Meet this week’s campus celebrity, The Print Mongers, who were nice enough to lend us their studio for our “Fall in Love with Her Campus” photo shoot. Read what Lefie Lindokken, the club’s event coordinator, had to say!
Who are the Print Mongers?
The Print Mongers is a printmaking club based out of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Our current studio space is in Suite 017 of the Zhou B. Art Center on 35th Street in Bridgeport, Chicago. There are about thirty members this semester, but the head honchos are myself (Event Coordinator), Alex Hayashi (President), Jon Owens (Vice President), Jill Tackaberry (Treasurer), and Katie Leech (Faculty Advisor).
What does the club offer?
We offer semester-long memberships to anyone interested in learning about printmaking, with tutorials offered in screen printing, letter pressing, and relief printing. When you sign up to join, we require you to attend an orientation, where we run you through the entire screen printing process so you know what’s what. We also charge a $50 semester fee in order to cover our studio rental and general supplies costs. After that, we offer open studio three times a week for the rest of the semester for you to bring in your own projects to work on. We allow artists to use our resources and knowledge in the creation of their artworks. Although we do accept any aspiring printers into our club, our main focus is on reaching out to Chicago’s university students, especially those majoring in fields related to art and design.
We offer the opportunity for students to network within Chicago’s art community while still attending school. Whether you are looking to master a versatile media, learn a cool hobby, curate an art show, throw a party event, offer your expertise, meet some new friends, sponsor a non-for-profit, or simply support the arts, you have found the right club.
How and when did the club start?
The Print Mongers was founded in the spring of 2011 when a few freshmen art students (Alex Hayashi, Jill Tackaberry, Steven Crissey, Megan McNamara, and myself) discovered a similar interest in screen printing. We met up with Katie Leech, a UIC faculty member who runs the Graphic Design print lab, and she agreed to sponsor us and even provided us with room in her studio at the Zhou B. Art Center for us to set up and meet once a week.
We then were able to gather supplies, generate interest, and organize this dream into a reality. Now years later, the number of new semester-long memberships has more than tripled in size from the original group, and The Print Mongers are proud to have introduced over one hundred students and community members to the joys of screen printing. Alex and I are still the main co-founders, and we mostly run the club now, although the others come around every so often and help. We’ve gotten a few more over the years who have taken on responsibilities in the club, too (Sophomore Jon Owens as our current Vice President).
Are there any upcoming events?
Yes! Every month we open the doors of our studio (Suite 017 at the Zhou B. Art Center) to partake in the Bridgeport “Third Friday” Art Walk, and this time around, on April 19 from 7-10pm, we are teaming up with a few of our printmaking buddies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to put on a show together! Not only will there be posters and t-shirt designs to look at, but also we will be conducting screen printing demos all night for visitors to try their own hand at pulling ink, which turns the entire show into a fun art-making experience for everyone. There will be lots of cool art and cheap Goose Island beers available for purchase, so bring your friends and experience printmaking firsthand!
How can students join and become involved?
We urge anyone interested to attend one of our monthly art shows and to check out our Facebook to see what other upcoming events we are planning. If you would like to join the club, send us an email at theprintmongers@gmail.com and we’ll let you know when our next orientations for these upcoming summer and fall semesters are scheduled. If you or someone you know might be interested in sponsoring us, feel free to check out our website for more information or contact us through email. Any donations whether actual supplies or monetary help us immensely, and we are always willing to compensate gifts with original artwork.