Cleveland Museum of Art Hosts the Print Club of Cleveland's 31st Annual Fine Print Fair This Weekend

This weekend the atrium at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) hosts the Print Club of Cleveland’s 31st Annual Fine Print Fair. The fair is free and open to the public this Friday, Sept. 25 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday Sept. 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The main purpose of the Fair is to raise money for the purchase of art for the print department,” explains co-chair of the Fine Print Fair Sally Roman. “Each year Jane Glaubinger, curator of prints at the Cleveland Museum of Art, is able to expand the collection with the support of funds raised by the Print Club at the Fine Print Fair. The exciting thing about the Fair is that 15 dealers from all areas of the country bring a wide variety of works on paper that are available for a range of cost. We want to be sensitive to those young people who are just beginning their art collections as well as those seasoned collectors who are looking for the one piece that will complete their collections.”

From 6 to 9:30 p.m. this Thursday, organizers host A Prints of a Party, Opening Night Preview. Dr. Jan Glaubinger, Curator of prints at the Cleveland Museum of Art, gives the Curator’s Choice tour at 7 p.m.

“The Fine Print Fair, sponsored by the Print Club of Cleveland, is a benefit for the museum’s department of prints,” says Jane Glaubinger, curator of prints at CMA. “This annual event brings fifteen dealers, who sell old master to contemporary prints and drawings, from around the country to Cleveland. It is a free event which offers numerous educational programs —- printmaking and papermaking demonstrations, information about conservation of works on paper, and a lecture on printmaking and print collecting —- as well as an opportunity to purchase works on paper for a great variety of prices.”

Tickets are required in advance for the Opening Night Preview, but the rest of the weekend is free and open to the public.

"Not only do we bring in art dealers from around the country for the Fine Print Fair, but we also have prizes,” promises the Fine Print Fair co-chair Jana Friees. “An hourly drawing is held each day of the Fair, where all participants enter for free and can win works of art or art books donated by the local arts community. We also have a raffle for a beautiful print of a sentimental New York skyline. Those tickets are available for purchase."

On Saturday, Dr. Glaubinger will present a special lecture, Prints: The Multiple as Original, at 11 a.m. Additionally, the weekend includes printmaking demonstrations, the Intermuseum Conservation Association discusses paper conservation (Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.), and the Morgan Conservatory demonstrates papermaking techniques (Saturday 1 to 4 p.m.).

Founded in 1919 (just three years after the CMA opened its doors), the Print Club of Cleveland is the oldest print club in the United States. It was founded 96 years ago for the purposes of stimulating interest in both old master and contemporary prints and print collecting, as well as helping to building the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. A century later, about one-third of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 20,000 prints are gifts from the club or its members.

(Cleveland Museum of Art) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7340, clevelandart.org, printclubcleveland.org