Media Contact: Rachel Sitkin Marks, 215-735-6090 x5
THE PRINT CENTER ANNOUNCES CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
Marks Its Centennial with Special Citywide Events from September – December 2015
PHILADELPHIA, PA—(June 10, 2015)— To mark 100 years dedicated to the growth and understanding of photography and printmaking as vital contemporary arts, The Print Center announces the Centennial Celebration: The Print Center 100. The citywide celebration, which will take place from September through December 2015, incorporates 100 elements that highlight the legacy and future of the organization.
As part of The Print Center 100, Cuban-American artist and University of Pennsylvania Senior Lecturer in Photography Gabriel Martinez will mount a solo exhibition featuring newly commissioned works, including an immersive film projection installation. Additional elements of the celebration will include exhibitions, public art events, commissions, lectures, a content-laden website including an historical timeline and oral histories, Centennial publications, a Gala and a Street Party. A complete list of The Print Center 100 will be announced in July.
The Print Center 100 will honor the organization’s accomplishments over the last 100 years and its long-standing relationships with fellow leading arts and culture organizations throughout the city – with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Fabric Workshop & Museum, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Free Library of Philadelphia and the University of the Arts, among many others. The celebration will explore the unique attributes of print- its immediacy and accessibility- that make it one of today’s most important visual mediums.
For The Print Center, the Centennial is an opportunity to highlight its distinguished legacy which reaches far beyond Philadelphia to national and international photography and print communities; collaborate with many of our cultural colleagues to present new exhibitions and events; commission new projects; and inaugurate a sensational second century of inspiring photography and printmaking.
The Centennial year opened with the receipt of a two-year, $100,000 grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Rachel Bers, Program Director for the Warhol Foundation said, “The Foundation is thrilled to support an organization that, at 100 years old, is able to make vital and relevant contributions to contemporary art discourse.” Centennial support continues with a recent $400,000 gift from Julie Jensen Bryan and Robert Bryan permanently naming the Jensen Bryan Curatorial Chair.
Since its founding, The Print Center has created opportunities for artists to create and exhibit their work, investigated new processes and supported the printed image in all its forms. It has earned a distinguished reputation for organizing engaging exhibitions and programs that highlight established and emerging local, national and international contemporary artists. Throughout its history The Print Center has presented the work of the most compelling printmakers and photographers of their day including: Mary Cassatt, Pablo Picasso, Dox Thrash, Jasper Johns, Ansel Adams, Art Spiegelman, Red Grooms, Walker Evans, Roy Lichtenstein, Imogen Cunningham, Ben Shahn and more recently Edna Andrade, John Coplans, Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, Nancy Spero, Leon Golub, Ann Hamilton, Abelardo Morell, Kiki Smith and Doug + Mike Starn.
In recent years, the Artists-in-Schools Program has brought valuable arts education to over 5,000 underserved Philadelphia high school students and the Gallery Store offers the largest selection of contemporary prints and photographs available for sale in Philadelphia. The Print Center is also an essential community arts advocacy organization that annually serves more than 1,200 members and 36,000 participants in exhibitions and programming. Its core mission: to encourage the growth and understanding of photography and printmaking as vital contemporary arts through exhibitions, publications and educational programs, reflects an organization that remains a dynamic and culturally significant contributor to the arts in Philadelphia and beyond.