One of Spudnik Press’ six private studios will be available March 1.

What would Independence Day be without Independence Day sales? This year, sign up for a class at your favorite independent printshop and save, save, save! We’ve slashed our prices with students saving $5 off all our standard one-day workshops, and up to $15 to $25off our 4-12 week classes! *

But hurry! A deal this good won’t last! This special offer is only valid through this Saturday, July 4!

Browse all classes and workshops

*Discounts will be applied once the item is placed in the shopping cart.

We are counting down to Printer’s Ball 2015: Push & Pull and we need your help with the largest annual event that Spudnik Press presents! We’re are looking for 50 volunteers to assist with a variety of tasks ranging including tent set-up, A/V assistance, printmaking workshop support, greeting and guest check in, and serving drinks.

We’re scheduling six hours shifts with ample time for breaks to allow volunteers to enjoy the festivities as well. All volunteers will receively light snacks and a drink ticket. Want to volunteer with a buddy? Great, we’ll schedule you together!

Available shifts:
Shift A: 12:00pm – 6:00 pm
Shift B: 1:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Shift C: 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Please respond to Volunteer Coordinator, Caroline Walp, at printersballvolunteer@gmail.com no later than Friday June 12th with:

Questions? Email printersballvolunteer@gmail.com

Can’t help out day-of but still want to help?

Wonderful! We’ll have screenprinted posters in-house by Friday June 12th. We need all the help we can to distributing them around the city (especially in Wicker Park and Logan Square). Swing by the printshop next Friday or Saturday during Open Studio. If you hang out posters in 6+ locations, we’ll even let you keep one for yourself!

Thank you in advance for volunteering and helping to make this amazing event run smoothly. We couldn’t execute all this without help from dedicated supporters like you. We’re getting excited and this is going to be fun!

Chicago, IL- Spudnik Press Cooperative will host Printers Ball 2015 on June 27, 2015 at the Hubbard Street Lofts (1821 W Hubbard Street) from 2pm to 10pm. Printers Ball is a daylong celebration of literary culture and printmaking, and this year the event finds inspiration from the theme Push & Pull. The festival showcases interactive programs that all respond to the central question of how communities “push and pull” physically, metaphorically, and politically.

Spudnik Press is excited to welcome Bryce McCloud as their Festival Guest and Keynote Speaker. McCloud is the mastermind behind Nashville-based Isle of Printing. Part graphic designer, part printer, part public art generator, McCloud believes in “the positive power of creativity to make our world a more interesting place to live.” McCloud will kick off the day by unveiling the “Bryce Buck”, an all-new currency that can be earned through acts of kindness and of sharing and spent on a range of affirming goods. For the keynote session, at 7pm, he will discuss his community-focused art projects, including his most recent project, Our Town, a city-wide collaborative self-portraiture project.

With eighteen unique programs taking place outdoors and throughout the Hubbard Street Lofts building, guests can anticipate a field day of hands-on experiences with printmaking, writing, and live lit, as well as partake in roundtable conversations with artists and peers. One highly anticipated program– the Steamroller Spectacular, featuring contributions from 300 local artists– will transform the parking lot into an oversize printing press and use a construction steamroller to create banner-sized collaborative prints. The Book Butcher is a deli-themed book shop, where visitors can order different “cuts” of magazines and books, contributed from revered publishers, big and small, across the nation.

Plus, Printers Ball 2015 will feature the first-ever Book Drive benefiting Open Books. Lightly used and affectionately discarded books can be contributing to a one-of-a-kind book repository created by artist Linsey Burrett.

This year, there are new and exciting ways to participate in Printers Ball 2015: Push & Pull. As always, Basic Admission is free for all! A VIP ticket ($25) includes a limited edition tote bag and poster, guaranteed entry to the keynote presentation, one free drink ticket, and five free books at our deli-themed “Book Butcher” shop. With a General Admission ticket ($5), you support Printers Ball 2015 and receive guaranteed entry to the Keynote presentation. All donations support Printers Ball and Spudnik Press!

The full event schedule is now available online at printersball.org.

Follow @printersballCHI and @spudnikpress on Instagram and Twitter and search #pushandpull #printersball to receive Printers Ball updates.

