SGCI Today

Bright Days Ahead:
Announcing the 2020-22 SGCI Executive Board Slate of Nominees

SGC International is thrilled to announce the 2020-22 Executive Board Slate of Nominees formed by our Nominating Committee. We are certain that you will agree, this inspiring group of individuals eager to lead our community into the future is indeed an example of optimism we are all reaching for today!

Under normal circumstances we would have made this announcement much earlier and voted today to affirm this slate of candidates. This year, however, our attention has been laser focused upon our current world circumstance and its effects upon Puertográfico. Given the complexity of SGCI’s current challenges the 2018-20 Executive Board has agreed to remain in place until May 1. It is our desire to hand off the leadership of our community with a clear financial picture and without involved, unfinished business. Over the course of the coming weeks we will be working earnestly to tighten matters up, share our perspectives, and present our incoming board with a clear path forward.

The SGCI membership will be affirming our next Executive Board through online voting. We are currently in the process of designing this process and plan to open this election for voting on April 15. We will be reaching out with details soon. 

Best wishes to you all! We have bright days ahead!

Charles

Charles Beneke
SGC International, President

Today SGC International had planned on joining members of the Puerto Rican and Latin American printmaking communities in San Juan, Puerto Rico for an epic celebration of printmaking. While sadly we remain spread across the world in our homes doing our best to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a bright spot towards which we can turn our attention—our printmaking spirit has traveled to Puerto Rico in spite of our trying world circumstances. Members and friends of the SGC International (SGCI) community and patrons of the Puerto Rican art community successfully completed a crowdsourcing campaign to raise funds to donate a press to the University of Puerto Rico Recinto de Río Piedras (UPRRP) Printshop. Today, that press is working its way to its new home.

Puerto Rico has a rich printmaking tradition, which draws on the island’s unique history while always being in dialogue with contemporary art. Puertográfico 2020 conference planning began shortly before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. The SGCI membership saw its devastating effects leveled not only buildings, infrastructure, and the environment, but the economy, citizens’ ways of life, and their sense of security and well-being. Knowing the healing potential of the arts and understanding the circumstances of fellow artists in Puerto Rico, SGCI’s community of printmakers was eager to assist Puerto Rican printmakers as they continued to promote printmaking and its democratic practice as a way to engage with citizens in their communities. 

SGCI’s efforts came to fruition under the leadership of Joseph Velasquez, associate professor of art at Florida Atlantic University and chair of the SGCI Ad Hoc Committee on Community Exchange, and the assistance of Hannah March Sanders, associate professor, and Blake Sanders, instructor, both in the Department of Art & Design at Southeast Missouri State University. On a planning visit to Puerto Rico, Mr. Velasquez and fellow printmaker John Hancock, professor of art at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, recognized the great need for a lithography press in the UPRRP printshop, led by Professor Martin García-Rivera. Upon their return the team launched Let’s Leave a Press in Puerto Rico, a crowdfunding campaign. The initiative offered perks including prints donated from well-known professional printmakers and tools and supplies from printmaking vendors. The group also asked school print and art clubs to participate by raising funds in their respective club/school names while SGCI created a portal for donations to the organization earmarked specifically to support the campaign. These collective efforts raised nearly $11,000 in 60 days. These gifts, along with the difference and shipping costs generously donated by the Takach family, enabled the acquisition of a brand new Takach Manufacturing Corporation 2648 Floor Model Lithography Press!

The SGCI Ad Hoc Committee for Community Exchange has continued gathering equipment, tools, and materials from its membership through a registry created understanding the specific needs of Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño and other printmaking programs in the region. SGCI is developing a plan to transport these donations to San Juan where they will be delivered to the programs for which they are intended. https://sokindregistry.org/registry/puertografico

SGCI would like to thank Joseph, John, Hannah, and Blake for the tireless work that they put into making these ideas happen and these gifts a reality. To the Takach family, you are amazing! Your generosity is humbling. We would also like to thank everyone who donated to the press fundraiser and equipment, tools, and materials registry. Thank you for your generosity and for helping SGCI support Puerto Rican printmaking!

SGC International is offering Puertográfico registrants three options for the handling of their registration fees. Registrants must log in to their SGCI account to make their choices. 

• Donate 100% of your registration fees to SGCI.

• Apply 100% of your conference registration fees towards our 2021 conference, Verified by Proof, in Providence, RI. 

• Request a refund of your conference fees. Students and Vendors—100% refund. Professionals—85% refund. Institutional Members—85% refund after the deduction of membership fees for the professionals covered by the Institutional Membership.

Donations and retained registration fees will help offset a projected $85,000 conference loss and prevent further damage to SGCI’s current assets. Funds will cover non-refundable expenses and commitments including payroll and professional expenses, bank and merchant fees, travel expenses, exhibition costs, and awards honoraria. 

Registration fee handling choices must be made by June 1, 2020 at 11:59 PM PST. No transfers or refunds will be processed after this date.

SGCI membership fees will not be refunded. These fees cover annual operating expenses—payroll, insurance, accounting fees, website hosting and maintenance, and other essential expenses. Without membership fees SGCI would not be able to function.

Please read further for more specific details about the development and rationale behind this Puertográfico registration fee handling plan.

Dear Puertográfico Registrants,

The SGC International Executive Board has dedicated the time since Puertográfico was postponed to attempting to reschedule Puertográfico and creating a financially sound program for the handling of your registration fees. This has involved working with the Puertográfico Steering Committee, our accountant, legal counsel, The Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino, and additional vendors with whom we held contractual obligations for our conference. While I am sad not to be gathering with you in San Juan and this has been a complex situation to navigate, I am pleased to say that everyone with whom we have worked has made this the most pleasant experience possible. We are very fortunate!

At this time, our next conference will be Verified by Proof in Providence, RI, April 7 – 10, 2021. We are determined to make Puertográfico happen, but scheduling has been challenging and this is not a time to rush any sort of planning. While Puertográfico will not be in the near future, when we finally meet in Puerto Rico it will be an amazing conference and we will have a big reason to celebrate!

As we have worked to get a handle on the financial repercussions of postponing Puertográfico our greatest concern was our contract with the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino. Its terms for underperforming or cancelation could have had staggering effects upon SGCI. I am pleased to report to you that we were able to employ the force majeure clause in our contract, an “Act of God” clause, to assert that we would be unable to meet the terms of our contract because of the COVID-19 pandemic, circumstances that are beyond our control. The Sheraton was immediately responsive to our notification and is processing the return of our $80,000 in deposits made as required in our contract. With our finances no longer tied up in a contract with no immediate prospects for a rescheduled date, we are able to use this sum to help us towards the goals of our registration fee handling program. We are also able  to work without urgency and constraint as we plan for a future Puerto Rico conference.

SGCI has accumulated approximately $100,000 in reconciled, non-refundable expenses and outstanding commitments for Puertográfico. These include payroll and professional expenses, bank and merchant fees, travel expenses, exhibition fees, and awards honoraria. A close examination of SGCI’s financial position and our Puertográfico budget shows that we have a $175,000 budget with which we can safely work to offer refunds of registration fees. We have constructed a plan that will allow us to return as much of members’ registration fees as possible while ensuring that SGCI is financially secure and able to cover unanticipated expenses and continued operating costs. Donations and retained registration fees will help offset a projected $85,000 conference loss and prevent further damage to SGCI’s current assets. If this process ends with SGCI having a surplus of donated and retained funds, we will work to use these monies to create new opportunities for our student and emerging professional members. 

For two groups of individuals, registration fees will be refunded automatically. 

• Students who are registered as a part of an institutional membership. New Student Sub-Registrants can be applied to the Sub-Registration slots for SGCI 2021.

• Vendor Sub-Registrants. New Vendor Sub-Registrants can be applied to the Sub-Registration slots for SGCI 2021.

If you have trouble with our self-service registration fee handling process, please reach out by email to support@sgcinternational.org. Registration fee handling choices must be made by June 1, 2020 at 11:59 PM PST. No transfers or refunds will be processed after this date.

