ACCESS/PRINT & LOOK/SEE, and FREE INK DAY

ACCESS/PRINT, our teen mentorship program, artists include Tamsin Beveridge, Nana Boynton, Finn Emerson, GiGi Lahr, Kamarah Maynard, Ray Maynard, Kaya Molt, Sofia Rice, and Jasper Slichter. Come see what the students created during the program and watch live screenprinting demonstrations by the students and instructors. *Read more about student projects and the programs below.

LOOK/SEE: featuring some of the artwork made by Hennepin County 5th-graders as part of the Creative Clean Water Stewardship Program. Each year, HP engages 250 5th-graders in a year-long interdisciplinary environmental education program designed to teach students about clean water initiatives, rain gardens, and pollinators and create artwork around sustainability. Participating students hail from Burroughs Community, Ella Baker Global Studies and Humanities Magnet, Nellie Stone Johnson, and Whittier International Elementary Schools. This program is generously supported by the Hennepin County Green Partners Education Grant.

ACCESS/PRINT is a teen mentorship program that supports creative youth with over 50 hours of studio time, printmaking tutorials, technical assistance, and support as they work to create a body of work.

“The students in the ACCESS/PRINT Teen Mentorship were able to spend their semester experimenting with many different print mediums, including monotype, intaglio, relief, and screen. Each student brought with them their own perspectives and strong backgrounds in art making. They showed amazing flexibility and adept creative thinking as they translated their creative practices into prints and discovered the expansiveness of their own art through printmaking. It was a joy to work with this Spring 2024 cohort and get to be a part of the uniquely experimental, collaborative, and warm studio space they fostered.”

– ACCESS/PRINT Co-coordinator Isabel Arevalo

ACCESS/PRINT ARTWORK HIGHLIGHTS:

Saint Paul Conservatory of Performing Arts junior Nana Boynton is working on a final project that combines a screenprinted photo collage with watercolor monotype. They are exploring themes around gender, sexuality, and LGBTQAI+ representation, working to integrate personal narrative and universal experience in their work. Nana plans to center the physical body in their work.

Gigi Lahr’s final project, inspired by the political history of printmaking as a tool for dissemination, will be a series of large-scale screenprinted posters. She will focus on messaging, commentary, and education related to the COVID-19 pandemic, medical science, and masking. Gigi plans to experiment with materials, such as hand sanitizer, to make marks in her work; these marks serve as metaphors for what we collectively experienced during the pandemic (physical disinfection, what was wiped away/given up).

Ray Maynard’s project includes a large-scale drypoint. They explore ideas of variation within symmetry. They will combine their interest in sewing and textiles into their project by printing on wearables in addition to paper.

Free Ink Day, Highpoint Co-op, Classroom, and Rain Garden, 12 - 4 pm

Free Ink Days (family days) are free, engaging, and printmaking fun for all! Come create water-soluble monoprints, learn about print techniques, and enjoy environmental programming. We’ll have several special environmental guests, including Erin Rupp from PollinateMN and information from Hennepin County Green Partners.

Zero-waste snacks and refreshments are provided! The student exhibition and Free Ink Day are generously supported by the Hennepin County Green Partners Grant.