Every third Thursday of the month, The Minneapolis Institute of Art hosts an audience engagement event appropriately titled, Third Thursday. Each month the museum stays open late and develops special thematic programming based off exhibitions hung in their halls. September’s Third Thursday featured an interactive project, The Pressery created by current MCAD MFA graphic design candidate Katie Lupton.
The Pressery is the template for a variety of project themes; investigating an alternative process for letterpress printing. By using a pasta machine to create prints, Lupton aimed to intrigue participants enough to start an interaction and inspire them to experiment with familiar tools in an unexpected place. The system is designed to be interchangeable; components of message, design and terms can be altered depending on the event.
In this case, the event was centered around the theme, Art of Food. Participants were invited to build their card as if they were creating a recipe, using predetermined words and food-shaped imagery and then press their design with the machine. Finally, the card could be left as a blind impression or added to with color and text.
This is the third event in the partnership between MCAD’s MFA department and Mia’s Audience Engagement department that brings student work into the museum through programming outside the scope of a traditional gallery setting. Proceeding Lupton was Preston Drum with his Share What You See, Third Thursday event in June and Julie Benda showcased in August with her project, Codex on a String.
Additional info on Third Thursday
Katie Lupton’s website
