Southeast professors host protest banner workshop

Southeast professors Hannah and Blake Sanders opened a free protest banner workshop Saturday, Aug. 24, at Catapult Creative House to engage students and community members in printmaking.

With no art skills or printmaking experience required, event-goers only had to show up to participate in the event. The work made Saturday will be taken and merged all together for the Sanders’ upcoming project. The couple will showcase the collection of artwork at the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, Kansas, for Print Week 2019 in late September.

“A workshop like this is a good way to connect to an audience we don’t necessarily get to with the artwork we make,” Blake said. “This is a way to give the community of Cape Girardeau an actual art experience.”

As professors who primarily work with students, Blake and Hannah said it's nice to work with a non-student population to expand their teaching skills.

Several slogans were being printed onto fabric such as “Save The Turtles,” “Fossils Are Friends, Not Fuel,” and “Not For Sale.”

The workshop also offered screen printing, so several participants hand-drew their slogans and will screen print them at the next workshop.

A few students and community members attended the event, including Wendell Stapleton, a student at Southeast who made a banner that read “Black Trans Lives Matter.”

Stapleton works for Hannah and Blake at Catapult, and although his major is digital art, he thinks printmaking is different because it is replicable art.

The next workshop will be Saturday, Sept. 7 from 9 a.m to 12 p.m at Catapult. The second workshop is focused on compiling the art made at the first workshop and making finished pieces for Print Week 2019.