BOONE—The Department of Art at Appalachian State University will host this year’s Print Dialogue Days on Oct. 5 and 6.

Print Dialogue Days is a symposium organized each year by the American Print Alliance to bring together nationally recognized artists, educators and printmakers from the region to exchange ideas and share research in an informal setting.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.art.appstate.edu or contact April Flanders at (828) 262-7270 or flandersav@appstate.edu or Scott Ludwig at (828) 262-2227 or ludwigsp@appstate.edu.

From noon to 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 5, students from Appalachian will host students from other area universities on the lawn of Wey Hall for “The Great North Carolina Printoff.” Together, they will create wearable art in a collaborative screen-printing venture. The public may purchase these items and is invited to participate in their creation by choosing the stencil and color of their choice.

Receptions and an art walk for four exhibitions in conjunction with Print Dialogue Days will be held Oct. 5 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Jones House in downtown Boone, and the Catherine J. Smith Gallery and Looking Glass Gallery on the Appalachian campus.

Opening at the Jones House is “Soap Box Prints: For a Cleaner Environment.” The American Print Alliance is organizing this open portfolio of prints, paperworks and artists’ books around an environmental theme.

The work of Althea Murphy-Price will be on exhibit at the Catherine J. Smith Gallery in Farthing Auditorium on the Appalachian campus. Murphy-Price explores how cultural identity is defined while questioning self-identification within society. Her new print work explores the various cultural associations, oddities and self-defining characteristics of hair, using synthetic hair, accompanied by processes of lithography, serigraphy and wool felting. Taking inspiration from hairstyles and formal hat wear, her sculptural forms are curious, uncommon and comical objects.

Appalachian students will host a student-juried printmaking show exclusively for North Carolina students at the Looking Glass Gallery in Plemmons Student Union.

Also on display during this time is “Prints! Pow! Wow! A Conversation in Print” at Appalachian’s Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. The show features work created for an exchange portfolio between the presenters and demonstrators at Print Dialogue Days. Each artist has created an original print responding to themes in their own work.

On Oct. 6, coffee and refreshments will be served from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Turchin Center. A series of speakers will give presentations from 10 a.m. to noon in the Turchin Center lecture hall about printmaking in their region. Speakers include April Flanders and Scott Ludwig from Appalachian; Althea Murphy-Price, Indiana University; Matt Liddle, Western Carolina University; Bill Clements, independent artist; Matt Egan, East Carolina University; Beth Grabowski, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Carol Pulin, director of the American Print Alliance.

From noon to 2 p.m., lunch and an open portfolio session will be held in the lobby and first floor of Wey Hall. Printmaker Judith O’Rourke also will host a breakout session in the Catherine J. Smith Gallery about the business of printmaking and will discuss the role of the master printer and the structure of the print market.

From 2 to 5 p.m., O’Rourke will host a siligraphy technical demonstration in Room 131 of Wey Hall. Pioneered in modern printmaking by glass artist Harvey K. Littleton in 1974, vitreography has been the focus of creative and technical efforts at Littleton Studios in Spruce Pine since 1981. Siligraphy vitreographs can be made using a stencil of silicone over water-soluble drawing materials on a grained or ground surface.

Sponsors for Print Dialogue Days include Art Mart, Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff and the Watauga Arts Council. Additional sponsorship comes from Appalachian’s Black Faculty Association, Center for Entrepreneurship, College of Fine and Applied Arts, Department of Art, Department of Student Programs, Plemmons Student Union, Office of Diversity, the Catherine J. Smith Gallery, Looking Glass Gallery and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts.

Two additional events related to Print Dialogue Days will be held Oct. 8 and 17.

Wayne Miamoto, a visiting printmaker from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, will speak about his creative work on Monday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. at the Turchin Center.

Department of Art faculty member April Flanders will discuss the concept of an original print during a “Lunch and Learn” session Oct. 17 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Turchin Center. In addition, she will talk about the different processes used by printmakers. The prints included in the Mayer Gallery Exhibition “Prints! Pow! Wow! A Conversation in Print” will serve as a reference for the discussion.

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