SGCI will not be offering refunds on membership fees. SGCI membership fees are used to cover our annual operating expenses. Without these monies to cover payroll, insurance, accounting fees, website hosting and maintenance, and other essential expenses, SGCI would not be able to function as the organization that we all value so deeply. In addition you receive member benefits like opportunities to participate in exhibitions and themed portfolios, eligibility to apply for events at the Providence 2021 conference, eligibility to apply for SGCI fellowships and opportunities, and other exciting ways to engage with our community. We appreciate your understanding the importance of your membership fees to our organization. 

The past two weeks have been challenging for us all for so many reasons. Thank you all for your patience and understanding through this process. Your generosity of spirit has been of great comfort to all who have been working on the planning of Puertográfico and the resolution of its postponement.

While it does not seem that life is going to be easy for anyone for a while, we are all fortunate because we have the SGCI community to help us forward. I urge you to reach out to your print people; we all need to feel connected right now. We may be far from each other, but we are always together.

Be well and be safe!

Charles

Charles Beneke

President, SGC International

Dear SGC International Community,

It is with great disappointment that I am writing to inform you that the SGCI Executive Board and the Puertográfico Steering Committee have come to the decision that we must postone Puertográfico 2020 from its original schedule of  April 1 – 4, 2020 to a later date. This is a heartbreaking outcome for those of us who have worked so hard to create an SGCI conference truly like no other while introducing our membership to the remarkable printmaking tradition, culture, environment, and people of Puerto Rico.

We have been working non-stop weighing all of the concerns and challenges of our conference and the coronavirus. As a board it is our responsibility to look out for the best interest of the organization with special regard to the financial health of SGCI. This has been a primary concern as we are contractually obligated to the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino and have incurred expenses for this conference. We have also been receiving many cancelation notices from our members, vendors, and panelists that have affected all levels of programming. Ultimately, we are concerned about the health and safety of our conference attendees, Puerto Rican citizens, and everyone’s families. The only right thing to do at this time is to reschedule.

At this time we are beginning discussions about how we move forward with all things related to Puertográfico. We are developing plans for the handling of registration fees and conference events that cannot be rescheduled. We will be working with our hosts and the Sheraton to reschedule Puertográfico. Above all, we are striving to do everything we can to express our admiration of, gratitude for, and friendship with the Puerto Rican printmaking community. We will continue to work to ensure that they feel they are a valued and supported part of our community.

SGCI would like to express our continued gratitude to all who have been instrumental in the development, planning, and organizing of Puertográfico 2020, especially our Puerto Rican compatriots. We also appreciate the input that we have received from so many of our members and attendees over the past few weeks.

We will reach out to you as soon as we have more information for you. If you have questions or concerns, please send them to support@sgcinternational.org. We will respond as promptly as possible.

In the meantime, please be certain to cancel your room reservations at the Sheraton. You have up until three days before your scheduled arrival to cancel your reservations. If you do not, the Sheraton will charge you the full rate for your stay.

Thank you for your patience as we have worked to come to a consensus on this matter.

Respectfully,

Charles Beneke
President, SGC International

Are you registered to attend Puertográfico 2020?

SGC International needs your assistance in helping us with Puertográfico 2020 conference planning related to the coronavirus. The SGCI Executive Board and the Puertográfico 2020 Steering Committee want to make informed decisions and adjustments to conference planning as needed. There are a myriad of interrelated factors involved in SGCI conferences. One seemingly simple change often affects the dynamics of complex systems underlying our yearly gatherings. We need to hear from you about any changes to your plans to attend Puertográfico so that we are making decisions effectively.

Please take a minute to fill out this anonymous survey if you are registered to attend this year’s conference in San Juan. These five quick questions will take you only a moment, but they will help us immeasurably.

If your institution has enacted a travel ban that will prevent you from attending the conference, please send a PDF of the announcement that you received informing you of this action to president@sgcinternational.org. This documentation will be very helpful to us.

Thank you so much for participating actively and contributing to the well-being of our community.

Charles Beneke

President, SGC International

Each year, SGC International awards two student fellowships;
one undergraduate ($500) and one graduate ($1000).

And due to the generosity of our friends at Awagami Paper Mill and Gamblin Artists Colors, we are able to offer a number of sponsored awards. 

We are proud to announce this year’s awardees for Puertográfico 2020:

Undergraduate Fellowship: Lu Colby
Murray State University

All of these pieces, both independently and as a whole, explore gendered ideas about domesticity; repetition and multiplicity speaking to the methodical and repetitive ways women conduct tasks in their home. These strategies play out in a variety of ways. Pushing the idea of what a print can be, the iron marks act as individual monoprints and give a violent and tense feel to my pieces that addresses the tension and stress attributed to the domestic expectations of women in today’s society. Correspondingly, the use of white is symbolic of purity and sterility found in a clean home.

Graduate Fellowship: Juana Estrada Hernandez 
University of New Mexico

The human figure and traditional Mexican devil masks are common symbols that metaphorically represent the “un-said” transformation of how people are perceived once they cross the Mexican border into the United States. Artistic expression and Printmaking provide an exploration of processes and techniques that are executed in detailed and thought-provoking compositions. I find the Mezzotint process conducive to expressing some of these issues because of the intense velvety black that can be achieved through this process. The color black creates a sense of mystery and the unknown. It is a powerful color that is serious and carries weight. My motivation has always been to raise awareness about immigrants and their realities. These prints attempt to emotionally impact people in ways that invoke independent thought and understanding for those that used to live in the shadows. 

Awagami Award

Mirela Malimban, Emily Carr University of Art & Design

The award of 100 sheets of ‘Awagami Editioning’ washi papers will be shipped directly to Mirela by Awagami Paper Mill in Japan.

Gamblin Awards

Gamblin Undergraduate Award: Maria Alfaro, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

Gamblin Graduate Award: Erin Wohletz, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Gamblin Emerging Artist Award: J. Leigh Garcia, Assistant Professor at Kent State University

Gamblin presents awards to SGCI members who use their materials in their standard practice; the awards are given in the amount of $150.

Image credit:
Lu Colby
Shame, Shame!
144” x 144” x 42”
French paper, lithograph on mulberry, stool
2018

This year SGCI is putting a new twist on the Open Portfolio! We’re transforming it into a live, malleable “happening” where exhibitions will be culled from the work shown by Open Portfolio participants and featured at the conference as the 2020 Open Portfolio Exhibitions. The Open Portfolio, which will be held on Thursday morning this year, will provide content for the conference and the curated Open Portfolio Exhibitions will highlight members’ work and focus upon the ideas evidenced in the moment at our annual gathering.

There will be three curatorial teams travelling throughout the Open Portfolio, seeking works for their exhibitions, which will open on Saturday evening as a part of our closing festivities. The lead curators of the three teams will include one Puerto Rican Curator (external-to-SGCI), one Open Call Curator (external-to-SGCI), and one SGCI Student Curator. We are pleased to announce that the curators of the 2020 Open Portfolios are:

Laura Bravo López: Puerto Rican Curator

Laura Bravo López is Professor in the Art History Program at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. Former chair of the Art History Program (2012-2016), Dr. Bravo has a Ph.D. in Art History from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and has been a researcher at the Tate Britain, the MoMA in New York, and La Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. She has presented her research in more than fifty conferences, panels and symposia in Europe, North America and the Caribbean. She is the author of Ficciones certificadas: Invención y apariencia en la creación fotográfica 1975-2000 [Certified Fictions: Invention and Appearance in Photography: 1975-2000], and coauthor of more than fifteen books on art history and visual culture. She is the founder and editor of the online art journal Visión Doble, and she has curated more than twenty exhibitions and art projects in Puerto Rico and Spain, the latest: Ida y Vuelta: Experiencias de la migración en el arte puertorriqueño contemporáneo (Museum of History, Anthropology and Art, in the UPR, 2017-2018). Bravo has been coeditor of special issues of Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CUNY, 2016) and Art and Politics of Identity (Universidad de Murcia, 2018).

