IMPACT stands for ‘International Multi-disciplinary Printmaking, Artists, Concepts and Techniques’. Over the past two decades IMPACT has evolved as Europe’s leading academic discourse on printmaking. Printmaking is now integral to the wider academic debate, through practice, theory, visual culture, and is studied across a range of programmes, from undergraduate to PhD around the world.
As Chair of IMPACT, I am delighted to announce The Centre for Print Research will be hosting IMPACT 12 multidisciplinary printmaking conference, The Printmakers’ Voice, 21-25 September 2022.
We appreciate that in 2022, the pandemic may still have a firm grip on some countries, and many will be coping with the after-effects. Building on the success of the Hong Kong team, will be hosting both online and in person, encouraging and widening participation, and focusing on listening to each other’s voices.
We propose this event and conference to have a therapeutic function. We want to share and engage international participants from all backgrounds, and connect people through presentations and films, workshops and exhibitions, challenges, round-table discussion groups and networking. The networking and the participant conversations will be key to this conference: we want to hear from all of you!
To this end, we will begin with a summer programme of celebrating prints and books, which will start in July 2022 and continue throughout the conference. We will shortly be making a call for studios and workshops to collaborate with us to reflect on your studio activities during lockdown and celebrate and promote your ongoing resilience.
We will be making a call for students worldwide to work with us by establishing and promoting a series of networked activities and challenges, reaching out to far-flung communities.
We will be making a call for print ambassadors, working with the IMPACT team, refining and envisioning our print themes and creating a worldwide conference.
Last but not least, we will be calling for print enthusiasts and print scholars to submit papers, exhibitions and demonstrations for consideration to the conference. We are proposing themes around:
- Post-pandemic Voice
- Touching and Touched
- Printability and transmutability
- The Printmakers’ Garden
- Breaking Boundaries
- Merging and Metamorphosis
The conference will be held across the city of Bristol including the opening reception and lectures at City Hall. We will be working with the School of Art and Design, Bower Ashton City Campus UWE and Arnolfini to host a range of exhibitions and a summer of print and books. At our new Frenchay site, we will also be showcasing our brand-new labs and studios where there will be workshops, lectures and the product fair.
Please look out for our new IMPACT website which will give you more details on how to take part.
We look forward to welcoming you to the City of Bristol September 2022
Carinna Parraman
Past IMPACT Conferences:
2021 IMPACT 11 Hosted by Hong Kong Open Printshop
https://www.impact11.hk/
2018 IMPACT 10 Hosted by SM Pro Art, Santander, Spain
https://www.impact10.es/
2015 IMPACT 9 Hosted by the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China.
2013 IMPACT 8 Hosted by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee.
IMPACT 8 website
2011 IMPACT 7 Hosted by Monash University, Australia.
impact7.org.au/index.html
2009 IMPACT 6 Hosted at UWE Bristol, England.
2007 IMPACT 5 Hosted by the Estonian Printmakers’ Association and Estonian Academy of Art, held at KUMU, a purpose built art museum in Tallinn.
2005 IMPACT 4 Co-hosted by the Unversität der Künste Berlin and the National Museum in Poznan and coordinated by University of Tennessee.
Conference website
2003 IMPACT 3 Co-hosted by the South Africa Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town with Rhodes University School of Fine Art.
2001 IMPACT 2 Hosted by the University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH, Finland.
Conference website
1999 IMPACT 1 Held at UWE Bristol, England
