Print Center Stories

So many people have had a special experience and relationship with The Print Center. Please add your voice to those collected here – whether you are an artist, volunteer, collector or just a lover of The Print Center, in this space, we’re collecting and sharing your stories! Follow the link below to submit your story for review and posting.

Share your Print Center story

Personal Recollections

Stories collected during our Centennial from the artists, collectors and friends who make The Print Center what it is.

Robert J. Morrison

“There’s no doubt that collecting contemporary art can be a wonderful passion. Maybe even an obsession. For me it has always been both, and I have never regretted the journey. When I moved to Philadelphia from Toronto in the late 1970’s investigating new art was at the top of my list. Saturday was my day for exploration and I found some wonderful galleries. But the real surprise was discovering The Print Center. Tucked away on an historic street was this unique resource: challenging exhibitions, educational artist gallery talks, auctions and receptions and importantly a way to add to my growing collection as well as meet new friends who shared my interest. I soon found that it was both an emotional and social home for artists and collectors; one that continues to offer a platform for personal growth and free exploration.

“On that first day exploring I met the then Director—Margo Dolan—and made my first Philadelphia purchase: a Joe Goode print, which The Print Center had published! It’s still a proud part of my collection, and I have continued to regularly add new editions from The Print Center’s many compelling exhibitions.” –Robert J. Morrison

Amze Emmons

Amze Emmons is a Philadelphia-based, multi-disciplinary artist with a background in drawing and printmaking. His images evoke a sense of magical/minimal realism inspired by architectural illustration, comic books, cartoon language, information graphics, news footage, consumer packaging, and instruction manuals.

Emmons received a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University and a MA and MFA from the University of Iowa. He has held solo exhibitions in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco, among other locations. His work has been included in group exhibitions in innovative commercial galleries, artist-run spaces, and non-profit institutions. Emmons has received numerous awards including a Fellowship in the Arts from the Independence Foundation; an Individual Creative Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Arts Council; and a Fellowship at the MacDowell Colony. His work has received critical attention in The Huffington Post, Itsnicethat.com, Coolhunting.com, New American Paintings, as well as many other print publications. He is currently an Associate Professor at Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. Emmons is also a co-founder and co-contributing editor of the popular art blog, Printeresting.org.

Click to view Amze Emmons’ work in The Print Center Gallery Store.

Perry Oliver

“I believe most artists can remember the first time they walked into an art gallery with their work under their arm. Mine was at The Print Center. That was fortunate. Other conditions were not so favorable.

“It was 1972, and I was visiting my parents in the States. Thanks to a lucky coincidence which had nothing to do with my initiative or talent, I had an early morning appointment with Lessing Rosenwald in Jenkintown. He was going to consider some of my first etchings for his collection, which I was going to see. I had been living and learning printmaking by myself in Nerja, at that time a remote village on the southern coast of Spain. I had a minimum of experience making art and less relating with it and virtually none relating to somebody who really lived art. I was very nervous. Mr. Rosenwald could not have been more hospitable and helpful. He purchased a print. He invited me to see whatever I wished in his amazing collection, and he said “while you are here, go see The Print Club. They are an excellent organization, and you should become a member.

“During those years, when I visited the States, I prudently made the rounds of doctors and dentists (since then Spanish health care has improved exponentially). So I had an appointment at noon with the eye doctor in Germantown. I was a little nervous about that. My vision turned out to be all right, but to examine me the doctor gave me the drops. We raced to 1614 Latimer Street with me dilating like mad. I was very nervous again about art. What can I do and say with my etchings in an art gallery? I was accumulating a desperate mental and physical need to pee.

“We went in the front door at 1614 and I said, ‘I am Perry Oliver. Mr. Rosenwald said I should come to see you. Can I use your toilet?’

“I could barely see where I was going, let alone look at art or show it. A pleasant voice to the right said ‘yes, it is over there.’ I worked my way along a wall to the left until I found a door to push and went in. When I returned, much relieved and a little less nervous, the voice said, ‘we opened the folio and like your etchings. Can we have them at the gallery?’

“Well then, that was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. Thank you, Print Center.” –Perry Oliver