Julianne Hunter, president of the board of directors at The Ink Shop and printmaking professor at both Ithaca College and Cornell, is the main connection between student artists and The Ink Shop, and she advertises the opportunity to many of her students. 

Hunter says the opportunity to share with the public and gain experience exhibiting their work is invaluable for students. 

“I think it’s just like asking who’s excited about things and who wants to show work, and that that excitement and enthusiasm from the peer group makes other people excited,” Hunter said.  “For art majors, especially for people that this is going to be their chosen profession, this is part of their professional development.”

History of The Ink Shop

The Ink Shop was founded by four artists in 1999 and is located on the second floor of the historic Community School of Music and Arts building. It operates on an all-volunteer basis that allows individuals to decide how involved they are in the shop. Since the shop is not-for-profit, it relies on the support of its volunteers, as well as monthly membership dues.

The Ink Shop hosts the Kahn Family and the Fred Madden annual fellowships, which provide selected artists with a full-year membership to The Ink Shop with 24/7 access to the studio and equipment, and give them the opportunity to present their work in a solo gallery show within the space. The shop also offers unpaid for-credit or non-credit internships open to high school or college students. 

Getting off the hills

Ella Anjali Kirlew, a third-year art student with a minor in German at Cornell University,  is showing work in her third IC/CU show; she interned for the shop last summer. She says that the show presents a unique off-campus opportunity to show work in a gallery that is available to students in ways that on-campus exhibits may not be.

“At Cornell, it is like a very interesting, mildly intensive process and they’re not able to give space to everyone,” Anjali Kirklew said.  “So some people will graduate without ever showing work in one of the Cornell galleries.”

Vic Woods, a senior art student at Ithaca College, participated in the IC/CU show for the first time this year. They shared how beneficial it was for them to come off campus and engage in an artistic community outside of their institutions, particularly during the gallery’s opening night on April 3. 

“I got to talk to some people about my art and ask questions about the other art,” Woods said. “Because it’s a collaboration between Cornell too, it’s great to interact in that mixed space.”

Student artists also have the opportunity to talk to and learn from older, more established artists within The Ink Shop. 

“Having that cross-generational relationship with other artists is something that college students don’t always get the opportunity to do,” Hunter said.  “If they’re in academia, then all of their college professors have a terminal degree in their field. So it’s really nice to just remember that not all artists take the academic route, and that doesn’t mean they’re better or worse than you.”

Printmaking: the art form

Printmaking is an art form that involves creating an image on a piece of material and coating it in ink, then pressing it onto a piece of paper, leaving a printed design. 

Woods first discovered printmaking through a class at IC. Since then, they’ve taken another printmaking class and spent time this summer at The Gallery at South Hill. Their prints are being featured in the IC/CU show. 

“Printmaking’s really fun because it allows you to do patterns and repetition, but you don’t have to be perfect with it,” Woods said. “It allows you to do these different but the same things.”

Impressions and Impacts

Anajli Kirlew credits Hunter’s leadership and continued outreach to students as being a driving force behind student engagement in the show. 

“She’s like, ‘Hey, just come put your work in this show that I’m curating.’ And it’s just such a great opportunity to have as students and The Ink Shop to be able to provide space for that,” Anjali Kirlew said. “It’s wonderful because The Ink Shop is so connected to the Ithaca community and not just like Cornell or Ithaca College. So I think it’s just really a great experience.”

Hunter’s priority as a part-time professor at both Cornell and IC is to ensure that her students are getting as many opportunities as possible. Her role in The Ink Shop allows her to engage with students and, through the show, give them a space to grow professionally as artists and as members of the Ithaca community. 

“I would just encourage full-time faculty and part-time faculty, if you have any position of privilege where you can make opportunities available for people that haven’t had them, especially in the arts and community spaces, we need to all be doing the best that we can,” Hunter said. “And this has been a really nice space to be able to do that.”