PRESSING MATTERS
WHAT IS PRESSING MATTERS?
It’s a way for you to express what matters most to you today!
What if art wasn’t just art but was also a way for you to communicate everything you love (and don’t love) about your life? What if you could also get to talk to some of the most creative minds in Cleveland, pick their brains, and find out how they overcame the challenges and hurdles of life? If you like these questions, come work with us on the Pressing Matters project.
Pressing Matters is a free, after school program for Cleveland area teens that introduces students to printmaking as a tool for expression, interpretation, activism and self-advocacy. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum, Pressing Matters encourages teens to deepen their understanding of public humanities, civic engagement, socially-engaged art production, and art education. Students and educators alike have the opportunity to learn from one another and develop new ways of thinking and making, utilizing printmaking as the central medium for its historical significance in communicating personal and political events. The program is facilitated weekly by Antwoine Washington and Michael Russel, co-founders of the nonprofit organization MOCHA, in collaboration with Zygote Press’ Aaron Williams (Arts Education Specialist), Brittany Hudak (Senior Program Manager), and Jackie Feldman (Executive Director).
HISTORY
This project was conceived of and founded by Erin Benay, esteemed public humanities and art history professor at Case Western Reserve University. In collaboration with Case, the pilot program launched in Spring of 2022. Benay designed and taught an interdisciplinary course wherein CWRU students developed curriculum to be used in the Summer 2022 Pressing Matters workshop. Open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students, this course contained elements of art history and the humanities, with one third of the class time spent at Zygote Press gaining hands-on printmaking experience. Case students simultaneously learned about Cleveland’s own history with printmaking and how the medium has interacted with politics and racial justice. The culmination of this course was a 72-page book, created entirely by CWRU students, which contextualized the project and laid out a curriculum for the summer workshop.
The Summer 2022 Pressing Matters workshop took place at the Community Arts Center in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood over the course of seven weeks. Each week, participants met for a three-hour session that wove together the history of printmaking with printmaking skill development, supplemented by visits from guest artists who spoke about their use of art in effecting social change. Over the course of the summer, participants envisioned and created prints that depicted issues important to them, and put together a final exhibition that was open to the public. Proceeds from art sales went to nonprofits of the participants’ choosing.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
This fall, a cohort of 9 students from area schools came to Zygote on Monday afternoons for nine weeks of printmaking learning. Each student received a stipend for the completion of the first semester, and is eligible to receive their second stipend at the end of the spring semester. Sessions explore the overlap between printmaking, civic engagement, and humanities overlap, engaging students with the practice of printmaking alongside its history. Each session begins with a brief history lesson and discussion, followed by a talk from a visiting humanities professional or artist, and concludes with an art making activity. Speakers throughout the semester connect with students about the role of art in their own lives and careers, exemplifying some of the possibilities that arise at the intersection of arts and humanities. Speakers who visited Pressing Matter in the Fall of 2023 include Amber Ford, artist and photographer; Sequoia Bostick, illustrator and freelance designer; Gillian Johns, professor of English and Africana Studies at Oberlin College; and Walter Patton, founder of Ghetto Therapy, an organization that connects residents of the central Cleveland area with licensed therapists. At the end of the fall semester, students designed and printed their own Pressing Matters t-shirts to take home.
MEET THE TEAM
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Co-Founder of the nonprofit organization MOCHA
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Co-Founder of the nonprofit organization MOCHA
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Executive Director of Zygote Press
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Senior Program Manager of Zygote Press
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Arts Education Specialist of Zygote Press
Looking Towards the Future…
Students returned to Zygote in January, 2024 to continue learning, building community and developing their printmaking skills. Field trips and discussions with visiting speakers, such as Rhonda Brown, Kortney Morrow, and Jason Harris, who represent a variety of creative and entrepreneurial backgrounds, continue to expand students’ awareness of professional opportunities available for humanities leaders in Cleveland.
At the same time, students are fine-tuning their screen printing skills and creating prints for their final project. Staff and students are working together to explore opportunities to market and advertise their art. The community is invited to join us at the end of the semester for a public exhibition and art sale of the Pressing Matters students’ work, hosted in Zygote’s gallery on Saturday, May 25th of 2024. Details will be announced soon!
