NIU printmakers host sale for the holidays

By Tim Ashton

Students can support printmaking majors by buying one-of-a-kind prints.

The sale, which began on Tuesday and goes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Friday, is taking place in the second floor hallway of the Art Building. The sale serves as an opportunity to buy unique holiday gifts at a low price.

Wintery greeting cards, printed T-shirts, rock and roll posters and all sizes and subjects of printed work are available. The sale is hosted by Bandolier Press, a student printmaking club with about a dozen active members. Each year the club hosts a print sale at the end of the fall semester and another in the spring before Valentines Day.

“We have hundreds of prints for sale and T-shirts,” said Nikki Rice, Bandolier Press treasurer and senior printmaking major. “Basically everyone who’s involved in the club donates prints to be sold, and also people from past years have donated, so there’s artwork from former students, there’s artwork from professors like Michael Barnes and Ashley Nason and we also have visiting artist prints. They donate prints to be auctioned or sold at our sale.”

The proceeds of the sale are divvied up among members of Bandolier Press and put toward the cost of attending the annual Southern Graphics Conference International (SGCI) in the spring. SGCI describes itself on its website as the largest printmaking organization in North America, so printmaking students are eager to attend its conference.

Bandolier Press members rented vans and drove to New Orleans for the 2012 SGCI conference and in spring of 2013 will travel to Milwaukee. Print sales help to make travel and admittance to these conferences more affordable.