Hugo Ivan Juarez: SGCI Student Curator

Hugo Ivan Juarez was born and raised in the great city of Dallas, TX. He is extremely thankful for the decision his parents made to emigrate from Mexico because it allowed him to be a part of two cultures. Hugo has experienced communities built around travel, agriculture, and education but has never felt more at home than with printmakers. Hugo is currently in the process of selecting a graduate school for an MFA after a decade of studying at various printmaking programs across Texas. He is a member of the artist crew YTA in which he hosts round table discussions and curates pop-up exhibitions.

Gretchen L. Wagner: Open Call Curator

Gretchen L. Wagner is a scholar and curator specializing in the research and exhibition of modern and contemporary art, with emphasis on the history of prints and artists’ editions. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow for Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Saint Louis Art Museum. At the museum, she organized the exhibitions Printing Abstraction, Sun Xun: Time Spy (co-curator), Graphic Revolution: American Prints 1960 to Now (co-curator), The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection (co-curator), and the upcoming exhibition Buzz Spector: Alterations (co-curator).
 
Beginning in 2004, Wagner was a member of the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art and served most recently as the Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Assistant Curator until 2012. There, she worked extensively with the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection and organized the exhibition Thing/Thought: Fluxus Editions, 1962-1978. Additional exhibitions she produced at MoMA include Projects 98: Slavs and Tatars and Gabriel Orozco: Samurai Tree Invariants, and her writing appears in the publications Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art and Dada in the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art.
 
Wagner has also completed projects at numerous other institutions including the exhibitions Artist’s Artists: James Siena, Josh Smith, and Charline von Heyl Collect Prints at the International Print Center New York, David Scanavino: Candy Crush and Art of Its Own Making at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, and contributed to the publication German Expressionist Prints: The Marcia and Granvil Specks Collection at the Milwaukee Art Museum (Hudson Hills Press). Since 2014, she has served as adjunct faculty in the Department of Art, Design, and Art History at Webster University. She received her M.A. in Art History from Williams College and her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

SGC International presents four awards at each conference. We are proud to announce this year’s awardees for Puertográfico 2020:

Consuelo Gotay: The Lifetime Achievement in Printmaking Award

The Lifetime Achievement in Printmaking Award is given annually to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the professional development of printmaking as a fine art. This is the only SGCI award that may be given posthumously. Nominations are solicited from the conference host institution only and accepted by the SGCI Awards Committee.

Consuelo Gotay is a printmaker, designer, and teacher. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in 1969 and completed her master’s degree at Columbia University in New York in 1971. She began as an apprentice in the Graphics Workshop of the School of Architecture, with José A. Torres Martino as her mentor and in Lorenzo Homar’s studio. She also studied printing at the Bernardino Cordero Bernart Vocational School in Ponce and at the Center for Book Arts in New York. She studied non-toxic printmaking with Keith Howard in Canada. Her teaching, in both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, has been ongoing, and significant. Her work has been awarded prizes and honorable mentions throughout her career. She works in silkscreen, linoprints, and woodcuts, does font design, and has created artists’ portfolios and books in which image, word, and design mesh. Her prints tend to be poetic portrayals of the local landscape using textures and elegant lines. Consuelo is an artist fully committed to the Puerto Rican and Latin American art. She is a designer, printer and art entrepreneur who founded Centro para el Grabado y Artes del Libro, a wonderful space to train and teach printmakers in the Old San Juan area.

Her woodcuts have been shown in numerous national /international exhibitions and have won many awards like the Bronze Medall at the LatinAmerican Graphic Arts Biennial in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her works are part of the collections of the Museo Arte Historia y Antropología de Universidad de Puerto, the Institute of Puerto Rcan Culture, the Ponce Art Museum, Venezuela’s Cartón y Papel, Princeton University Graphic Arts Collection (they have all of Gotay’s typography and woodcut portfolios), Boston University Library, Yale University, Library of Congress, Smith College Rare Book Room, Colección Caja Granada (Spain), and many other institutions important. During her tenure as head of the printmaking department at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico, Consuelo introduced a Book Arts curriculum while teaching.

These complementary interests capture a vast array of interests that ranges from the leaf that the autumn forgot on the bed of the wind, some dry branch found at random on some wall, it does not matter. Consuelo Gotay takes that leaf or that branch and from it she shows us her essences, her magic, her visual resources and those resources she turns to us with a refined, clean, and powerful craft.

Nelson Sambolín: The Printmaker Emeritus Award

Barrio Coquí, Salinas, Puerto Rico, 1944
MFA, Pratt Institute, New York
BFA, University of Puerto Rico

Nelson Sambolín is a printmaker, painter, graphic designer, professor, cultural and community activist.

He was the promoter, founder, and member of various independent graphics workshops that emerged in Puerto Rico in the 60’s and 70’s. His work has been widely exhibited, and he has taken part in many relevant international events.

He is represented in prestigious collections, such as: Poznan Museum, Cracow, Poland, Museum of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, Art Museum of Puerto Rico, Santurce, Puerto Rico, Contemporary Art Museum, Santurce, Puerto Rico, Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Cooperativa de Seguros Múltiples, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, Empresas Papel y Cartón de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela, among others, as well as individual private collections.

Has received various international recognitions, such as the Poznan Museum Award at the X Cracow International Print Biennial, Kraków, Poland. He has designed and produced over 500 screen printed posters about a wide variety of artistic, cultural, political, environmental and social issues.

Karin Broker: The Honorary Member of the Council Award

Karin Broker received her B.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 1972 and her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin in 1980. She studied under Stanley Hayter and Krishna Reddy at the Atelier 17 in Paris, France during the Fall of 1973 and studied at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Broker began teaching at Rice University in Houston Texas in 1980 and is a Professor of Drawing & Printmaking in the Department of Visual & Dramatic Arts. Robert McClain Gallery in Houston Texas represents her work. She was named the 1994 Texas Artist of the Year and received two National endowment for the Arts Grants. Broker was the first female SGC president from 1984-1986 and co-hosted the 1985 SGC Conference at Rice University and the University of Houston.

Broker has exhibited her prints in Russia, Taiwan, Korea, Brazil, Germany, Iceland, England, South Africa, Italy, Cuba and the United States. Her drawings have been included in numerous books such as The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists, by Robert Bunch, Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2016, Drawing & Painting: Materials and Techniques for Contemporary Artists, by Kate Wilson, Thames & Hudson Ltd.(International) 2015, and NATURE MORTE Contemporary artists reinvigorate the Still-Life tradition, by Michael Petry, Thames Hudson, 2013. Broker’s most recent solo exhibition was “Love Me Love Me Not” at McClain Gallery in Houston, Texas in 2018.

Sean Caulfield: The Excellence in Teaching Printmaking Award

Sean Caulfield was named a Canada Research Chair in Fine Arts (Tier 2) from 2000 – 2010, and is a Centennial Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, living and working in Treaty Six territory. He has exhibited his prints, drawings, installations and artist’s books extensively throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Japan. Recent exhibitions include: Dyscorpia, Enterprise Square Gallery, University of Alberta; The Flood, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; Firedamp, dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton; The Body in Question(s), UQAM Gallery, Montreal; Perceptions of Promise,Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA/Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta.

Caulfield has received numerous grants and awards for his work including: The Special Award of the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Krakow Triennial, 2015; SSHRC Dissemination Grant: Canadian Stem Cell Network Impact Grant; SSHRC Fine Arts Creation Grant; Canada Council Travel Grant; and a Visual Arts Fellowship, Illinois Arts Council, Illinois, USA. Caulfield’s work is in various public and private collections including: Houghton Library, Harvard University, USA; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England; Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA. In 2017 Caulfield was elected to the Arts Division of the Academy of the Arts and Humanities of the Royal Society of Canada.

Online Registration closes Sunday, Feb. 16th, at midnight.
You don’t want to miss this one!

Don’t wait in line to register when you can be looking at prints, exploring San Juan… or at the beach! Plus, registration fees go up quite a bit on-site. Save money, save time, and ensure your spot at open portfolio and other events by registering online before midnight tonight!  

Thank you, and we can’t wait to see you in San Juan!

