Story co-produced with Madison Pait
WCU art students create and donate books for Cherokee learners in WCU’s Introduction to Printmaking course.
“We’re partnering with the Cherokee learners to create a children’s book. And the hopes for this book is for all of the students in the class to create a picture that sort of symbolizes or represents their word in Cherokee. And then those books will be combined with all the words from the different seasons, and it’ll be used to help teach younger learners that are helping to learn Cherokee,” said Nicole Petersohn, an art major enrolled in the course.
Tatiana Potts, Assistant Professor of Printmaking and Book Arts, was presented with the idea to make books by a colleague. “As a final project we can have a book and then opportunity to collaborate with Cherokees who teach us the words and we can include them and then have kids who are going to interact with them,” said Potts. Potts describes the project as a “community kind of work” as students work in the print shop, sharing the space and equipment to create books.
The project is set to be completed within three weeks, with a total of 10 books produced. Potts plans to gift some of the books to the Chancellor of the University, WCU’s Art Museum, Cherokee Leaders Chief and the print studio for future students. The remaining books will be donated to the Cherokee Learners Center in Cherokee, NC.
Faith Eudy, a sophomore here at WCU studying Art Education, creates her book design on chestnuts, inspired by the fall season. Eudy was not aware of the Cherokee learners’ school prior to the project.
“It’s cool to be able to meet those people and meet the man behind it that’s teaching this class and be able to tell us more about him and what he’s doing and us being able to tell him more about what we’re doing,” said Eudy referring to Hartwell Francis, Director of the Cherokee Language Program at WCU, when he came to show the class the project outline for the children’s book.
Potts plans to continue incorporating the Cherokee language into future projects. She is interested in inviting Cherokee people to the studio to see how the process works and become more physically involved.
Petersohn was also not familiar with the Cherokee language prior to the project and the process has been interesting in learning about both the language and printmaking skills.
“Its been interesting to do this project to learn more about printmaking itself and also how we can help others,” said Petersohn.
Eudy believes that the course has made her a better artist. “It has forced me to learn more and really be hands-on and be slow and meticulous instead of trying to rush through a lot of things,” she said.
The Introduction to Printmaking course, also known as ART 234, is only offered to Art majors in the School of Arts at WCU. There are two prerequisites to enrolling in the course.
“I definitely feel like a more well-rounded artist. I feel like I can work a little bit better on paper than I could before, and also ink and printmaking in general,” said Petersohn.
To see the final product go to @printmakingwcu.
Learn about the process of making the books and the art behind it in the video.
