Pawtucket Arts Festival Poster a True Collectible
Monday, July 25, 2011
The annual Pawtucket Arts Festival promotional poster, in its fifth year, pairs high-profile local artists with the world-famous graphic design of Malcolm Grear Designers. The limited signed edition of 75 is well under way to selling out before the poster itself has even been printed, according to organizers (the poster is $75, with proceeds going to support the Festival).
A true evocation of Pawtucket
This year's poster, a highly detailed pen and ink tableau of Pawtucket mills by artist Alan Metnick, perfectly summarizes the essence of Pawtucket, said Patty Zacks, Program Chair of the Festival. "I thought Alan's work really showed what Pawtucket was about with the mills and the rivers," she said, adding that a committee chooses the annual image for the poster. "I really hoped it would be chosen."
Metnick, a RISD graduate who created the image with the popular local arts festival in mind, took many photographs of mills throughout the city, from Colonial-era Slater Mill to more current buildings, for his drawing. "Mill architecture is rich and definitive, and yet different from building to building," Metnick said. While the buildings in the print may look familiar, they are not specific buildings, Metnick said, but evocative of an overall aesthetic.
The additional resonance, he added, is clear: those mills that represented the original industrial revolution that drove Pawtucket, now house the artists who have breathed new life into the city.
An unexpected coincidence
Part of the Festival's collaborative nature is to pair the artwork with Malcolm Grear Designers, the heralded studio that made an international reputation with its work for the 1996 Olympics. When Metnick found out, he couldn't have been more surprised, or delighted.
"Malcolm Grear was one of my favorite teachers when I was at RISD," he said. "I used to hang around his studio just to talk. To think that he himself was designing my poster was just such a wonderful surprise."
Metnick joins an esteemed line of artists whose work has appeared in previous Festival posters: Morris Nathanson, Gretchen Dow Simpson, Penelope Manzella, and Matt Kirstead. Ted Peffer of Iolabs, a printer specializing in fine art work, produces the poster.
Call Herb Weiss, Pawtucket's Economic & Cultural Affairs Officer at the following numbers to reserve a signed, limited edition poster: 724-5200, Ext. 437, or 742-4372.
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