Why was the island protesting in July of 2019? 
The protests began after offensive chat messages between then Governor Rosselló and his allies leaked to the media. The messages exposed what protesters called a reprehensible indifference to Hurricane Maria victims, as well as alarming instances of bigotry and sexism. And following the arrests of two of Rosselló’s top officials on charges of fraud, the messages inflamed anger over what many say is the Puerto Rican government’s incompetence and corruption following the devastating 2017 storm and years of economic trouble.

What drew the most outrage from protestors was what many characterize as the casual disregard for the Puerto Rican people displayed in the messages, which they say proves Rosselló’s government did not have the welfare of its people in mind. Rosselló was forced to resign after two weeks of peaceful —and highly creative— national protests.
Excerpted from Time.com.

Read more in this New York Times article.

Forum on Puerto Rico/U.S. Relations
These are some of many complex issues that we will discuss during our Forum on Puerto Rico/U.S. Relations! SGC International’s vision for this meeting of cultures is to educate our membership on the complexity of the Puerto Rico/US relationship. At Puertográfico, we will learn from our Puerto Rican members about their view of our political ties. Join us during Puertográfico to learn more about the language and terminology used in this discussion.

Get more Here’s the Salsa! on this page.

Photo by Fabián Rodríguez Torres, @fabianfrt

El Arsenal: The exhibition location for our Themed Portfolios, Pop-Ups, and Special Exhibitions!

The historic complex of buildings that makes up the old Navy Arsenal is located in the La Puntilla section of Old San Juan, on land that was once a mangrove swamp. The structure was built in 1800 to store weapons and munitions, as well as serving as a workshop for building and repairing Spanish Navy ships. The main façade faces north, and its entrance arch is marked by two pairs of Tuscan-style columns that support a frieze that shows the signs of the zodiac. Above the cornice are three pedestals topped by a royal coat of arms.

After the change in sovereignty in 1898, the arsenal was the last site held by Spanish troops, who used it as a headquarters during the process of repatriation. Once this process was complete, the structure was handed over to the government of the United States, which in turn gave the local government permission to use it for governmental offices. Today, the former Navy Arsenal belongs to the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, which has its offices in the complex, along with governmental administrative offices and exhibition rooms.
–Excerpted from Enciclopedia Puerto Rico: https://enciclopediapr.org/en/encyclopedia/san-juan-old-navy-arsenal/

Read more Here’s the Salsa!

Hey Grad Students! Three Minute Thesis Competition at Puertográfico!

Want to take a chance at winning free conference registration for our 2021 conference in Providence? Well, then, have we got an opportunity for you!

SGCI and our 2020 San Juan steering committee are excited to announce our Three MinuteThesis (3MT ®) like competition for current graduate students at Puertográfico. Official 3MT® competitions are for PhD students. Our unofficial version will be for MFA students, those pursuing our field’s terminal degree. While our winners will not be eligible to compete in further 3MT® competitions, we’ll follow all the rules and enjoy all the fascination and fun!

The Three Minute Thesis was originated at The University of Queensland to celebrate the research of graduate students. These competitions cultivate students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills and help individuals develop the “capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.” 

You can learn more about 3MT® competitions here and see examples of 3MT® presentations here.

What are the rules of participation?

• A single static PowerPoint slide is permitted. No slide transitions, animations or ‘movement’ of any description are allowed. The slide is to be presented from the beginning of the oration.
• No additional electronic media (e.g. sound and video files) are permitted.
• No additional props (e.g. costumes, musical instruments, laboratory equipment) are permitted.
• Presentations are limited to 3 minutes maximum and competitors exceeding 3 minutes are disqualified.
• Presentations are to be spoken word (e.g. no poems, raps or songs).
• Presentations are to commence from the stage.
• Presentations are considered to have commenced when a presenter starts their presentation through either movement or speech.
• The decision of the adjudicating panel is final.

The preliminary round of our competition will take place on Friday, April 3, 2020, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM. Three finalists will present their 3MT®s at the beginning of our awards ceremony Saturday, April 4, 2020 at 6:00 PM. Our SGCI 3MT® winner will be announced at the end of the ceremony. The winner receives a free 2021 conference registration!

How can you participate?

• We have 18 slots for competitors. 
• Each MFA program can nominate one graduate student.
• To reserve a spot for you institution’s participant email 3MT@sgcinternational.org. 
• Perhaps your program will host its own competition between the MFA candidates at your institution with the winner participating in our competition at Puertográfico.
• Participants must be registered by Friday February 28, 2020 at 11:59 PM PCT through the form on this page.

Questions? Email 3MT@sgcinternational.org

Salsa was born in the northernmost Caribbean city: New York. Various traditional Afro-Caribbean styles converged in this new musical genre or form built on the foundation of Cuban son music. Thus arose the old argument by Cuban musicians that salsa was a new way of playing Cuban music. However, as César Miguel Rondón explains in his book Libro de la salsa: Crónica de la música del Caribe urbano:

Salsa, well, it’s something more than old Cuban music, it’s more than a label and a style that isn’t essential for writing music. Salsa was born in the Latino barrios of New York. There, youths who lived the back and forth of international popular culture, listening to rock music, soaking in all of the values spread by U.S. advertising, moving in desperation between authenticity and rootlessness, began to use salsa as the only form capable of capturing their daily lives.

Salsa was situated among the conglomeration of Caribbean musical forms that have been instruments of social, ethnical and cultural representation. The roughness that characterizes it evolved from the tumultuous era of its birth and development in the 1960s and 1970s in New York City. Salsa reflected the difficult experiences and daily life of the Spanish Caribbean migration. Its harsh tone, infused with the free combination of tones and harmonies, reflected the constant regeneration of collective transnational identities, especially for the Puerto Ricans in the New York urban area. From there, it went on to become the banner for a simultaneously recalcitrant and innovative Puerto Rican identity.

–Excerpted from Enciclopedia Puerto Rico: https://enciclopediapr.org/en/encyclopedia/salsa-a-trans-caribbean-socio-musical-phenomenon/

Photo Credit: Willie Colón and Orchestra. Salsero73 [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Sign up here!

Extended Stays: Are you interested in seeing other parts of Puerto Rico before or after the conference? Perhaps El Yunque National Forest, Surfing and Whale Watching at Rincón? Let us know, and we may be able to offer you group travel rates!

Community Service: Please consider donating your time while in Puerto Rico! Are you interested in doing community service? If so, please fill out the form below–we may be able to help pair you with a local organization. Also, we encourage you to check with your institution for service learning grants to help fund your trip!

Sign up here: https://www.sgcinternational.org/puerto-rico-community-service-opportunities-and-extended-stays/

The Spanish-American War was an 1898 conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895.  

The Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War was signed on December 10, 1898. In it, Spain renounced all claim to Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. Puerto Rico had been granted autonomy from Spain in 1897.

Excerpted from History.com. Read more here!

Donate materials or time to print shops in and around San Juan:
visit our Print Shop Registry to see how you can contribute!

Or make a cash donation here!

Our Print Shop Registry compiles a list of new or gently used print shop supplies, tools, and time/expertise requests, needed by our colleagues in San Juan. The list is an alternative registry; it does not sell the items directly, but instead asks for donated items or time.

How the Registry Works:

1. Bring extra items from your studio; buy items from favorite print shop supplier; or ask your print program or community to donate supplies
2. Let us know what you’re bringing: on the registry, click on the ‘Give this gift’ button, and the gift will be claimed in your name.
3. Bring the items with you in your luggage (or a friend’s!) to the designated drop-off spot at Puertográfico. If necessary, we can provide a shipping address.

How to Donate Your Expertise:

For the items requesting help/time in the studios repairing equipment, we have a general calendar listing a window of time ranging 1 week before the conference through one week after the conference; however, exact dates/times you are able to help should be emailed to jvelasquez at fau dot edu for coordination with local print shops in San Juan.

General Registry Questions?

Contact Hannah Sanders: hannah.march.sanders at gmail dot com

Need more information about repairs needed on equipment?

Contact Joseph Velasquez: jvelasquez at fau dot edu

Want to know more about our other initiatives?

