SGC International

MISSON

Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI) aims to encourage public interest in printmaking, drawing, and other graphic arts. We share professional information among artists and related individuals, organize and circulate exhibitions of prints and drawings in educational and arts-focused institutions, and recognize outstanding contributions to these arts through awards. Additionally, we engage and support artists and communities from diverse backgrounds in our activities, and keep members and the public informed about relevant activities and information through publications. Our goal is to foster study, research, enjoyment, and the advancement of printmaking, drawing, and graphic arts. SGCI is the largest print organization in North America and artists from all 50 states and international attendees from Canada, South and Central America, and Europe attend the conference.

Originally formed as Southern Graphics Council, a regional organization for educators of print in the U.S. South, we have grown over the years into the nation’s largest organization of printmakers. We now have representatives internationally, and in 2010 changed our name to SGC International to reflect this broader scope. While the SGC International mission focuses on printmaking, we welcome everyone interested in advancing the dialogue of art, its education, and its processes.

SGC INTERNATIONAL 2023-26 EXECUTIVE BOARD

CLAUDIA WILBURN

President

Board Member

Claudia Wilburn is a mixed-media artist currently living in Northeastern Georgia and teaching as an Associate Professor at Brenau University where she is the Department Chair for Art and Design and Director of the enter for the Arts and Design. She received her Masters of Fine Art from the University of South Carolina and her BFA from Clemson University. She grew up in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and has lived throughout the South. Her work draws on the connections, paths, family and community present in the Southeastern American experience. Her academic research has been presented internationally and her work has been exhibited all over the US.

Selected Exhibitions and Presentations: Wilburn presented her body of work titled Navigate by Reckoning in a solo exhibition at the Batesville Area Arts Council, Batesville, AR in October 2019 and at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville GA, January 2021.

In May 2020, Wilburn was awarded with the Master’s in Teaching Award by Featherbone Communiversity & Brenau University. In May, 2018 she was awarded the Ann Austin Johnson Outstanding Faculty Award at Brenau University in Gainesville, GA. This award is selected by a committee of previous awardees based on recommendation by students and faculty; awardees demonstrate and foster outstanding teaching, enhancing teaching as a profession, and supporting other faculty in the pursuit of excellence.

MICHAEL SMOOT

Vice President

Board Member

Mike Smoot currently lives in Southern Vermont and is a Professor of the Practice in Print and Paper at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. He completed Tamarind Institute’s Professional Printer Training Program in 2007 and has worked at a number of professional fine art print studios including Atelier Towson, The Experimental Print Institute, Tamarind Institute, and Landfall Press. He has taught or given lectures and demonstrations on printmaking at Towson University, Goucher College, East Carolina University, Southeast Missouri State University, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Georgia State University, Valdosta State University, UMass Amherst, Bennington College, Keene State College, and Smith College. In addition, he has worked with a number of art related community organizations. He believes printmaking’s potentials for sustained collaborative effort, the negotiation of difference, and collective creative action make it a worthwhile pursuit.

JOSEPH VELASQUEZ

Vice President

Board Member

Joseph Velasquez was born in Amarillo, Texas, and raised in the San Fernando Valley of California. After his military service, he earned his BFA from the University of Mary- Hardin Baylor, Belton, Texas. Then he earned both an MA and MFA in Printmaking at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and. He is the co-creator of a mobile printmaking studio, Drive-By Press, that has traveled over 200,000 miles across the country and has been to 145 Universities where he has lectured and demonstrated printmaking practices.

Joseph’s work evolves around popular culture graphic iconography, community outreach, education, and activism. He is a National Endowment for the Arts recipient: Funded through The John Michael Kohler Arts Center for a Community Arts Project and residency and an Assistant Professor of Art at Florida Atlantic University. He teaches Bookmaking, Screenprinting, Relief, and Intaglio.

Velasquez has exhibited at numerous national and international venues, notably "Air-Land Seed" on the occasion of the Venice Biennale 54th and 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice, Italy; South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa; The Print Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Doujiao Museum of Art, Songhuang Art Village, Beijing China, State Lines: A Survey of American Printmakers, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK. Exhibition of prints from American artists Velasquez met on his mobile printmaking tour.

Website: josephvelasquez.com
Instagram:@dbpjoseph
Email: jvelasquez@sgcinternational.org

KAMLA KAKARIA

Secretary

Board Member

I am a first-generation American of East Indian descent and spent my formative years between the US and New Delhi. I attended college part-time for many years as a single working mother and received a BFA in painting and an MFA in printmaking. I work in printmaking and encaustic, as well as installation work. I am the Board President of Seattle Print Arts and I run the 2D department at Pratt Fine Arts Center. Being an American growing up in an Indian household I attempt to understand my place in between through making.

SUSAN CZECHOWSKI

Treasurer

Board Member

Artist Susan Czechowski, fell in love with screen printing thirty years ago when she was lucky enough to work on several pieces for Roy Lichtenstein. Since then, she has taught thousands of students silkscreen and printmaking techniques as a professor at Western Illinois University. Outside the classroom, Susan leads art students on annual trips to her native New York City as well as summer sessions to different cities across Europe. In addition to her role as educator, Susan has exhibited her own work in numerous gallery and museum settings across the United States and Europe. She has been awarded residencies and exhibitions at Grafische Werkplaats in the Netherlands, and Prairie Center of The Arts, Peoria, IL. She holds a B.A. in Art and Art History from Washington College and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University—and feels the same excitement each and every time she pulls a squeegee across a fresh sheet of paper.

Website: susanczechowski.com
Email: sczechowski@sgcinternational.org

DENISE BOOKWALTER

Affiliates Coordinator

Board Member

Denise Bookwalter is an artist and educator. She is founder and director of Small Craft Advisory Press, a collaborative book arts press that pushes the tradition of the artist book. She is Professor in the Department of Art at Florida State University where she is Area Head of Printmaking. Her book works are collected in the US, Netherlands and South Africa. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida with her husband and twin daughters.

Website: denisebookwalter.com
Instagram: @denisebookwalter
Email: dbookwalter@sgcinternational.org

VALERIE DIBBLE

Archives Coordinator

Board Member

Valerie A. (Wright) Dibble is a practicing artist, university professor, wife, homemaker and mother of three. She earned her BFA from Arizona State University in 1982 in printmaking and photo processes. She earned her MFA from the University of Florida1991 in printmaking and electronic media.

Valerie is currently a Professor of Art and the Coordinator of the Printmaking concentration at Kennesaw State Univeristy. She has been awarded the Distinguished Teacher, Distinguished Scholar and Distinguished Service awards. She has also received a Governor’s Teaching fellowship and numerous grants. She actively serves by holding positions on local, national and international Boards for various art organizations.

Website: www.valeriedibble.com
Email: vdibble@sgcinternational.org

GRETCHEN SCHERMERHORN

Board Member

Website: gretchenschermerhorn.com
Instagram: @gretchenschermerhorn
Email: gschermerhorn@sgcinternational.org

CLAIRE WHITE

Immediate Past-President

Non-voting Advisor

I am a printmaker and book artist living in Indiana. I served as Secretary for the 2020-2022 board and became President the support staggered terms. I will be Board President from 2022-2023. 

I am interested in the relationship between art, climate change and environmental policy.