Mission

The mission of the Experimental Printmaking Institute is to provide a creative environment in which professional artists and students can create work and investigate new experimental approaches to the print medium.

EPI strives to celebrates the art of the print by:

• raising awareness and understanding among students, community members, and patrons about the value of printmaking;
• organizing major traveling print exhibitions;
• creating access to printmaking for artists and community members;
• providing excellent learning opportunities for students and artists who collaborate across generations, races, and cultures; and
• encouraging an investigation into new print practices and techniques.

History

Established in 1996 , EPI has worked to become a dedicated fine print atelier with a commitment to exploration. EPI has distinguished itself as one of the few workshops that is committed to celebrating and maintaining the highest standards of the printmaking tradition while challenging artists to investigate innovative techniques and new media in order to broaden and refocus the language of printmaking. EPI provides the opportunity for diverse artists to create new work through the visiting artist and artist in residence programs. Lafayette students have the rare opportunity to work side by side with established artists developing and producing original work while assisting the master artist in the execution of their work. This mentorship role between undergraduate students and master artists makes EPI truly unique among its peers.

Facility

The printmaking studio, located on the campus of Lafayette College, occupies its own building of over three thousand square feet. It is equipped with a ventilation system and over eighty running feet of counter workspace. The studio presently has four presses: two etching presses (one for large format printing and one standard size), a lithography press and an automatic vacuum operated serigraph press. In addition, there is a Vandercook letterpress. The studio is also equipped with an up-to-date Macintosh computer station designed to interface with various print mediums as well as to produce film for printmaking applications. The computer lab has an Epson 7600 printer for large-format digital prints.

Curlee Raven Holton, Director of EPI

Curlee Raven Holton is a master printmaker, educator, and lecturer who has received numerous awards and grants for his artwork and research. His work has been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Seventh International Biennale, Cairo, Egypt; and most recently in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan. He earned his B.F.A. from the Cleveland Institute of Fine Arts and an M.F.A. from Kent State University. His work is in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the West Virginia Governor’s Mansion, Morehouse College, and the Fundación Cultural Rodolfo Morales in Oaxaca, Mexico. Currently he serves as professor of art at Lafayette College, where he has taught African American art history and printmaking since 1991. Holton is the founding director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College.

Advisory Committee

Stephen Antonakos
Richard Anuszkiewicz
Melvin Edwards
Sam Gilliam
Robert S. Mattison, Ph.D.
Lewis Tanner Moore
Christine Oaklander, Ph.D.
Faith Ringgold
Robert E. Steele, Ph.D.
Christopher Tague