Contact Blake Sanders: bsanders at sgcinternational dot org

Or check out the links below:

Lets Leave a Press in Puerto Rico!
Puertográfico Community Exchange: Call for Demo/Event Proposals

The Ad Hoc Committee for Community Exchange

The Ad Hoc Committee for Community Exchange is led by Joseph Velasquez with the assistance of Hannah March Sanders and Blake Sanders. SGCI is humbled by the work of this team and eager to see the generosity of our members come to fruition through participation in these initiatives. Thank you Joseph, Hannah, and Blake!

Deadline Extended to January 27th: Gamblin and Awagami Awards for Students and Emerging Professionals

Awagami Paper Award: This award is presented annually to an outstanding student who best demonstrates the use of paper as an integral part of their printed works. The award of 100 sheets of ‘Awagami Editioning’ washi papers will be shipped directly to the winning student by Awagami Papermill in Japan. Apply here!

Gamblin Awards: Each year, Gamblin presents awards to SGCI members who use their materials in their standard practice. Awards are given in the amount of $150, and are sent in the form of award certificates, either shipped directly to the winners by Gamblin or distributed by SGCI. Apply here!

Anyone who has been to Puerto Rico is familiar with the incredible Coquí, which is native to the island. The inch-long amphibian has a powerful and melodic voice, and its high-pitched, chirrupy song can be heard for miles.

The coquís sing from dusk to dawn, and while the locals find this a lilting lullaby, unsuspecting foreigners aren’t always comforted by their song. But they are cute, and a much-loved symbol of Puerto Rico. Excerpted from Trip Savvy: Read more here!

Members, we value contributions at all levels of careers, and will work to pair you with appropriate mentees: apply to be a Mentor today! Mentoring will happen on Friday and Saturday during Puertográfico.

Becoming a mentor is an outstanding way to serve our membership and foster a new generation of print artists and enthusiasts. Mentors are SGCI members who are experienced professionals, and want to serve our membership and foster interest in our field. This is a volunteer service that they provide.

Mentoring Sessions are one-on-one, and are available for individuals at all stages of their careers – whether you are an undergraduate student thinking about an MFA, a graduate student seeking career advice, an independent artist looking to start a press, or someone in a tenure-track position looking for advice about navigating academia.

Mentoring topics include (but are not limited to):
• Artist Portfolio Reviews
• Career Advice for Emerging and Mid-Career Artists
• Tenure and Academic Advancement
• Independent Presses, Non-Profits, and Community-Based Art

Session times:
Mentor sessions are 20 minutes in duration.

Timeline:
Mentors will be notified of acceptance within 4-6 weeks. Accepted mentors will receive their schedule and information about their mentees shortly before the conference.

Mentees:
Sign up during online registration!

Apply to be a Mentor!

Puerto Rico has bioluminescent bays, where a kayak trip on a moon-less night reveals glowing water when you paddle. There are only five of these rare ecosystems in the world, and the island is home to three of them! The mesmerizing brightness of the bays is due to the amount of microscopic, single-celled organisms called dinoflagellates that light up when the water is agitated.

Excerpted from Discover Puerto Rico. Read more here!

Image credit: Edgar Torres

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosquito_bay,_Bioluminescent_bay,_Vieques_-_panoramio_(3).jpg#file), „Mosquito bay, Bioluminescent bay, Vieques – panoramio (3)“, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

Pasteles are a treasured holiday dish in Puerto Rico. They are so beloved that A National Festival of Puerto Rican Pasteles is held every November in the city of Orocovis. The complex process of making pasteles is an important holiday tradition. Because the process is so labor-intensive, some families today order the pasteles from caterers or buy them from a neighbor who is dedicated to the tradition. However, the families that do make pasteles themselves gather in the kitchen and form an assembly line. Each person has a job that has to be done hundreds of times to make a large quantity of pasteles. According to Roberto Múcaro Borrero, a Puerto Rican who is in touch with his culture’s traditions, “Even today, making pasteles is still a family affair, for example, your Mom might grate the yucca or guineo (green banana), while an aunt will prepare the masa, grandma could be seasoning the meat to perfection, and a cousin can literally wrap the whole process up nicely.” In Puerto Rico, the Christmas celebrations extend from Thanksgiving to January 6, Three Kings Day, so when a family gathers together to make this dish, they sometimes prepare hundreds of pasteles to last through the holiday season. Excerpted from: https://tenochtitlan.omeka.net/exhibits/show/pasteles

If we reach our hotel room block at the Sheraton Convention Center, SGCI pledges to give a $25 refund to students who stay at the hotel on their conference registration!

Right now we’re at 56% of the block: help us reach our goal and give back to students by booking your stay at the Sheraton!

View images of the hotel here: Infinity pool, tropical landscaping, contemporary room design, and the MOST convenient location: Be right in the middle of it all for Puertográfico! Make your online reservation today.

View this FAQ page for questions about booking the hotel.

Looking for a Roommate at the Hotel?

We created a user-maintained spreadsheet for you to find each other! Enter info into this list, and check back periodically for potential roommates. When you’ve found your match, please delete your name from the list.

Other Reasons to Stay with Us:

Direct our operating budget back to the membership!
Learn more here about why to stay at the conference hotel,
and how this impacts our conference and organizational budget.

Catch some rays!
Have a break in your schedule? Catch some time by the pool!

Be on time!
We’ll be starting early this year, at 8:30 am

Beat traffic!
San Juan is known for traffic snarls.

Catch breakfast!
Take advantage of our morning spreads.  

We know the conference can be a financial stretch and we thank you sincerely for your support of our organization. 

Link to Indiegogo!
During site visits and Puertográfico planning meetings members of the SGCI board and conference steering committee have learned of the rich history of Printmaking in Puerto Rico and the many practitioners and advocates there who shared our love of printmaking.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Maria, the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, UPRRP, lost a third of the student body and many of the facilities were damaged or  destroyed. In the area of ​​printmaking they do not have foreseeable funding for their studio needs, to repair equipment , or to buy a badly needed new press The printmaking area is headed by Martín García Rivera who has been teaching printmaking at UPRRP since 1993. He not only leads a dynamic printmaking program, but also has established many projects over the years to engage the many community demographics.

In order to help Martin, UPRRP students and our other printmaking colleagues in Puerto Rico, SGCI is  launching a fundraising campaign to buy a press for the UPRRP printshop. Donations will be taken in through multiple streams, including Indiegogo, cash donations, and through conference registration.

Puertográfico 2020, April 1-4 in San Juan, is the perfect opportunity to learn about the rich history of Printmaking in Puerto Rico and engage with our hosts who are generously preparing a fantastic conference experience for us all. Let’s show our appreciation for their efforts and our commitment to lasting connections by contributing to the future of their printmaking community.

Las islas son embarcaciones ancladas al mar. / Islands are vessels anchored at sea.

Excerpted from our conference abstract, by poet Nydia Fernández Toledo. We are grateful to have Nydia as the Cultural Consultant for Puertográfico. Read her entire abstract below:

Islands are vessels anchored at sea. Moored between the cultures of two continents, Borikén —the original name of Puerto Rico— has been a center of cultural exchange for centuries, with a rich and complex heritage. From the early engravings on stone, to the intense printmaking production of the 20th Century and the present, Puerto Rican graphic artists have sought cultural interaction with the world by sea and air. PUERTOGRÁFICO will showcase, through artistry, technique and dialogue, one of the strongest callings for our work: the tracing of History.

Welcome aboard.

Las islas son embarcaciones ancladas al mar. Firme entre las culturas de dos continentes, Borikén —nombre original de Puerto Rico—ha sido centro de intercambio cultural durante siglos, sobre una herencia rica y compleja. De los primeros grabados en piedra, a la intensa producción de carteles del Siglo 20 al presente, los artistas gráficos puertorriqueños han procurado la interacción cultural con el mundo por cielo y por mar. En PUERTOGRÁFICO, entre la técnica, la destreza y el diálogo, compartiremos uno de los llamados principales para nuestra obra: el registro histórico.

Bienvenidos a bordo.

