STUDIO PROGRAM EXHIBITIONS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. THE PRINTSHOP IS APPOINTMENT ONLY.
Image: Yu-Wen Wu, Scholar's Rock I, 2024
Open Studios 2025
Friday, October 17
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm Professional Preview (by RSVP)
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm Opening Night Registration encouraged
Saturday, October 18
12:00 am – 1:00 pm Panel Discussion: South Asian Womxn at EFA organized by SAWCC
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm Open Studios
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Print Demo: Closer Look with Devin N. Morris
EFA OPEN STUDIOS! We welcome the public to explore 80 artist studios, along with a host of arts programming and exhibitions, all located in the EFA building in Midtown Manhattan. This event offers a rare opportunity to witness the creative process up close and engage with a vibrant community of professional artists. Our internationally recognized members, each with established studio practices and career honors, will open their doors to showcase their most recent works. Additionally, the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop will be open for special events and tours, providing firsthand experiences of the transformative power of art.
EXHIBITIONS
Image by Argenis Apolinario
Press & Pull: Two Decades at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
September 9 – November 14, 2025
Opening Reception: Tuesday, September 9, 2025, 6-8PM
The James Gallery
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Curated by Shameekia Shantel Johnson in collaboration with Essye Klempner, Program Director and Jazmine Catasús, Artistic Director of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, a program of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
Haig Aivazian, Xenobia Bailey, Chakaia Booker, Robert Blackburn, Romare Bearden, Betty Blayton, Camille Billops, Elizabeth Catlett, Ed Clark, Renee Cox, Lizania Cruz, Devraj Dakoji, Raque Ford, Michele Godwin, Maren Hassinger, Baseera Khan, Tsedaye Makonnen, Glendalys Medina, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Dindga McCannon, Otto Neals, Ademola Olugebefola, Stephanie Santana, Krishna Reddy, Shellyne Rodriguez, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Kenny Rivero, Elliott Jamal Robbins, Faith Ringgold, Charles White, and Michael Kelly Williams
Funding for this exhibition has been generously provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art, with additional support from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Dedalus Foundation, Hauser & Wirth Institute and Speedball Art Products. These partners have supported the development of the exhibition, public programming, and the broader efforts to preserve and share the Workshop’s artistic and cultural legacy.
EVENTS
The Emergence of New York City Community Printshops
Saturday, September 27, 3 - 5PM
The James Gallery CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue, NY, NY 10016
Lauren Rosenblum, CUNY Grad Center Moderator; Eleanor Magid, Founder of Lower East Side Printshop; Nitza Tufiño, El Taller Boricua; robin holder, former Assistant Director of The Printmaking Workshop
Learn more here.
Cooperation: A Political, Economic and Social Theory with Bernard E. Harcourt
Tuesday, September 30, 6 - 8PM
The James Gallery CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue, NYC 10016
In his book, Harcourt writes, “Cooperation is pervasive in contemporary economy and society, often hidden in plain sight and unacknowledged. It operates in the shadows of advanced capitalist economies. Its omnipresence demonstrates the possibility and potential of an economic regime based on coöperism.” From consumer co-ops to worker cooperatives, mutual aid networks to nonprofits, Harcourt points to collective models that embody democratic participation, equity, solidarity, and sustainability beyond electoral politics.
Learn more here.
Print Workshop | Carve, Press, Repeat! with Alannah Sears
Saturday, October 4, 1 - 3 PM
Children's Art Carnival, 62 Hamilton Terrace, NYC 10031
This workshop continues the long standing relationship between the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and the Children’s Art Carnival.
RSVP requested, not required. Email rbpmw@efanyc.org
RBPMW Annual Members’ Show
September 20 – November 14, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 20th, 3-6PM
Blackburn Study Center
323 West 39th St, 2nd Floor
Alaiyo Bradshaw, Amy Tenenouser, Barbara Westermann, Chemin Hsiao, Chihiro ITO, Carlos Pisco, Deborah Seidman, Denise Kasof, Dabora Choi, Darwin Erazo, Diane Drescher, Douglas Collins, Elina Press, Emily Barnett, Essye Marie, Eileen O'Kane Kornreich, Freddie L. Rankin II, Gail Shaw-Clemons, Geuryung Lee, Justin Sanz, James Horner, Jeannie Rhyu, Jessie Fan, Judy Liu, Laura Dolp, Lori Solondz, Luanda Lozano, Maggie Barrett, Maggie Block, Michele Godwin, Maho Kino, Marta Nowicka, Michele Godwin, Mimi Biyao Bai, Moses Ros, Morgan Menzyk, Molly Crabapple, Patrick Rowe, Pedro Felipe Vintimilla, Pauline Kinahan Kane, Priyanka Kumar, Rachel Kim, Rosario Moore Arteaga, Sal Sidner, Sakura Abdel-Rahman, Samantha Nochimson, Sigrid Sperzel, Beth Sutherland, Sheila Dubey, Nancy Paredes, Simon Herrera, tsetsilia tsypina, Victoria Salzman, Patricia Wynne and more.
Between Us, A Resonance: Stories of Cultural Memory, Community, and Belonging
in partnership with ALT Alliance
September 3 – 12, 2025
EFA Gallery
323 West 39th St, 3rd Floor
Hours: Tue–Fri, 12–5 pm
Ziyi Zhang
Yiting Liu
Wei-chen Lou
Curated by Cheryl Huang
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, in partnership with ALT Alliance, is proud to present Between Us, A Resonance: Stories of Cultural Memory, Community, and Belonging—a group exhibition featuring AAPI artists Ziyi Zhang and Wei-chen Lou from the four-week artist residency program at EFA, alongside artist and Guqin musician Yiting Liu. The exhibition explores the evolving relationship between individual cultural memory and collective experience through community-centered, interdisciplinary practices.
RESIDENCIEs + FELLOWSHIPS
Ziyi Zhang, Hold on my Last Castle, 2025
ALT Alliance Residency
in partnership with ALT Aliance
International Artist-in-Residence
Wei-chen Lou
Cherilyn Tan Qiao Lyn
Ziyi Zhang
We are excited to debut a residency for AAPI artists in partnership with ALT Alliance. The residency cohort will focus on healing, sustainability, and cultural memory and will culminate in an exhibition opening September 3rd.
Nirit Takele, She Who Holds The Memory, 2025, acrylic on canvas. 150 × 120 cm. Photo by Yigal Pardo.
Nirit Takele
in partnership with Artis
International Artist-in-Residence
Nirit Takele is an artist in residence at EFA Studios from August 1 - September 30, 2025. Nirit Takele is a contemporary figurative painter whose work explores themes of cultural heritage, migration, and identity. Nirit was born in Ethiopia and immigrated to Israel in 1991, one of the many personal experiences that she reflects on in her art practice.
Utilizing a vibrant color palette, Nirit’s often large-scale compositions celebrate Ethiopian diasporic communities. The heroic figures that she centers in her paintings are inspired by histories, memories, and folk tales. Takele’s bold, color-saturated paintings depict communities of Ethiopian descent from Israel with sculptural figures and dynamic compositions that merge classical European influences with modernist abstraction.
THE ELIZABETH FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS OPERATES TWO MAJOR PROGRAMS