Printers Ball 2015 is presented by Spudnik Press Cooperative, in partnership with Two Brothers Coffee Roasters, Rose Paving Company and CHIRP Radio. Made possible by the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine.

 Download the Printers Ball 2015: Push & Pull Press Release

The Summer Print Pass offers college students and new graduates extensive access to all facilities at Spudnik Press Cooperative. 13 consecutive weeks of Weekly Access ($60/week value) allow artists transitioning from school the opportunity to continue creating prints post-graduation, meet a non-academic community of artists, and continue developing their portfolio or begin a new body of artwork. All artists who meet the requirements can receive this non-competitive opportunity.

The Summer Print Pass Includes:

+ 13 consecutive weeks of Weekly Access (June 2 through August 28).
+ Weekly Access Hours: Tuesday through Friday 12-5pm.
+ Annual Membership ($60 value).
+ Limited personal storage; access to a shared flat file drawer.

Requirements:

+ Graduated from a post-secondary school between now and 12/1/2014.
+ Attend a free orientation before using Weekly Access.
+ Is proficient in at least one area of print offered at Spudnik Press.
+ Submit the $300 fee online or in person by June 1, 2015

To take advantage of this opportunity, call or email Studio Manager, Veronica Siehl (veronica@spudnikpress.org). Please include your name, university, and areas of print you would like to be authorized for. Questions are welcome, however, our free orientation addresses the vast majority of questions regarding printing at Spudnik Press.

Download a PDF with Summer Print Pass details

This fall, Spudnik Press Cooperative is proud to welcome three local artists to create new bodies of print-based work through the revamped Artist Residency program. The essense of the program remains true to the mission of Spudnik: to provide affordable and accessible access to printmaking facilities. The changes to the program bring additional benefits through providing a guest studio visit, more interaction between residents, and for the first time ever, a stipend to support the work of each selected artist.

For all the application details please download our Residency Form 2015. Applications are due June 22 at 5pm.

Chicago, IL- Spudnik Press Cooperative is proud to host the 2015 Printers Ball on June 27, 2015 at the Hubbard Street Lofts (1821 W Hubbard Street) from 2pm to 10pm. In its 11th year, this annual celebration of literary culture and printmaking will draw inspiration from this year’s theme, Push & Pull. Printers Ball 2015 brings together printers, writers, publishers, artists, readers, collectors, students, teachers, makers, and consumers to embrace the push and pull that is integral to a dynamic community. The interactive and engaging programs that will take place throughout the day all respond to this central question of how communities “push and pull” physically, metaphorically, and politically. This celebratory summer festival will feature live printmaking demonstrations, roundtable discussions, collaborative art-making projects, a marketplace, music, food, drinks and live performances.

Printers Ball 2015 programs blur the lines of presenter and audience, performance and participation, printmaking and authoring, artist and subject. Highlights include:

The Steamroller Spectacular will kick-off the festival. 300 woodblocks, each hand-carved by artists, students of all ages, and creative thinkers throughout Chicago, will be printed outdoors using a construction steamroller to create banner-sized collaborative prints.

Festival guest, Bryce McCloud (@isleofprinting) presents his public art projects through both an interactive project and a keynote session at 7pm, June 27, 2015. For the 2015 Printers Ball, Bryce McCloud will unveil the Bryce Buck, an all-new currency that will be printed onsite at Spudnik Press Cooperative.  Rousing the perceived value of currency, Bryce Bucks can be earned through acts of kindness and of sharing and spent on a range of affirming goods. For the keynote session, Nashville-based artist, McCloud will discuss his community-focused art projects, including his most recent project, Our Town. Our Town perfectly exemplifies the “push & pull” of art, community, democracy and the individual. The project facilitates self-portraiture sessions throughout Nashville that are then collected and turned into prints. In exchange for completing a self-portrait, each person receives a print of another’s self-portrait, creating new connections between otherwise strangers.

The full Printers Ball 2015 event schedule will be released June 1. Follow @printersball and @spudnikpress on Instagram and Twitter and search #pushandpull #printersball to receive Printers Ball updates.

View the Printers Ball 2015 Press Release

Core Classes are tried and true class offered on a regular rotating basis. Special Topics Classes can explore specialized processes, advanced techniques, and introduce new and fresh ideas to the studio. Professional artists with prior teaching experience who would like to teach at Spudnik Press are encouraged to apply to teach either Core or Special Topics classes.