A group of artists have altered a famous door painted with the Puerto Rican flag by changing its original colors from blue, red, and white to black and white to mark the approval of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, also known as PROMESA, an acronym considered an insult, as it translates to “promise”. Passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama after denying the island a bankruptcy arrangement, the act was promoted as a way to manage Puerto Rico’s more than $70 billion of debt. But PROMESA severely undermines the island’s political autonomy. Its measures, which include a decrease of the hourly minimum wage to US $4.24 (about $3 less than the US federal minimum wage), have galvanized people to organize daily civil disobedience events and camps. Excerpted from Global Voices; learn more here.

Deadline December 15. Apply here! Mentors with Spanish language skills welcome!

Becoming a mentor is an outstanding way to serve our membership and foster a new generation of print artists and enthusiasts. Mentors will be notified of acceptance within 4-6 weeks.

Accepted mentors will receive their schedule and information about their mentees shortly before the conference.

We are getting close, but we need your help.Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far! Print Perks are being announced each week, like this linocut by Sergio Sanchez Santamaria!! Find Print Perks on the Indiegogo, or donate directly in any dollar amount here.

During site visits and Puertográfico planning meetings members of the SGCI board and conference steering committee have learned of the rich history of Printmaking in Puerto Rico and the many practitioners and advocates there who shared our love of printmaking.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Maria, the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, UPRRP, lost a third of the student body and many of the facilities were damaged or  destroyed. In the area of ​​printmaking they do not have foreseeable funding for their studio needs, to repair equipment , or to buy a badly needed new press The printmaking area is headed by Martín García Rivera who has been teaching printmaking at UPRRP since 1993. He not only leads a dynamic printmaking program, but also has established many projects over the years to engage the many community demographics.

In order to help Martin, UPRRP students and our other printmaking colleagues in Puerto Rico, SGCI is  launching a fundraising campaign to buy a press for the UPRRP printshop. Donations will be taken in through multiple streams, including Indiegogo, cash donations, and through conference registration.

Puertográfico 2020, April 1-4 in San Juan, is the perfect opportunity to learn about the rich history of Printmaking in Puerto Rico and engage with our hosts who are generously preparing a fantastic conference experience for us all. Let’s show our appreciation for their efforts and our commitment to lasting connections by contributing to the future of their printmaking community.

The Secret Language of the Spanish Hand Fan

1. Open fan over the chest showing the design “Yes”
2. Open fan over the chest showing the back “No”
3. Open fan covering one of the cheeks “I like you”
4. Wave fan very fast: “I really like you”
5. Wave fan very slowly: “I am not interested”
6. Open fan covering your nose “I want to see you”
7. Open fan covering your chin “I want to talk to you”
8. Closed fan near the heart: “I love you”
9. Open fan placed over lips: “Kiss me”
10. Close fan waving; “I am thinking about it”
11. Hit close fan against hand “Leave me alone”
12. Open and close the fan: “I am upset”
13. Open fan waving energetically on one side “Don’t come now, other people around”
    Excerpted from LivingLanguage.com. Read more here!

Are you looking for someone to share a room with at the conference hotel? We’ve started a user-maintained list to help you find each other! Fill in your info and check back periodically to see if there are updates to the list. Reach out to potential roommates through the contact info on the form. This page is password-protected for SGCI members. 

Coming December 21, 2019

SGC International has reimagined Graphic Impressions and we are excited to announce its return on December 21, 2019. The print world is constantly evolving and we know that our membership needs more than a static newsletter published three times a year. The new, expanded Graphic Impressions will be a continuously developing web journal enriching the content of our website, the discourse of our discipline, and SGC’s educational mission.

This next incarnation of Graphic Impressions will be built around seasonal themes with essays, interviews, online exhibitions, and more published continuously to our site. In addition to postings directly related to our themes, exhibition reviews and more timely contributions will be featured as well to make certain that Graphic Impressions is about printmaking right now. To help ensure that our content is always fresh, we will accept submissions on a rolling basis with weekly deadlines on Friday at 11:59 PM. Seasonal theme focused submissions will be accepted well into the topic’s season creating the opportunity for our membership to have a dialogue around these topics by adding to the discussion in inventive ways.

Graphic Impressions’ first seasonal theme will be “The Persistence of Print.” The call for submissions for this winter season, as well general submissions, is now open. The SGCI Board of Directors, Louise Fisher, Graphic Impressions web editor, and Blake Sanders, Graphic Impressions web curator, are eager to work with the SGCI membership to develop your web journal. Send us your proposals today by visiting the Graphic Impressions Submissions Page.

The beloved Puerto Rican mash with deep ties to Africa

“Without a doubt it is the most popular, best known, most loved Puerto Rican dish,” says Von Diaz, a radio producer and writer based in New York. She’s talking about mofongo, a dish made by smashing fried green plantains — frequently in a pilón (mortar and pestle) — with garlic, olive oil and, most traditionally, chicharrón (fried pork skin).

According to historian and author Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra in his book, “Eating Puerto Rico: A History of Food, Culture, and Identity,” that the word “mofongo” stems from the Angolan Kikongo term “mfwenge-mfwenge,” meaning “a great amount of anything at all.” Going even further back, the dish traces its roots to the West African fufu, a mash of boiled yams.

Excerpted from The Washington Post. Read more here!

A developing Puertográfico 2020 conference schedule is now online! A final schedule with times and locations will be available in the spring on the Conference App.

Thank you to our membership for putting forward such exciting and dynamic proposals for Puertográfico 2020. A few notes on major schedule changes this year:

• Open Portfolio is on Thursday morning
• We will be starting early this year, at 8:30 a.m.
• Saturday will be jam-packed with new events: Open Portfolio Curated Exhibitions and Forum, Student Critiques, Diversity Panel and Inkubators, and more!

Puertográfico will take place at the Sheraton Convention Center, Miramar Convention District, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Programming will also take place at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño, the Museo del Arsenal de la Puntilla, the Carnegie Library Building, the Museo de San Juan and the Museo de Las Américas, among other venues. Other supporting institutions are Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. Thank you to our hosts in San Juan!

SGC International’s vision for this meeting of cultures is to educate our membership on the complexity of the Puerto Rico/US relationship, create a platform for mutual understanding, foster future artistic collaborations, and build lasting friendships. This is no tropical vacation; Puertográfico 2020 will be an adventure for all!

A full listing with descriptions of Panels, Demos, Inkubators, Special Events, Themed Portfolios, and General Conference Events can be viewed here. Look under the Puertográfico tab on our website for lots more info about the conference!

Register online before Dec. 15 for best rates. We can’t wait to see you in San Juan!

Greetings, Print Enthusiasts!

The SGCI Board of Directors, our Puertográfico Steering Committee, and our Ad Hoc Committee for Community Exchange would like to share some new opportunities for you to give back to the extended Puerto Rican host community for our 2020 annual conference, help SGCI achieve its aspiration of warmly welcoming Puerto Rican printmakers into our community, and advocate for printmaking. Please join us for this Week of Giving and carry the spirit of generosity ahead as Puertográfico, in San Juan April 1 – 4, 2020, draws closer!

• Book your conference lodging at the Sheraton Puerto Rico to participate in the Stay with SGCI Giveback. If we reach our hotel room block at the Sheraton Puerto Rico, our conference hotel, SGCI pledges to give students who stay at the hotel a $25 refund on their conference registration.
• Donate to the Let’s leave a press in Puerto Rico!  By giving through our INDIEGOGO campaign you will help us achieve our goal of purchasing a press for the printshop at Universidad de Puerto Rico – Recinto de Río Piedras. You can also make a donation in any dollar amount here.
• Bring printmaking supplies with you to give to the Puerto Rican printmaking community or offer your assistance though giving your time and skills to assist with technical needs. Visit our sokind registry to find a need that you can fill.
• Tell us about you desire to engage with the Puerto Rican community beyond the conference by filling out our community service form. By doing so you will be able to indicate whether you would like to arrive early or stay late and tell us how you would like to engage with the community.
• Reach our to our Ad Hoc Committee for Community Exchange to join them in their work.
• Contact SGCI to let us know how you would like to volunteer to help with Puertográfico through planning assistance or help at the conference.
• Nominate a printmaker you admire for an SGCI Award!

