Since 2009 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater artists have visited the city of Oaxaca in Mexico to participate in art related activities. Last week UW-Whitewater faculty again conducted art workshops for students and professional artists in Oaxaca.  Professors Michael Flanagan and Max White completed a week of workshops on January 13, 2014 hosted by the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca (UABJO).

Professor Flanagan’s workshop in museum studies culminated in an exhibition of mounted works drawn from the UABJO and the private collection of Alilí Lopez. Students were instructed in the basics of exhibit conceptualization, preparation, and gallery use.

Professor White conducted  a workshop in solar plate graphics, a relatively new set of techniques using photo sensitive plates for graphic prints that are environment and artist friendly when compared to the traditional uses of acid in etching and lithography. Professor White, an accomplished artist in printmaking, drawing, and digital images, has recently developed an expertise in these processes which are only now becoming generally known in the art world.

Congratulations are also due to Professor White whose professional work is on exhibit at the UABJO Dirección de Arte y Cultura gallery for the remainder of January, 2014. The show, entitled “Invoking Drala,” is a sampling of Professor White’s digital prints and drawings.

Special thanks for the workshops go to Lic. Flavio Morales, Director of the Divison of Art and Culture at UABJO, Lic. Jorge Ortíz Rivera, Associate Director, and their staff who graciously assisted our every need related to the workshops. Coordinators Alilí Lopez and Hildebrando Gomez also deserve special credit. Their personal attention and remarkable ability to get things done quickly were much appreciated. And we should not forget the translation services of Mariana Aragón de Jarman and Claudia Mejía, without whom the workshops could not have been conducted.

A few photographs from the workshops are shown in the gallery below.

Museum Studies and Solar Plate Graphics Workshops at UABJO

Dirección de Arte y Cultura, UABJO Campus

Alilí Lopez, Workshop Coordinator and Flavio Morales, Director of the Division of Art and Culture, UABJO

Professor Michael Flanagan and his museum studies students

Professor Michael Flanagan and Claudia Mejia, Interpreter.

Professor Flanagan instructs students in how to hang an exhibit

Mariana Aragón served as the interpreter for the solar plate graphics workshop.

Victor Calerón exposes a solar plate image to sunlight.

The youngest member of the solar plate graphics workshop