2021 2021: Visiting Artist: Rick Griffith

UMass Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts to host designer, activist, and visual artist Rick Griffith.

AHA! Night, Thursday October 14, 2021, 7-9pm, Star Store Campus

Join us for an artist talk and community engaged pop-up poster installation in Downtown New Bedford.

"WE ARE" autoethnographic letterpress poster project and installation, is a collaboration between CVPA students, Rick Griffith and the community. Works will be viewable outside from street-level windows of the Swain Studio at the corner of Purchase and Union Streets. Additionally, there will be pre-printed poster templates for visitors to create and add personal messages in their own way during AHA! Night. Outdoor exhibition and activities are free and open to the public.

Artist Talk: please register via Eventbrite. Masks required indoors. Limited seating for in-person UMassD registrants; virtual participation is available to the public. Please select your preference when registering.

Rick Griffith is a designer, visual artist, printer, teacher, writer, and activist. His creative practice results in a collage of form, color and grammar, with an autoethnographic focus, detailing his philosophies, lived experience and the histories he uncovers. Griffith founded MATTER, which, over the last two decades, has grown into an ambidextrous design consultancy, print shop, and retail bookstore. His work has been celebrated by the Type Directors Club, Print Magazine, Dwell, AIGA and exhibited internationally. He is a Black, British-born West-Indian person and an immigrant, and he works in Denver, CO and Brooklyn, NY.

This event is sponsored by AIGA RI, DWRI Letterpress, Graphic Design Club, AHA! New Bedford, UMass Dartmouth Galleries and through generous support from CVPA Dean, Lawrence Jenkens and Art and Design Department Chair, Laura Franz.

For more information contact: Michelle Bowers, UMass Dartmouth Associate Professor of Graphic Design, mbowers1@umassd.edu