SGC International is an organization with a professional mission, but I believe one of the great strengths that guides us forward is that we are more like a family. We celebrate, share, plan, collaborate, disagree, grow, and always support each other. I know that many of you share the feeling with me that some of my most valued relationships are friendships made through SGCI and that when I leave our annual gatherings I feel grounded by our camaraderie. As we all begin to gather with friends and family in the coming days to celebrate Thanksgiving, I would like to thank you for everything that you do to make SGCI such an inclusive and inspiring community. Your generosity is never unnoticed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Charles Beneke

President, SGC International

Student Fellowship Award Guidelines

Each year, SGC International awards two student fellowships; one undergraduate ($500) and one graduate ($1000). Each institution may nominate 1 undergraduate and 1 graduate student. Students may self-nominate, but must have a faculty sponsor who will submit a letter of support (nomination), and must be enrolled at the time of application. Applicants and the faculty sponsor must be SGCI members in good standing.

Fellowship recipients will be awarded their fellowship during the SGCI Awards Ceremony. Award recipients will be afforded all possible opportunities to be listed in conference/council publications and on the website. At the conclusion of the fellowship year, recipients will need to provide the SGCI Archives with digital documentation of the work produced under the auspices of this fellowship. SGC International will also make every effort to present fellowship recipients’ work at the following year’s conference, however this may not always be possible and will depend upon the resources available to the conference planners in any particular year.

The deadline for submission of nominees is December 15 of the year immediately preceding the conference for which the individual is nominated to receive the award (i.e. December 15, 2019 for fellowships to be awarded at the 2020 conference). Apply here!

SGCI is excited to announce a new opportunity for students this year. We’re introducing student critiques to our roster of events. We want you to get to know each other even better and create a forum for you gain feedback on you work from each other. If you indicate that you are interested in student critiques when you register, we’ll place you in a random critique group of undergraduate or graduate students. Student Critiques are scheduled for midday on Saturday, April 4 at the Sheraton. We look forward to seeing you at this free event for all registered student members!

El Yunque Is the Only Tropical Rainforest under the U.S. National Forest System.
Just a few hours from San Juan, a trip to El Yunque is a visit to a land that has remained virtually unchanged for millennia. Trail hikes, waterfalls, grand vistas, and a variety of birds, flora, and some wildlife await you. You’ll also be happy to know that there are no dangerous animals in the rainforest. Read more at tripsavvy.com

It has been an exciting and rewarding time since we were all together at Texchange last spring! Whether working on Puertográfico 2020, our upcoming conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, traveling to represent SGC International, or engaging with our membership, I feel fortunate to be serving as SGCI president and learn from every opportunity, or challenge, with which I have been presented. As with so many volunteer opportunities, I know that I am receiving much more than I give. It has been particularly rewarding for me to see giving and volunteering becoming more intricately woven into our organization.

The board has been actively assisting beyond the scope of their roles in the leadership of SGCI in the preparation for Puertográfico. It has been exciting to work with our conference hosts and see how much you all have to look forward to when you arrive in San Juan on April 1, 2020. This event will be packed with new programming, but perhaps more importantly it will be rich with opportunities for cultural exchange. Members will develop lasting bonds with Puerto Rican, Carribean, and Latin American printmakers, learn about the complex cultural and political relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, and potentially arrive early or stay late to participate in community service opportunities.

One of the most rewarding things that has come from our work with our Puerto Rican counterparts is the development of a sense of responsibility to and appreciation of the Puerto Rican art and printmaking community for hosting us. This past spring Joseph Velasquez and John Hancock visited Puerto Rico to meet with printmakers, visit our host institutions, and make connections with area schools. Joseph returned with a trove of ideas for ways that SGCI can give back to Puerto Rico. To help him flesh these ideas into action, I formed the Ad Hoc Committee for Community Exchange. This committee is led by Joseph Velasquez with the assistance of Hannah March-Sanders and Blake Sanders. Under Joseph’s leadership, he and his team have developed opportunities to take programming into local schools, constructed a registry for tools and materials that members can bring with them to Puerto Rico and leave as donations to local institutions, and created a giving campaign to purchase a press for the printshop at Universidad de Puerto Rico – Recinto de Río Piedras. I am humbled by the work of this team and eager to see the generosity of our members come to fruition through your participation in these initiatives. Thank you Joseph, John, Hannah, Blake and all the others who are helping us in these efforts! I hope to see your work become the standard for how we engage with all of our future host communities.  

Follow this link to read my full report on the board’s recent work and you will see the outcome of the many ways in which people give of their time and resources to help SGC International become stronger. We all benefit from these selfless acts. In closing I ask how can you give back to SGCI? How can you embrace volunteerism and give back to SGCI whether it is in our governance, outreach, conference management, or exchange with our Puerto Rican host community? How can you help SGCI to leave a legacy of friendship and generosity of spirit in all that we do?

Thank you and best wishes to you all!

Charles Beneke

President, SGC International

This year SGCI is putting a new twist on the Open Portfolio! We’re transforming it into a live, malleable “happening” where exhibitions will be culled from the work shown by Open Portfolio participants and featured at the conference as the 2020 Open Portfolio Exhibitions. The Open Portfolio will provide content for the conference and the curated Open Portfolio Exhibitions will highlight members’ work and focus upon the ideas evidenced in the moment at our annual gathering.

Read more and apply here!

The Name of Puerto Rico
In 1493, Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colón in Spanish) “discovered” Puerto Rico —that is, arrived on the island during expedition—and claimed it for Spain. A little known fact is that Columbus called the whole island San Juan, in honor of Saint John the Baptist. Puerto Rico (puerto = “port” and rico = “rich”) was the name given to what is known today as the Old San Juan area. It was only later that the names were reversed and the whole island became known as Puerto Rico. Excerpted from www.puertoricodaytrips.com. Read more here.

Follow along with Here’s the Salsa! on the full web page.

During site visits and Puertográfico planning meetings members of the SGCI board and conference steering committee have learned of the rich history of Printmaking in Puerto Rico and the many practitioners and advocates there who shared our love of printmaking.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Maria, the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, UPRRP, lost a third of the student body and many of the facilities were damaged or  destroyed. In the area of ​​printmaking they do not have foreseeable funding for their studio needs, to repair equipment , or to buy a badly needed new press The printmaking area is headed by Martín García Rivera who has been teaching printmaking at UPRRP since 1993. He not only leads a dynamic printmaking program, but also has established many projects over the years to engage the many community demographics.

In order to help Martin, UPRRP students and our other printmaking colleagues in Puerto Rico, SGCI is  launching a fundraising campaign to buy a press for the UPRRP printshop. Donations will be taken in through multiple streams, including indiegogo and cash donations (through conference registration). 

Puertogråfico 2020, April 1-4 in San Juan, is the perfect opportunity to learn about the rich history of Printmaking in Puerto Rico and engage with our hosts who are generously preparing a fantastic conference experience for us all. Let’s show our appreciation for their efforts and our commitment to lasting connections by contributing to the future of their printmaking community.

SGC International’s vision for PUERTOGRÁFICO is to educate our membership on the complexity of the Puerto Rico/US relationship, create a platform for mutual understanding, foster future artistic collaborations, and build lasting friendships. As part of this, we are launching Here’s the Salsa! Each week counting down to the conference, we will be sending out emails and posts with brief history lessons, food & culture tips, language pointers and more, compiled here. Many thanks to Anna Nicholson and Nydia Fernández Toledo for their guidance and contributions to the creation of this page.

Week 23

Old San Juan
Old San Juan is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is also listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. With charming 16th century fortresses, cobblestone streets, fountains, museums, and more, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped into history.

Excerpted from DiscoverPuertoRico.com. Read more here!

SGC International is excited to announce a call for participation in our Puertográfico Pen Pal Print Collaboration & Exhibition!

In the months leading up to our 2020 Conference in Puerto Rico, SGCI will begin connecting our stateside student members with our student members in Puerto Rico through a collaborative print exchange. Students will be paired up to work on a set of collaborative prints exchanged through the mail. The goal is to connect stateside student members to student members in Puerto Rico through the art of printmaking.  The prints will then be on display and for sale during the 2020 Puerto Rico Conference with a portion of the proceeds going to the UNIDOS Disaster Relief and Recovery Program powered by The Hispanic Federation.

