Riverhead is getting a new kind of outdoor art festival, one that trades paintbrushes for carved woodblocks and a steamroller.
The East End Arts Council’s inaugural Steamroller Printmaking Festival on Saturday, Nov. 7 in the council’s courtyard, will bring artists together to create oversized prints, transforming traditional printmaking into a large-scale, collaborative experience.
The festival grew out of the council’s efforts to expand its printmaking programming, supported by sponsorship from North Fork Side by Side and the donation of two refurbished traditional printmaking presses from artist Dan Welden. Mich Miller, the council’s head of printmaking and gallery programs, proposed bringing steamroller printmaking to Riverhead to take the art form outdoors and bring people together around the creative process. The concept also offered a potential fall counterpart to the council’s annual Mosaic Festival, an outdoor chalk art event held in late May/early June.
Artists will use a steamroller, supplied and operated by the Riverhead Highway Department, to print large woodblocks they carved in advance. The process resembles making a stamp: Artists carve their designs into oversized pieces of wood, apply ink to the blocks, place paper or fabric over them and run the steamroller across the surface. Once the paper is peeled away, the resulting image is revealed as a large-scale print.
“It’s hard to imagine the whole thing until you see it for yourself,” Miller says. “But it’s really like a collaborative experience where everyone’s working in synchronicity to create something awesome.”
Organizers have structured the printing process to keep spectators out of the vehicle’s path. The steamroller travels only four feet in either direction, and a team of artists inks the woodblocks and coordinates the printing process.
“I think there’s that element of danger that is kind of what makes it a bit exciting, much like a monster truck rally, but for printmaking,” Miller says.
Nearly 20 artists and participants are expected to take part, including individual artists, small teams and students from Rochester Institute of Technology. About a dozen RIT students have carved large blocks for their coursework and will travel to Riverhead for the festival, along with visits to two accompanying printmaking exhibitions. Other participating artists include William Albertini, Glynis Berry, Scott Bluedorn, Andrea Cote, Sherry Davis, Olivia DeFeo, Yan Lin, Bonnie McLoughlin Stiegler, Amanda McGrath, Thomas Moore, Ruthe Nepf, Drew O’Connor, Yaqub Shabazz, Ted Thirlby and Marianne Weil.
Beyond the printing demonstrations, the festival will feature local vendors, including Ben & Jerry’s; hands-on art activities that let visitors try printmaking on a smaller scale using traditional presses; and live music and DJ sets.
Two exhibitions featuring more than 120 printmaking artists will also be open nearby. The shows will be held at the Andy Tarshis Fine Art Gallery (48 West Main St., Riverhead, 631-727-0900) and the 11 West Main Gallery at Peconic Crossing (11 West Main St., Riverhead, 877-879-0854), placing both within walking distance of the festival.
After the event, artists will take home a large print of their work. Some are also collaborating with organizations, including the Parrish Art Museum, on print editions. The council does not plan to hold a separate exhibition of the festival prints afterward.
Although this is the festival’s first year, organizers hope it will become an annual tradition, with the possibility of expanding into a closed-off section of Main Street and welcoming more artists and spectators in future years.
