About
The Only Thing That Lasts: An Oral History of Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop is an educational platform supported by the Dedalus Foundation.
Interviews were filmed from November 1 - 3, 2023 by Camille Crain Drummond at the Printmaking Workshop on the second floor of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts at 323 West 39th Street, New York City.
In 2023, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop was awarded a Hauser & Wirth Institute grant to record a video-based oral history project entitled The Only Thing That Lasts: An Oral History of Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop, documenting the life of founder Robert Blackburn (1920–2003) and the history of the community workshop.
Raised in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, Blackburn was a visionary artist of Jamaican American descent, a pioneering master printmaker, and a celebrated educator.
As the longest-running community print shop in the United States dating back to 1947, the Workshop holds a diverse record of printmaking in the United States that reflects the communities with and movements in which Blackburn participated, including the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and Caribbean, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, feminist, and ecologically-focused activism.
These oral histories feature fourteen narrators sharing personal stories that capture the socio-historical context and collaborative culture of The Printmaking Workshop.
Highlights include Ademola Olugebefola introducing his involvement in Weusi Artist Collective, founded in Harlem, 1965; Dindga McCannon discussing the cultural shift in the 1960s and 1970s of natural hair to locks; Eleanor Magid recounting the New York City Teachers’ Strike of 1968; Nitza Tufiño talking about her early development of El Museo del Barrio; Michael Kelly Williams telling a story about Geri Allen’s album The Printmakers, inspired by The Printmaking Workshop; Richard Powell describing the studio’s influence on his earliest curatorial work; and Nanette Carter describing Blackburn’s support of Black artists: “Again in the Black world of ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, New York City, this man was behind all of us…Everyone knew him.”
About the Narrators
Richard J. Powell was born in Chicago, and earned his B.A. in Art from Morehouse College in 1975, followed by an M.F.A. in Printmaking from Howard University in 1977. While completing a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in Museum Education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he developed an interest in art criticism and curation. In 1979, as a guest curator for the Studio Museum in Harlem, he organized one of the first surveys of African American printmakers. He studied at Yale University from 1980 to 1988, earning an M.A. in African American Studies, and M.Phil., and Ph.D. in the History of Art. Since 1989, he has taught Art & Art History at Duke University and has become a prominent figure in African American art, recognized for his curatorial work and publications throughout his 35-year career.
robin holder was born in Chicago in 1952 and grew up in an activist family in New York City, through which she became aware of racial, class, and ethnic dynamics at an early age. She learned to explore these themes through art while attending LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and later at The Art Students League of New York. After spending five years living in Mexico, Ecuador, and Holland, she returned in 1977 to join Blackburn’s Printmaking studio as an artist and assistant director, refining her unique printmaking technique.
For the next three decades, holder worked as an art educator while maintaining her artistic practice, gaining recognition through numerous exhibitions, commissions, and community arts projects.
Nanette Carter was born in 1954 and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. She earned her BA from Oberlin College in 1976, during which time she spent a year studying in Italy and traveling. She earned her MFA in 1978 from Pratt Institute of Art. During the 1980s, her work was featured in group and solo exhibitions in New York, among other cities, receiving much recognition. She was a Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop fellow in 1989. From 1990 to today, Carter has continually evolved in her work and actively participated in gallery and museum exhibitions. Her shaped works, produced in multimedia on Mylar since 1997, are evocative of concepts in the history of abstract art and reflect the African-American abstract art tradition. In 2007, Carter was chosen by the US State Department to represent the nation at the International Women’s Art Festival in Aleppo, Syria.
Nitza Tufiño, born in 1949 to Mexican and Puerto Rican parents, spent her childhood between Puerto Rico, New York City, and Mexico. When she moved to New York in 1969, she became involved in establishing El Museo del Barrio, where she created the original façade artwork. Around the same time, she worked as a consultant on Puerto Rican and Caribbean art for both the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, helping to elevate Latino artists into the mainstream art world. Tufiño also co-founded El Taller Boricua, a Puerto Rican artist collective, and served as the master printmaker and director of the Rafael Tufiño Printmaking Workshop. As a board member of Friends of Puerto Rico, she opened the Cayman Gallery in SoHo, which later became the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (MOCHA).
Ademola Olugebefola, born in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1941, grew up in Brooklyn. During the civil rights movement he relocated to Harlem, actively engaging in political activism. He emerged as an influential figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s, as well as the early Afro-Futurism Movement. Ademola was a founding member of the Weusi Artist Collective, served as the first Educational Director of the Weusi Academy of African Arts and Studies, and was an early member of the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem. Ademola began studying printmaking at Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop starting in 1968, and in 2024 he received the Blackburn Legacy Fellowship.
Deborah Cullen-Morales began working as an intern at the Printmaking Workshop, sponging for a Jack Whitten lithograph. Her role expanded to organizing and managing the print collection, gaining curatorial expertise along the way, and curating exhibitions, including the US section of the Cairo Biennale. In 2002, she earned her Ph.D. in Art History from the CUNY Graduate Center, focusing her dissertation on master printmaker Robert Blackburn. Cullen-Morales went on to serve as Director of Curatorial Programs at El Museo del Barrio and as director of the Bronx Museum. Her focus on Latinx, Caribbean, and African-American art has left a lasting impact on the global art community.
Eleanor Magid is the founder of Lower East Side Printshop, which was established in 1968 and is still operating today. After Smith College, Magid moved to New York City in the early 1950s to further her arts education and practice. She studied printmaking under Robert Blackburn and taught art at Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge (SEEK) Program at Queens College.
