Lithography Sustainability & Accessibility Research

Fellowship report published!

Download from the ISSI website — feedback and future partnerships welcomed.
This page will receive substantial updates shortly.

 
 

Credit: Robyn Wood Images

 

We're thrilled to share that Chris has been awarded a George Alexander Fellowship through the International Specialised Skills Institute. Over the year ahead, he will be pursuing skills enrichment and developing reference resources fine-tuned for Australasian lithography practitioners. The fellowship will be based in a series of intensive training and consultation opportunities primarily in North America but is seeking additional support to research in Europe and further afield. The itinerary is still developing and flexible, so if your studio or institution would be interested in hosting a visit we would love to hear from you. Likewise, institutions in the Australasia region interested in partnerships supporting this work or sharing in the resulting workshops and resources are invited to reach out. We encourage you to follow the the fascinating work of the other fellows!

Interested in supporting this project? Contact us directly or take a look at our Kofi page!

Current Activity

Fellowship report in final publication phase!

Primary Goals

  • Develop existing instructional text drafts into a publishable technical manual, clarifying regional names and equivalents for common process solvents & chemistry.

  • Launching a touring exhibition that showcases litho practice in the region.

  • Circulating updated best practices and contemporary alternatives to traditional materials/approaches.

  • Improve accessibility to lithographic printing techniques in the Australasia region.

  • Develop “Visiting Printer” program to encourage ongoing influx of diverse practices.

  • Enriched internship & studio assistantship programs at major studios.

  • Draw attention to Australian printmaking in the international field and build new relationships with global institutions — studios, galleries, educational, and community.

  • Develop locally produced lithographic materials for lower costs and availability to regional artists or strengthen trade relationships with international suppliers of best-practice materials.

Support This Research

While the fellowship provides initial funding for this venture, the majority will be expended in the main research session at Tamarind. We are seeking additional funding sources and partners, especially to:

  • Promote lithography (and printmaking in general), capable of sponsoring workshop costs for new and advancing practitioners as artists and professional printers. This could eventually lead to a national program adapted from the Tamarind model to suit Australasian regional practice and needs, complete with a team of trained educators that can supply workshops or consultations on demand to institutions in a similar fashion to the Queensland “Flying Arts” service.

  • Sponsorship of one or more applicants per year if accepted to the Tamarind Summer Workshop and/or Printer Training Program.

  • Sponsorship of Visiting Printers to be paired with Australian Artists and present technical at Grey Hand Press and partner institutions such as Queensland College of Art.

  • Publishing support for a regionally-representative lithography manual.

  • Ongoing maintenance of best-practice supplies. For example, working quantities of Charbonnel Noir à Monter can cost between $150–$370 AUD before import costs and shipping — still being considered the optimal treatment for storing and restoring invaluable leather rollers, which we foresee providing more widely as a service to consulting institutions in the future. Many contemporary alternatives can impact the performance at best and cause damage that demands laborious remedy at worst. This is only one ink of many whose prices in Australia were never low and have skyrocketed in recent years. Sponsoring a can of ink can go a LONG way while we continue to test and develop domestic options for long-term equivalence.

Consider Long-Term Partnerships

We are also seeking partnerships to support our core missions.

  • Ideally, securing ongoing funding partners which could support staff roles in business administration, artwork representation, and an additional printer for continuous productivity.

  • Sponsorship for an ongoing stipend for studio assistants and Queensland College of Art Scholarship Interns.

  • Updates to equipment including presses and print storage to optimize educational operations, publishing activity, and accessibility.

  • Sponsor sustainability practices such as a TerraCycle Recycling Box for disposable PPE (especially nitrile gloves and hazard masks) or our development of a rag recycling system.