Summer Printmaking Intensive Exhibition 2021
August 17 through 20, 2021
Building 9, Governors Island
For six weeks this summer, twelve graduate students and nine teenagers from NYC public schools created artworks together in the inaugural edition of Shandaken's Summer Printmaking Intensive. Centered on a new credit-bearing course at Hunter entitled “Governors Island Printmaking and Publishing Intensive, ARTCR 751,” this program was inspired by the ideas of Paulo Freire, who holds that education can be a tool for liberation, and that students and teachers can learn from one another.
During the program, participating graduate students were trained in mentoring principals, and then mentored local teens enrolled in NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program in the creation of ephemera like prints, posters, and zines related to the context of Governors Island, and its mission of environmental and social justice. Teens were paid $15 per hour to participate in 140 hours of class time.
Artworks created by the class were gathered into a free exhibition available to all Governors Island visitors.