New Artwork Arrives on Campus
Alongside new incoming students, a new piece of artwork arrived at campus at the start of school. Alison Saar’s Black Bottom Print was purchased by the school as part of the alumnae print project.
The process to purchase a print began at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year when a group of interested art students and art faculty traveled to the International Print Fair in Manhattan to select a print to add to the schools’ special collection. Selling alumnae artwork created the funds necessary to purchase the new print. Alumnae Ann Conrad ’81 and Elizabeth Gourlay ’81 each donated a print plate and gave the school complete rights to reproduce and sell the prints. School publications alerted the community about the opportunity to purchase the alumnae artwork. Anthony Kirk, a local master printer, agreed to help print 20 copies of each print with the assistance of a student team.
During the International Print Fair, students and faculty chose prints that they believed would enrich the school’s special collections. Students compiled a list of the prints that they liked most, and those who attended the print fair later voted on their favorite prints. Dear Liu ’19 said, “[The selection process] was about taking personal aesthetics aside and really considering the value of a work, solely based on how it fits in historically, instead of a piece just being aesthetically pleasing and trendy.”
Finally, Black Bottom Stomp, a print by Alison Saar, a Haitian-American Printmaker, was selected after the several month selection process. J. Bradley Faus, program director and instructor in art, said, “The print was of interest for a variety of reasons. One of the things we wanted was aesthetic value. We wanted it to be work that could be given to our collection to serve as a teaching tool, and that would be on display from time to time or available to students.”
The school purchased Saar’s print over the summer from Tandem Press, and it arrived in September. The print will be displayed on campus after it’s framed archivally. Saar’s piece portrays a nude standing female printed on old quilts that the artist had collected. Mr. Faus said, “Its story is one that can relate to American history and some of the slave history that we pursue in the Humanities program. It has a lot of richness to it.”
