Established in 2000, Zea Mays Printmaking is a working studio where artists come to make prints in a safe environment free of hazardous toxins.
In this digital extra, Founding Director Liz Chalfin talks about the mission of this studio that is tucked away in an old mill building in Florence, MA.
Meet Edda Sigurdardottir, a printmaker who calls Zea Mays Printmaking home.
Read the full transcript:
Liz Chalfin, Zea Mays Printmaking: We’re in the wonderful little corner of Florence, Massachusetts, called Bay State, and we’re in an old factory building. This was once a cutlery factory where they made serving knives and spoons.
On the ground floor, we have our gallery, which we’re standing in now. We also have our teaching studio where we offer our workshops.
Many of our members have already had some printmaking experience, but they’ve had to leave the field because of toxicity issues and health issues. So, finding this studio has been a way for them to come back into an art form that they love and had to leave because we offer a safer way to do it.
At any given moment, we have over 600 prints to share with people who want to come in and just learn about printmaking or buy prints. And we also have an online school. So, if people don’t want to come here or can’t come to Florence, Mass. to do printmaking, they can do it with us online.
