Help Needed

The Need:
PlatteForum is in need of borrowing one or more 11x17” black and white laser printers for our current artist workshops with at-risk youth. We would need the printer from September 15 – October 15, 2008.

The Organization:
Through the creative process, PlatteForum gives hope and direction to underserved youth who collaborate with master artists from around the world. This experience transforms the lives of the youth, the artists and the community. PlatteForum received the 2006 Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

The Project:
Workshops with Creative Resident Gail Watson who is working with at-risk youth in PlatteForum’s ArtLab to create hand-made artist books. Exhibition opens October 16, 2008.

The Contact:
Judy Anderson, judy@platteforum.org
303.893.0791

The More:
Gail Watson is a book artist and proprietor of Birdwood Press in Rollinsville, Colorado. In describing her work she comments: “I made my first book in the third grade at P.S. 37 in Queens, New York. I wrote, illustrated and bound the book, “A Trip on a Ship”, when I was eight years old. I grew up in a home with lots of books – art books in the living room and books of a more scholarly nature in my father’s study. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s that I returned to making books and realized that it is a perfect format for communicating ideas and imagery in a very intimate way. Holding a book in your hands starts a physical, tactile connection with art that allows the images and words full access to your senses. The book or codex lets the artist tell a story or explore a subject but the reader is empowered to linger, flip, twist, and turn at his or her own discretion.” During her residency she will work with ArtLab students interested in exploring their relationship with dominant culture, how ever that presents itself. Are they African-American in a still mostly white America? Chicano? Gay in a still very homophobic America? How aware are they of the historic presidential nomination of a person of color? The resulting work will comprise Dominate Culture: Outside & Other, at PlatteForum that opens during October’s National Book Month.

Any one out there that can help?