Conference Inkubators

Inkubators arose out of the desire for more informal, group discussions at the conference. They are set up as round table discussions, moderated by the organizer. Calls for Inkubator topics are requested during the Round 1 Call for Participation. Inkubators are scheduled for two hour increments, but typically last about an hour and a half. See Conference Inkubator descriptions below. 

SEA CHANGE: CONNECTING PRINTMAKERS, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND RESEARCH

Organizers: Deborah Cornell, Richard Cornell, Barbara Putnam

Date, Time & Location: April 4, 9:30-11am, Hilton Caribe, Los Rosales, Salon C

Puerto Rico is an island environment, a single point surrounded by a changing ocean and climate. To confront climate changes, sea level rise and possible mass extinctions, artists utilize the interaction of creative disciplines and the embrace of broad scientific research. Print media are flexible communication tools capable of absorbing data, analysis, and image, constructing a bridge between research and public engagement. Conservation and policy change can come from thoughtful, collaborative thinking, considering economic challenges alongside coastal biology, ocean rhythms, and marine ecosystems.

What are the environmental concerns specific to Puerto Rico and how do these issues resonate with the countries represented in the INKubator session? 

What interdisciplinary efforts are already taking place and what forms can they take? 

How do we connect printmakers interested in conservation, research initiatives, and working for change? 

Goals: 

• Discuss Puerto Rican/Caribbean climate issues experienced now and projected in the future, reaching out to Puerto Rican institutions such as Milo Climate Action Academy or Caribbean Conservation Center for Manatees. 
• Share ideas for collaborating to amplify scientific research, and reach the public through creative practice. 
• Join international printmakers interested in communicating awareness of local and global climate change.

No Office Space

Organizers: Rae Helms and Francesca Lally

Date, Time & Location: April 4, 11:30-1pm, Hilton Caribe, Los Rosales, Salon C

“DIY serves as the honorific term for the kind of subject required by the constant just-in-time turmoil of our networked world. It has come to stand for a potent mix of entrepreneurial agency and networked sociality, proclaiming itself heir to both punk autonomy, the notion of living by your wits and as an outsider, and to a subcultural basis for authentic artistic production, the assumption that truly creative individuals exist in spontaneously formed social undergrounds.”       

– Lane Relyea, Welcome to Yourspace 

Inspired by Lane Relyea’s concept of do-it-yourself as an art form representing subcultural authenticity, No Office Space aims to discuss how easily accessible printmaking tools can enhance our understanding of both historical and contemporary archives. The focus of this inkubator explores the often overlooked aesthetics in print media through DIY and non-archival processes. Artists will examine how accessible methods in print media—such as xerox printing, risograph, stenciling, and monoprinting—can be used to reinterpret narratives about place, identity, gender, race, and power.  

Overall, this discussion will consider how underappreciated printmaking techniques can be used to reclaim narratives within the hierarchies of fine art. It will also discuss how the use of non-archival printmaking processes can reshape our understanding of history and aesthetics and what new possibilities these create for addressing issues of identity, power, and environmental sustainability.

Building Community: Better Supporting Artist-Run Spaces

Organizer: Ani Volkan

Date, Time & Location: April 5, 9:30-11am, Hilton Caribe, Los Rosales, Salon C

Artists often find themselves taking on additional roles in their community, that of curator, organizer, and gallery director. Printmakers are no exception, innovating new ways of supporting themselves and each other through collaborations of resources and ideas. This Inkubator session seeks to investigate these artist-run spaces, how they contribute to the creation of new ways of working, and creating, and how these spaces can be better through an investigation of accessibility.

The Changing Tides

Organizers:Sangmi Yoo & Rosenda Álvarez Faro

Date, Time & Location: April 5, 1:30-3pm, Hilton Caribe, Los Rosales, Salon C

This INKubator session will focus on understanding cultural diversity and celebrating it. The audience will participate in the learning of the history of the conference site, Puerto Rico, and its cultural heritage along with celebrating other cultures seen through the printmaking practices. The organizers will introduce their stories and welcome the viewer participation. Rosenda Álvarez Faro’s artistic practice, including her previous involvement in Taller Malaquita, an art collective founded by women artists of San Juan. Their interdisciplinary practices have provided a great platform for art production, solidarity, exchange, and collaboration. Sangmi Yoo will open a wider dialog by seeing one another’s cultures as evolving work. Her artwork, Stereotyped Ordinary utilizes the overgeneralization of one’s culture by societies and brings attention to the cultural representation being a flux, not a stasis.

