Richmond Printmaking Workshop (1978-1991), also known as RPW, was a printmaking studio and workshop designed for experienced printmakers in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded by artist Nancy David, a former printmaking instructor assisting Marilyn Bevilaqua at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts studio school, and Gail McKennis, an American British-trained artist/printmaker who was the owner of Scott-McKennis Gallery in Richmond's Carytown, where she showed prints-- especially etchings--by artists such as Kathe Kollwitz and Chris Orr. Other directors included Laura Pharis, later of the Sweet Briar College art faculty, and Mary Holland, who later became the director of the Museum Studio School at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and one of the founders of the ONE/OFF Printmakers Group.
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History
Founded in 1978 and located at 1529 West Cary Street on the first floor of a former funeral home owned by Nancy David and her husband John David, the workshop had letterpress equipment and etching and lithography presses. The workshop offered facilities and instruction for letterpress, mezzotint, linocut, papermaking, paper marbling, and book arts. An exhibition of women artists who worked at the Richmond Printmaking Workshop included Laura Pharis, Mary Holland, Willie Anne Wright, and Barbara Tisserat. When the Richmond Printmaking Workshop dissolved in 1991, a collection of 253 prints by fifty-seven RPW artists was presented to the Hand Workshop (now the Visual Arts Center) in Richmond. In 2001, the Hand Workshop transferred the collection to the Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center at the University of Richmond Museum. After the dissolution of the RPW, its artists who formed the group ONE/OFF Printmakers have continued to produce print portfolios and to exhibit their group shows both nationally and internationally. A result of moving the RPW to the Hand Workshop, was the increase of printmaking instructors, classes, and workshops at the Hand Workshop (now VisArts). The RPW began collaborative exchange portfolios of members' prints, a tradition which later continued with ONE/OFF Printmakers and Studio Two Three, both also based in Richmond. In 2002 One/Off Printmakers held an open house at the Hand Workshop printmaking studio. The artists giving printmaking demonstrations were Jack Glover, Ann Chenoweth, and Mitzi Humphrey. Other artists from One/Off discussed and showed examples of various other printmaking processes. Concurrently with the demonstrations, an exhibition from Pyramid Atlantic was on display in the Hand Workshop gallery.
Partners
The RPW partnered with Richmond City Public Schools in offering printmaking workshops and sponsoring scholarships for talented teens. In 1983 the workshop produced the first color cover for the Richmond Independent Press and published several covers that year.
Among the artists who were instructors at the Richmond Printmaking Workshop were Master Printer David Adamson from England (at the invitation of Laura Pharis), woodcut artist and Paint Pot Alley host of children's television Jack Glover, and book artists Bruce Schnabel, John Field, and Carol Barton.
Funding
Funding for the RPW after achieving its non-profit organization 501-C3 status came from other artists in the community, private donors, studio rental, and workshop tuition, and the workshop drew participation from Virginia museums and galleries as well as collaboration from both the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts.