The Print Center Edition: Ieva Iltnere

The Print Center was founded as a club, much like its sister organizations The Philadelphia Sketch Club and The Plastic Club. In addition to offering exhibitions, the organization served a social function and was well-known for its afternoon teas, served on silver service, which followed the Philadelphia Orchestra Friday matinee performances.  These afternoons included students…

During the New Deal era, the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP) engaged over 10,000 artists in communities across the US. In Philadelphia, a Fine Print Workshop was established in the same building where a WPA/FAP Poster Workshop was housed. The Fine Print Workshop quickly distinguished itself for its openness to both technical experimentation…

Lessing J. Rosenwald (1891 – 1979), the celebrated collector, had a life-long passion for prints and drawings from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century. Over time, he gave over 20,000 prints and drawings to the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Rosenwald, whose home, Alverthorpe Manor, is now the Abington Arts Center,…

Since 1918, The Print Center has been located at 1614 Latimer Street, in an old carriage house in Philadelphia’s historic Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. The organization purchased the building in 1927 and has made many renovations over the years, including enclosing a section of the garden in the 1960’s.