The ArtOrg Thousand Print Summer kicks off in Dundas on Saturday from 10 am to 3:30 pm. We provide materials for everyone to make a print block, and then we ink it up, put some paper on the top, and roll over it with our small steamroller. Let the printmaker in you ROAR! This event is only one of many wonderful events which will include a pancake breakfast, old-time baseball, pet show and parade, horses, popcorn, grilling from Fermentations, a beer garden, and music. Music on Saturday includes The Ditch Lilies from 12 noon to 2pm, T.V. and the Bellr’d Yellers from 2pm to 4pm, Peter Lang from 4pm to 6pm, Will Healy’s live KYMN radio broadcast from 6pm to 8pm, and then the Zillionaires from 8pm to 10pm. It is likely that several artists from the ArtOrg project “The Twenty Views of Dundas” will be talking about their Dundas stories on the Will’s radio broadcast.

ArtOrg has worked for several months to bring the “Vermillion Editions Limited” fine art print shop and publishing business to Northfield, and in fact our gallery exhibit called “Vermillion Editions: An American Print Shop” has been up for four months while we tried to work something out. For the time being, we have chosen to back away from that negotiation and wish all the best to master printer and founder Steven M. Andersen and the Vermillion group. Our optimism about the Vermillion and its future business prospects remain very high. We sincerely feel privileged to have had this important opportunity.

On Friday, June 4 at 9:05 CST ArtOrg will be on KYMN 1080 AM radio for Paula Granquist’s “Art Zany” radio program to talk about the “Twenty Views of Dundas” collaborative print project. We expect several artists to drop in the studio, and others to give small telephone interviews on their experiences. Fred Somers had planned to attend this radio show, but we are proud to announce that he is instead traveling to Santa Fe, New Mexico to accept the Grand Prize in the 2009 International Association of Pastel Societies Juried Exhibition. Go Fred!

ArtOrg would like to congratulate a few of “Twenty Views of Dundas” collaborative print project participants on recent news. Principal printer Steven Nuno Nunez was accepted into the MFA program at Tulane University. Artist Carolyn Swiszcz was selected for the coveted McKnight Artist Fellowship for Visual Arts. Artist Scott West recently completed a tour with his band “Cloud Cult” which included a performance at the large 3-day Coachella Music Festival. Congratulations! The “Twenty Views of Dundas” will continue on display for the foreseeable future at Fermentations Wine Bar and Bistro in Dundas.

Cristina Perez’s large print from the ArtOrg project “2006 Northfield Day of the Dead Steamroller Prints” was used to advertise this year’s Art-A-Whirl festival in Northeast Minneapolis. It appeared in the May 13, 2009 issue of City Pages. Over 500 artists open their studios for this three-day festival.

Caleb Sage Hendrickson is a student in the art department at St. Olaf College wanted to incorporate a big steamroller print into his senior show. ArtOrg responded and dusted off its 20,000 pound large Buffalo Springfield steamroller to help him. We are also in the planning stages for printing for another Day of the Dead project in Fargo, North Dakota in October of this year. This event is being planned by The Plains Art Museum in conjunction with the Latino artist group Read the rest of this entry »

ArtOrg will be holding steamroller printing events at local and regional art festivals and fairs this summer, as an extension of last years “1000 Print Summer” project. See the growing calendar of public steamroller events here. Already, we have been invited back to Rochester and Owatonna, and we will also be visiting Dundas and Fargo for the first time this year—and if your group would like to have us at your event, please contact us. Forecast Public Art, the main sponsoring group that made last year’s project happen, has also agreed to help again this summer. Also, all of last year’s organizations and artists will further their participation in the creating of “The Big Print” which will be approximately 50 feet tall by 80 feet wide and include reprinted versions of everyone’s block from last summer. Look for further announcements concerning this big unveiling event—probably to be held this August.