Mural Arts has launched its flagship project to mark the nation’s semi-quincentennial, Printmaking by the
People. I’m proud to have conceived and guided this project in collaboration with co-project manager
Lindsey Rosenberg.
Printmaking by the People – organized as a reflection on the nation’s semi-quincentennial – will engage
people in communities across Philadelphia in a dialogue about how the Declaration of Independence has
set the stage for life in our city and our nation today.
The project will reimagine printmaking’s historic role in public communication and civic dialogue,
particularly its roots in Philadelphia as a means of disseminating debates about the movement for
independence. Today, we will ask people to explore how we have succeeded, what work remains to be
done, and what their own passions and commitments are for the future, and express their ideas through
the same tools.
The project will involve printmaking workshops across the city, led by facilitators and artists, that feature
small-group dialogues and hands-on printing activities. The workshops will provide a space for people to
create prints with their own messages, which can be assembled into public displays in their communities,
uploaded into an online archive and incorporated into a culminating mural in Philadelphia.
We are beginning this summer with prototype workshops that will test various methodologies for
community engagement and printmaking.
You can read more about those workshops here.
You can read a “one-pager” about the project here.
Collaborator: Philadelphia250, the Free Library of Philadelphia
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