 The key points to be addressed are:

• Describe Puerto Rico’s colonial histories and other marginalized cultures and identify their historical and current challenges. 
• Showcase current practices of the cultural representations in artistic practices and communities.
• Address cultural diversity in sensible and inclusive ways.

Student Lightning Talks 

Organizer: Gaby Hurtado-Ramos

The Student Lightning Talks is a panel where undergraduate and graduate SGCI student members will share small but mighty 5-minute presentations about their work, followed by a Q&A. The panel is designed to highlight students that have strong bodies of work or specific projects to share in a concise presentation. This series of presentations will allow attendees to learn about a variety of artists’ works in a short period of time and provide the opportunity for students and conference attendees to connect over shared interests that come up in the presentations and Q&A. Highlighting student work provides an important platform for emerging and early-career artists to share their work and connect with others.

Interested panelists should submit the following to ghurtado-ramos@sgcinternational.org by Sept 15 : Artist statement, CV, 3 images of artwork, a corresponding image list including title, dimensions, medium and any additional information.

Applicants need to be members at a Friend Membership ($5 yr.) or above to apply and an Advocate Membership ($34 or $75 yr.) if application is accepted.

Prints in Motion: The Animated Print

Organizer: Shannon Ferguson

This panel will discuss how contemporary printmakers are using the mode of animation in collaboration with traditional printmaking practices to create time based artworks. Animation commonly is used in pop culture to establish narratives, but how can the repetition of the print communicate with the medium beyond its traditional expectations? Stop Motion animation and Risograph animation are only some of the ways that printmakers are using the matrix to create moving images. Panelists will discuss the role of animation in their own print practices as well as its role as a teaching tool in the contemporary print classroom.

Those interested in presenting on this panel should submit the following by September 15: a brief statement (150 words or less) describing how your work relates to the subject of “Prints in Motion : The Animated Print” as outlined in the abstract, along with three images of your work or vimeo links, and your website to sfergu31@vols.utk.edu 

Applicants need to be members at a Friend Membership ($5 yr.) or above to apply and an Advocate Membership ($34 or $75 yr.) if application is accepted.

Occupying the Margins: Stories from Printmaking’s Outlying Professions

Organizer: Elysia Mann

Academic programs tend to steer students toward tenure-track positions or independent practice while the larger field of print-related careers operates in the periphery of our awareness. Yet we rely on a vast range of specialists who support the production of creative research—paper mills, ink makers, mechanists, publishers, framers, art handlers, writers and administrators all contribute to the mycelial network of print. This panel invites workers from lesser-acknowledged occupational territories to share their stories. Where do you find a sense of purpose and satisfaction in your work? How have you shaped your job to fit your unique skills and interests? In what ways are you challenged to use your creativity? How do you envision a sustainable future of diverse print professions? What advice do you have for those who are interested in carving their own path in the world of printmaking? 

To apply to this open call, email emann7@tennessee.edu by September 15 with a brief description (roughly 150 words) of your occupation and how you find joy or meaning in your role. Include three images (1MB or less) that help illustrate your work life along with links to your website and/or social media.

Applicants need to be members at a Friend Membership ($5 yr.) or above to apply and an Advocate Membership ($34 or $75 yr.) if application is accepted.

Listening with/within Contemporary Printmaking Practices

Organizer: Heather Leier

The concept of listening has gained prominence across various disciplines as a critical mode of engagement and understanding. From environmental studies to Indigenous methodologies, listening has been proposed as a transformative practice that can transcend mere auditory perception, offering insights into relationality and interconnectedness. This panel explores how listening manifests within contemporary printmaking practices, examining its potential to attune practitioners to political, social, historical, and environmental relations to unsettle colonial relations between the human and more-than-human.

Those interested in presenting on this panel should submit the following by September 15: TBA

Applicants need to be members at a Friend Membership ($5 yr.) or above to apply and an Advocate Membership ($34 or $75 yr.) if application is accepted.

Experiences of cultural exchange through Printmaking

Organizers: Sol Gómez and Gina Reynoso

Printmaking’s inherent reproducibility and portability makes it the perfect vehicle for cultural exchange.  The visual language of the print can enable meaningful conversations that transcend language barriers, geographical boundaries, and ideological constructs.

