II is a faculty emeritus associate professor of art history at the University of Mississippi. He has published widely in professional journals.
Purchase A View from the South from University of South Carolina Press.
Past Presidents
Southeastern Graphics Council
1972-1974: Boyd Saunders, University of South Carolina
1974-1976: Tom Hammond, University of Georgia
1976-1978: Bill Walmsley, Florida State University
Southern Graphics Council:
1978-1980: Thomas Dewey: University of Mississippi
1982-1984: Zdzislaw Sikora, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, Michigan
1984-1986: Karin Broker: Rice University, Houston, Texas
1986-1988: Donald Byrum, Charlotte, North Carolina
1988-1990: Steve Cook, Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi
1990-1992: Ken Kerslake, University of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida
1992-1994: High Merrill, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri
1994-1996: Beauvais Lyons, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
1996-1998: Sergio Soave, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
1998-2000: Sydney Cross, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
2000-2002: Joe Sanders, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
2002-2004: Greg Carter, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia
2004-2006: April Katz, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
2006-2008: Anita Jung, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
2008-2010: Joseph Lupo, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
SGC International
2010-2012: Eun Lee, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia
2012-2014: Beth Grabowski, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2014-2016: David Jones, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
2016-2018: Nicole Pietrantoni, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington
2018-2020: Charles Beneke, University of Akron, Akron, OH
2020-2020: Sarah Ellis, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL
2020-2022: Faisal Abdu’Allah, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
2022-23: Claire White