Description
The Serie Project, Inc. is a non-profit Latino arts organization in Austin, Texas that produces, promotes and exhibits serigraph prints created by established and emerging artists. In striving to emphasize the cultural diversity of the visual arts in Austin and Texas it is developing awareness of Latino art and its importance in our communities. The organization, in a workshop environment, establishes communication among the artists and then shares the benefit of this interchange of ideas and experiences with the public. The print shop serves as a setting to foster the participant's artistic development and creativity through exposure to the serigraph medium as a vehicle for expression. A participating artist creates a limited edition serigraph print and the Serie, in turn, is able to make fine art available to the public through these affordable, signed, and numbered prints. Serigraphy is the fine art process of printmaking commonly known as screen printing. In contrast to the commercial silk-screen pneumatic machine process, each color run in the serigraph print making process is hand pulled. This hand pulled craftsmanship makes the small edition as unique as an original painting. In 1993, Austin artist Sam Coronado created the Serie Project modeled after Self-Help Graphics in Los Angeles. His participation in Self-Help's Atelier silk-screen printing workshop in the early 1990s inspired Coronado to create a similar printing facility in his personal painting studio. Today Coronado Studio, located in East Austin, has become a professional serigraph print shop that provides everything from equipment and materials to exhibition opportunities at no cost for artists participating in the Serie. A master printer is available for each participant to assist and guide in the production of their editions. Participants learn basic printing processes and the technical aspects of fine art printmaking enabling them to create work in a medium they might not otherwise have the resources to explore or been exposed to. They come from an array of experience and background and established in other techniques and mediums and are selected through a referral and juror system. Each artist and art organization that participates in the Serie then recommends two or more other artists. Sam Coronado and the master printer review the work of all referred artists. Each artist produces an edition of 50 serigraph prints which are then equally divided between himself/herself and the Serie. Prints kept by the Serie are marketed through galleries, museums, and via the internet at hyperlink http://www.coronadostudio.com to help support the print shop financially. Each year the Serie conducts touring exhibits of its latest editions that generate additional revenues and exposure for the artists. Exhibits have been held at many locations such as Galeria Otra Vez, Los Angeles, sponsored by Self-Help Graphics; South Broadway Cultural Center, Albuquerque; Individual Artists of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City; Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio; Center for Hispanic Arts and The Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; UT Pan American, Edinburg; Bath House Cultural Center; Dallas; Narcisso Martinez Cultural Arts Center, San Benito; Dougherty Arts Center, Austin; State Capitol Building, Austin; McAllen International Museum, McAllen; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and many others. The Serie has received national and local recognition from Hispanic Magazine, The Austin Museum of Art, the Latino Laugh Festival, the Austin Chronicle, and the PBS Series, Art Journeys. To date, the Art Institute of South Texas in Corpus Christi has collected all suites of The Serie Project, Inc. Prints have also been collected by Texas A&M Childhood Center, The City of Austin Art in Public Places and the University of Texas Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art in Austin. The Serie Project, Inc. is funded, in part, by the City of Austin under the auspices of the Austin Arts Commission and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