For all the details please download our 2015 Call for Class & Workshop Proposals. Please note we have extended the deadline for Fall classes to May 3.

To apply, please submit a resume and work samples in addition to the following documents:

2015 Workshop Proposal Form
2015 Class Proposal Form
2015 Supply Request Form.

This June, Spudnik Press Cooperative will be hosting Steamroller Spectacular as part of Printers Ball 2015: Push & Pull. Artists, community art organizations, students of all ages, and creative thinkers are carving hundreds of printmaking blocks, all responding to the question of how communities “push and pull” physically, metaphorically, and politically.

This Spring, Community Carving Events will pop up through out the city, inviting the public to join the large-scale community printmaking project, led primarily by the esteemed arts educator, William Estrada. All events are completely free and open to the public.

South Chicago Arts Center
3217 E. 91st Street
Chicago, IL 60617
Saturday, April 11, 10-2pm

Comfort Station
2579 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
Sunday, May 24, 11-3pm

Arts Incubator
301 E Garfield Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60637
Saturday, May 30, 2-5pm

Additional Community Carving Events may be announced through out the spring. On Saturday, June 27, blocks will be printed using the parking lot and a steamroller to create oversized printed banners.

To receive periodic updates about this project and Printers Ball 2015, please sign up for the Printers Ball newsletter.

Equivalents
by Kyle Schlie
Published by Healthy Mgmt.

April Spud Pick

With spring making its way back into Chicago, lets celebrate with Kyle Schlie’s Equivalents, published by Healthy Mgmt. The only text throughout the book is the numbered labels below each figure.

These figures may remind us of Chicago in the spring: mostly black shapes crowd around a small hint of green. The green space both interrupts and fits within the large black shapes, just as, somehow, grass makes its place among the concrete of the city.

Schlie’s introductory figures are rigid, rectangular, and seem to imitate sidewalks or brick walls. As the story progresses, though, these forms deconstruct into curves or disconnected pieces. In some figures the green shape grows to dominate the overall formation, yet by the end, green and black reach equivalent size. The green never quite retains its dominance, but it also never forfeits its position among the black shapes.

The same can be said of a Chicago spring. It may struggle in its scale and impact on the city overall, but once it takes hold it will stubbornly persist, adding color and variety to winter’s monotony.
You can find Equivalents in the Small Press Library in the Annex.

The Keyholder program at Spudnik Press allows 24-hour access to all of our facilities, including the all of the tools and equipment housed in both the Printshop and the Annex. Keyholders are able to use the studio at the hours that suite them best, often avoiding the high-traffic Open Studio hours in exchange for Sunday afternoons, weekday mornings, and late night hours.

Keyholder access is $150 per calendar month, and includes all the same materials and equipment provided during Open Studio sessions. Remain a keyholder month-to-month and the rate drops to $125. To sign up for Keyholder access, please set up a short meeting to review the requirements, receive a flatfile drawer, and find out where the light switches are.

Spudnik Press Cooperative is accepting applications for our Fellowship Program, our flagship opportunity for artists in a transitional point in their career to gain access unrestricted access to our studios.

This six-month program provides support for young artists through full studio access and professional development opportunities. Fellows will acquire Studio Assistance experience through monitoring one open studio session per week. Each fellow will also work closely with staff to develop and lead a Community Workshop at Spudnik Press.

In addition to monitoring one Open Studio session per week, Fellows will also take on leadership roles at special events, member meetings, and outreach efforts. Fellows will meet regularly to share artwork and support each others projects. The program creates accountability for the cohort of four fellows as they set personal goals, create healthy studio habits, and develop their portfolio.

Ready to apply? 

For details please download our Studio Fellowship Call Summer Fall 2015.
To apply, download and return our Studio Fellow Proposal Form 2015 and return to veronica@spudnikpress.org.

Important Dates:

Deadline to Apply: April 13, 2015
Fellowship Orientation: May 2015, exact dates TBD
Monitor Training: May 0215, exact dates TBD
Fellowship Begins: June 1, 2015
Fellowship Ends: November 30, 2015

Pictured Above: Current Studio Fellows, Caroline Walp, Heather Anderson, and Ashley Shaul with Fellowshop Coordinator Tara Zanzig and Studio Manager, Veronica Siehl.