Response

One of Seacourt Print Workshop’s central aims is to promote printmaking to as wide an audience as possible. To help fulfil this aim we develop innovative partnership projects with national and international organisations through which to engage new audiences. ‘Response’ is an example of this approach in practice. This exhibition presents twenty-three artists’ responses to thirty images from The Schwemberger Photographs, a collection of over 1,750 glass slide negatives bequeathed to Arizona State University in 2005 by St. Michaels Mission and the Province of Our lady of Guadalupe of the Order of Friars Minor. This astounding social record of Native American life was amassed by Brother Simeon Schwemberger a Franciscan missionary between 1902 and 1908.

In 2007 SPW was fortunate to gain permission to exhibit thirty of these images with the expressed hope that our members would respond to the images and create new works inspired by their content. The opportunity for this response lies directly with Dr. Rob Taylor, Director of Entrepreneurial Initiatives at ASU, whose leadership, negotiation skills and archival diligence has secured this important collection for academic study, public access and artistic interpretation. Through Dr. Taylor the images were shared digitally with SPW and then mounted for gallery presentation. The photographic images were selected to cover a diverse range of topics, from childhood to old age, individual and group portraits through to landscapes. Each artist has responded within a chosen print form and in a manner that has significance to them. Through the displaying of both the photographic images and the new limited edition prints it is hoped that members of the public can get an insight into how artists use source material within the creative process.

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