Juan Sánchez, born to working-class Puerto Rican immigrants in Brooklyn, NY, has been part of several New York City collectives and communities including Exit Art, Taller Boricua, En Foco, and organizer with the Comité Pro Libertad de los Nacionalistas. In 1984, Juan was invited to participate in the Third World Artists Portfolio as a Jerome Fellow.
Michael Kelly Williams, raised in Detroit, Michigan, grew up surrounded by art and music. After studying art at the University of Michigan, he moved to New York City and-in the summer of 1979-joined The Printmaking Workshop. There he connected with a global community of artists and met key figures such as Otto Neals, robin holder, Krishna Reddy, and Betty Blayton, who involved him in her Children’s Art Carnival. His experiences, including his time printing in a studio Blackburn helped to establish in Asilah, Morocco, continue to shape his art today. In 2018, he became the first recipient of the Blackburn Legacy Fellowship. Williams has been commissioned for various permanent installations, including two mosaic murals at the Intervale Subway Station (2/5) in the Bronx and several glass murals in Queens, New York.
Devraj Dakoji was born in 1944 to a family of Ayurveda Practitioners, and was influenced heavily by the landscapes of his hometown of Hyderabad, India. After graduating from the College of Fine Arts and Architecture in Hyderabad in 1965, he pursued further education in printmaking at M.S. University of Baroda, Chelsea School of Arts in London, and the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico. He was appointed as Chief Supervisor of Graphic Studios, Dept. of Art, Garhi, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi in 1977 and Commissioner and jury member for the 2nd Graphic International Print Biennale, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal in 1991. In the early 1990s, he delved into teaching and managing international portfolios at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. He eventually co-founded Atelier 221, a printmaking studio in Delhi, with his wife, Pratibha. Devraj ‘s involvement with the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program has spanned three decades, and he continues his work there through teaching, curating exhibitions, and collaboration as a Master Printer with renowned artists such as Chakaia Booker, MF Husain, and Juan Sanchez.
Dindga McCannon grew up in Harlem and began her career studying under Harlem Renaissance artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Charles Alston, Richard Mayhew, and Al Loving at the Art Students League of New York and The Printmaking Workshop. She was an early member of Weusi Artist Collective, and later a co-founder of Where We At Black Women Artists with Kay Brown and Faith Ringgold. In 2022, she received the Blackburn Legacy Fellowship.
Kathy Caraccio, born in 1947 and raised in the Bronx, developed her expertise in printmaking throughout the 1970s and early 80s. She honed her skills in color etching, Japanese woodblock printing, and papermaking, including training in Japan, and spent four years apprenticing at Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop. In 1977, Caraccio established the K. Caraccio Printing Studio in New York City. She has since taught printmaking across the city at several institutions. As a master printer, Caraccio has editioned works for renowned artists such as Romare Bearden, Ed Clark, Emma Amos, and Blackburn. In this excerpt, she reflects on the collaborative atmosphere of Blackburn’s workshop—where artists exchanged materials, advice, and even snacks—and how Blackburn fostered opportunities for artists, both in editioning and teaching outside the studio.
Luanda Lozano is a founding member of the printmaking collective Dominican York Proyecto Gráfica (DYPG). Her printmaking career began in 1994 at The Printmaking Workshop, where she participated in the outreach program, bringing printmaking education to underserved communities. She also contributed to relocating the workshop to its current home at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
Otto Neals was born in 1931 in South Carolina and moved to Brooklyn at a young age. Aside from his time studying printmaking at the Robert Blackburn printmaking shop, and his brief attendance at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Neals is a self-taught artist. Neals has been commissioned to execute several major public works over his career, and is the recipient of the New York City Art Commission’s Award for Excellence in Design. Neals has been a member of the Weusi Art Collective since the 1960s, and is a founding artist of the Fulton Art Fair–the oldest Black visual arts event in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop extends its deepest gratitude to Hauser & Wirth Institute for their generous support recording The Only Thing That Lasts: An Oral History of Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop, and to the Dedalus Foundation for their support in making this platform accessible to the public.
We would like to thank those involved in creating this content: Camille Crain Drummond for her guidance and expertise throughout the entirety of this project; Ethel Renia for the considerate and careful curating of clip selections and their guiding themes; the website designers and development team: Nikki Makagiansar and Munus Shih.
Finally, we are grateful to Lisa Darms, Katy Rogers, Paul John, HC Huỳnh, Francesca Strada, Larry Jones, Phillip Edward Spradley, Emmy Catedral, Jocelyn Spaar, Jacob Gorchov, Kai Matsumiya and all the project narrators for helping preserve Bob’s legacy.
For information about accessing the full oral histories please contact rbpmw@efanyc.org or essye@efanyc.org.
Project Directors
Jazmine Catasús
Essye Klempner
Justin Sanz
Website Designers & Developers
Nikki Makagiansar & Munus Shih
Project Curator
Ethel Renia
Interns
Grace Piscitello
Eliana Szabo
Video Credit
Creative Producer
Camille Crain Drummond
Line Producer
Meghan-Michele German
Cinematographer
Hannah Engelson
Sound Recordist
Javier Caso
Production Manager
Julia Worcman McGill
Production Assistant
Ellie Lindsey
AC
Cristian Delvalle Caicedo
Editor
Cuong Ngo
Still Photography
Leslie Jean-Bart
Interns
Imani Congdon
Luchia Hornsby
Special Thanks
Francesca Strada
Larry Jones
Lisa Darms
Camille Billops and James V. Hatch archives at Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Additional Thanks
Curlee Holton
Allan Edmunds
Melvin Edwards
Kay WalkingStick
Corinne Jennings
Judith Blum Reddy
Susan Stedman
Nancy Paredes
John Andrews
Funded by Hauser & Wirth Institute
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