This panel would examine the ways in which artists and Collectives have used printmaking as a point of entry to engage with other cultures and communities. In the contemporary age, how can printmaking be used to connect people? To build artistic communities across the globe? In what ways does it enrich cultural understanding? What does it teach us about ourselves and how might we learn from each other?

La reproductibilidad y portabilidad inherentes del grabado lo convierten en el vehículo perfecto para el intercambio cultural. El lenguaje visual del grabado puede permitir conversaciones significativas que trascienden las barreras lingüísticas, los límites geográficos y las construcciones ideológicas.

Este panel permitirá compartir las formas en que los artistas y colectivos han utilizado el grabado como punto de entrada-partida para interactuar con otras culturas y comunidades. En la era contemporánea, nos preguntamos: ¿cómo se puede utilizar el grabado para conectar entre personas? ¿Para construir comunidades artísticas alrededor del mundo? ¿De qué manera puede enriquecer el entendimiento cultural? ¿Qué nos enseña sobre nosotros mismos y cómo podemos aprender unos de otros?

Those interested in presenting on this panel should submit the following by September 15: a brief statement (150 words or less) describing how your work relates to the subject of “Experiences of cultural exchange through printmaking” as outlined in the abstract, along with three images of your work and your website to gina.reynoso@gmail.com 

Applicants need to be members at a Friend Membership ($5 yr.) or above to apply and an Advocate Membership ($34 or $75 yr.) if application is accepted.

Artist Books: Place and Space 

Organizer: Jennifer Scheuer

The artist book as a form utilizes surface, space and time, and is well suited to describe place. In describing place, artists might create work about a research site, home, travel, or use the form to create inventive and imagined space- to retell histories, what might be, and forgotten narratives. What layers of content and messages can be described uniquely through this artform and flexibility of structure? In this panel artists will present recent projects that influence the creation of their artist books. The panel will be an open call inviting artists to participate, and can include 4-6 presenters.

Those interested in presenting on this panel should submit the following by September 15: submit a brief statement (150 words or less) describing how your work relates to the subject of “Artist Books: Place and Space” as outlined in the abstract, along with three images of your work and your website to jscheue@purdue.edu  with the subject line “Artist Books”

Applicants need to be members at a Friend Membership ($5 yr.) or above to apply and an Advocate Membership ($34 or $75 yr.) if application is accepted.

Wind Whispers 

Organizer: Eszter Sziksz, DLa

The Wind Whispers project is an innovative and interdisciplinary initiative that aims to amplify the voices of young people in addressing climate change through art and nature. This ongoing project, led by Eszter Sziksz, DLA in collaboration with Dr. Kata Dozsa, utilizes printmaking and natural elements to create a platform for young people aged 16-18 to express their hopes and desires for our collective climate future. Messages collected from young individuals are transformed into art using organic ash and printed on snow in the High Arctic, as well as on lush tropical leaves and the soil of the rainforest in Costa Rica. The ephemeral nature of these messages, carried by the wind and interacting with local fauna, serves as a powerful metaphor for the transient impact of human actions on the environment. This interdisciplinary work has been presented at international conferences, including the International Inter-/Transdisciplinary Conference and will be further showcased at the “Child/youth-friendly Climate Justice: Progress and Opportunities” conference. The project’s expansion to Costa Rica demonstrates its global relevance and potential to engage diverse communities in climate justice and sustainability conversations. The Puffin Foundation supports the Wind Whispers project.

Those interested in presenting on this panel should submit the following by September 15: a brief statement (150 words or less) describing how your work relates to the subject of “Wind Whispers” as outlined in the abstract, along with three images of your work and your website to szikszeszter@gmail.com 

Applicants need to be members at a Friend Membership ($5 yr.) or above to apply and an Advocate Membership ($34 or $75 yr.) if application is accepted.

POSSIBILITIES / POSIBILIDADES: Bridging Print and Paper

Organizer: Georgia Deal

The long history and interconnection of printmaking media and hand papermaking has led to a multitude of projects and collaborations. This panel will focus on such collaborations between printmakers and papermakers in both locales, highlighting both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works as well as installations.

Those interested in presenting on this panel should submit the following by September 15: a brief statement (150 words or less) describing how your, and your collaborator(s) work relates to the subject, POSSIBILITIES / POSIBILIDADES as outlined in the abstract, along with three images of your work and your website to deal.craft@verizon.net 

Applicants need to be members at a Friend Membership ($5 yr.) or above to apply and an Advocate Membership ($34 or $75 yr.) if application is accepted.

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