New Provincetown Print Project

For five years from 1990-1994, this influential venture brought nationally known and important local artists to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown to create the PROVINCETOWN PRINT PROJECT and produce limited edition prints that broke new artistic ground while providing critical support for the Work Center’s residency program for emerging artists and writers. MICHAEL MAZUR (1935-2009), world-renowned printmaker and painter, along with master printer ROBERT TOWNSEND, guided more than 20 artists in producing a body of monotypes, one-of-a-kind prints, often combined with mixed media and after-press hand work. The artists donated several prints to be part of the annual portfolio that contained one print from each of that season’s artists. These portfolios were offered for sale to raise important funds for the Work Center’s residency program. In addition to collectors, portfolios were acquired by the National Museum of Art and the National Gallery, both in Washington, DC; the New York Public Library; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Hood Art Museum at Dartmouth College, among others. In 1993, all four artists devoted their efforts to AIDS awareness.

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Fine Arts Work Center and the important role of printmaking in the history of the Provincetown art community, as well as its central place in the artistic lives of many who have held a Work Center Visual Arts Fellowship, a number of artists and master printers joined forces to create the NEW PROVINCETOWN PRINT PROJECT with a new, limited-edition portfolio of prints, reviving MICHAEL MAZUR’s project.