Click here to find out more and apply! And thanks to our Student Representative, Eliana Rodriguez, for developing this exciting project for SGCI.

The SGC International Ad Hoc Committee for Community Exchange is pleased to announce five community engagement opportunities at three high schools or two after school programs in San Juan. These opportunities, which are outside of the conference programming, give interested individuals and programs the chance to build meaningful, lasting connections with the community. 

We are now accepting  proposals for professional/instructor-led teams to present demos or print events. Interactive projects are especially welcome to encourage exchange, learn local perspectives, and excite the next generation of printmakers! Teams will be responsible for bringing matrices and other materials with them to Puerto Rico for these events. Take advantage of these great service-learning and community engagement opportunities for university print clubs or community presses by submitting your proposal now! While these demos and projects will not be part of the official Puertográfico schedule, they will be celebrated wherever possible.

Additionally, if you are interested in joining our committee to work on our community exchange initiatives, please reach out to us. 

To apply, please send the following information in a single PDF to bsanders@sgcinternational.org by November 1, 2019:

1. 100-word abstract of you project including preferred audience
2. 50-word bio of team leader
3. Roster of participating team members
4. Ideal audience/age group
5. Equipment and material requirements, please note materials team would bring
6. Anticipated plan for your program:
   • Will it be run start to finish only once?
   • Will it be repeated several times during your allotted time?
   • Will participants be able to join in on the project whenever they arrive?
   • Will your team have a translator, or will there need to be arrangements made for one?

We look forward to hearing from you!

Joseph Velasquez
Blake Sanders
Hannah March Sanders

All SGCI Members in good standing are invited to nominate/self-nominate by uploading candidate’s materials at https://www.sgcinternational.org/2020-22-board-of-directors-nominations-submissions/. 

Nominations should include the following information:

• Name of the Nominee
• Nominee’s contact information (phone number & email)
• Institutional/professional affiliation (if any)
• Statement of intent addressing the nominee’s background, qualifications, and interest in serving with consideration of SGC International’s mission and diversity/inclusivity and student focus initiatives.
• A current Curriculum Vitae.

The SGC International Nominating Committee, composed of three former board members, is charged with creating a slate of nominees that reflects the philosophic, geographic, institutional, racial, and gender diversity of our membership. A preliminary slate selected from the pool of nominations will be voted on by the board. 

Elections will then take place at the Membership Meeting at our upcoming conference, Puertográfico 2020, April 1 – 4, 2020. In any election, the organization will allow nominations from the floor prior to calling for any vote, though it is strongly encouraged that those interested in serving on the board express their desire to serve through our standard nominations process.

For more information please contact Kate McQuillen admin@sgcinternational.org or Charles Beneke  president@sgcinternational.org.

Thank you,

Charles Beneke
President, SGC International

Dear SGCI Members,
In an effort to lower costs for students, we launched Institutional Memberships last year. Available at four different levels, you  can choose the one that works for the specific needs of your institution and printmaking program. Support SGCI and see your institution’s reach with our organization grow!

Benefits of being an Institutional Member: 
• Advertising on the SGCI website and a half-page advertisement on the conference app!

• A table in the Institutional Membership area at the conference, where you can promote your program with brochures, swag, handouts, and more!

• Lend financial support to students on their registration fees: the student pays $87.50, and the institutional group rate covers the other half of their registration. Early Bird rates are extended all the way to the close of online registration for Institutional Members!

• Lend financial support to faculty: The faculty member’s registration and membership are fully covered in the package
 Registration now open
Learn more, sign up, and register for the conference here! Please contact Kate McQuillen with any questions about Institutional Memberships.

We’d love to see you in Puerto Rico next spring! We’ve put together this fundraising kit to help you understand costs for student members, and lend ideas for how to raise funds to make it possible for students to travel to this incredible island–no passport needed!

Click here for ideas on: 
Fundraisers,
Ways to offset costs,
Hotel and airfare group rates,
Grant and community service opportunities, and
Institutional memberships!

Unique Learning Opportunities at SGCI 2020
Student critiques: small groups of student-led crits
Juried exhibitions: part of the new Open Portfolio Exhibitions
Three-Minute Thesis: for selected grad students
Community service: facilitated by the Puerto Rico Steering Committee
Travel experience: exposure to a different culture within the US jurisdiction:
 a unique blend of languages, traditions and enlivened heritage

Registration now open
Register today!

 Puertográfico: April 1 – 4, San Juan, Puerto Rico
YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS ONE!

Dear SGC International Members,
As SGCI transitions from Graphic Impressions towards expanding our website into an online journal with continuously evolving content, I am pleased to introduce you to our newly appointed web editor, Louise Fisher, and web curator, Blake Sanders. 

Louise Fisher, an Iowa-based printmaker, is a 2019 graduate of Arizona State University. She was the 2018 recipient of the SGC International Graduate Fellowship Award. Louise states about her process and artwork that she is “an interdisciplinary artist working in the expanded field of print; using methods of layering, impressing and repetition for it’s literal and visual enactment of time and the body. By integrating constructed and celestial time, geometric and organic forms, and digital and hand-drawn printmaking processes, I point to the complexities of our current experience with nature. Through an investigative visual language, I aim to rekindle an appreciation for natural light and ask viewers to consider how their rhythms are impacted by this new incessant LED world.” To get to know Louise a little better, you can read her complete bio and artist’s statement on her website and check out her interview from VoyagePhoenix.

Blake Sanders is a printmaking and foundations Instructor at Southeast Missouri State University. He has been an active member of SGCI since 2005 and has participated in conference portfolios, exhibitions—both sanctioned and peripheral—and chaired two panels. His work looks “beyond anthropocentrism, emphasizing humans as a part of a global community—residents, not lords of the manor—who should be good neighbors to each other and all of nature.” In works that range from diverse print media to collaborative installation he strives to “provoke compassion within the culture” by intently observing himself and his family “to mine for the universal within the personal.” One of Blake’s most recent projects is Encountering Our Indelible Mark, an exhibition that was installed in Santander, Spain at IMPACT10: Encuentro with an accompanying extensive web catalog. In an essay originally intended to be published in Graphic Impressions, Adriane Herman has reviewed this project. We are publishing Disrupting Our Disruption: Recycling Our Indelible Mark to mine a “wee bit of hope”  here so that you can get to know Blake and his curatorial work. 

Look out for further announcements about the development of the written and visual content that Louise and Blake will be leading for our website. The submission process will be launching soon.

Best wishes to you all for an adventurous fall,
The SGC International Board of Directors

Image credit: Louise Fisher, 24/7 Interior #1,Archival Pigment Print, Woodcut on Awagami Kozo, 36×24″, 2019.

New this Year at SGCI:

Open Portfolio Exhibitions
Community Service Opportunities
Three-Minute Thesis for Graduate Students
Student Critiques

SGC International’s vision for this meeting of cultures is to educate our membership on the complexity of the Puerto Rico/US relationship, create a platform for mutual understanding, foster future artistic collaborations, and build lasting friendships. This is no tropical vacation; Puertográfico 2020 will be an adventure for all!

Register online today!

Click here for a general overview of the Registration process

View a listing of conference events (panels, demos, etc) on our website

Puertográfico: April 1 – 4, San Juan, Puerto Rico

YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS ONE!

SGC International is looking into ways to bring down airfares for everyone. Our conference steering committee is working with a travel agent in San Juan to get us the best airfare possible with several airlines. In order to do so, we need to know ASAP where will you be flying from. Please help us make this conference travel as affordable as possible for YOU  by filling out this form!

This year SGCI is putting a new twist on the Open Portfolio! We’re transforming it into a live, malleable “happening” where exhibitions will be culled from the work shown by Open Portfolio participants and featured at the conference as the 2020 Open Portfolio Exhibitions. The Open Portfolio will provide content for the conference and the curated Open Portfolio Exhibitions will highlight members’ work and focus upon the ideas evidenced in the moment at our annual gathering.

Read more and apply here!