Artist Spotlight
HISTORY
When Sam Coronado founded the Serie Project in 1993, he envisioned a workshop where underrepresented artists could benefit from collaboration and learn the serigraphy technique. In the last two decades the organization has fostered over 250 artists from different professional levels and ethnic backgrounds, who together have produced a rare and special collection of serigraphs.
About the Founder
Sam Coronado is a Chicano painter and printmaker who has practiced serigraphy for over thirty years. Yet his vision for the Serie Project came after he encountered Self Help Graphics in 1991. Coronado’s participation in this program advocated to him that prints, a vital aspect of the Chicano art movement, can continue to reflect the Mexican American and Latino experience in the United States.
Hoping to grant better access to this historically significant medium, Coronado made it his mission to provide affordable printmaking services in his hometown of Austin, Texas. In 1992 he established Coronado Studio, a commercial printmaking facility, and in the following year founded the “Serie Print Project” as a separate, nonprofit entity. The Serie Print Project enabled Coronado to direct an Artist in Residence program through which artists could utilize Coronado Studio at no cost to them. The organization was renamed and incorporated as “The Serie Project” in 1999, yet it has continued to employ the printmaking resources at Coronado Studio to date. With much dedication, Coronado has served the Serie Project as executive director since its inception.
Cultural Presence
The Serie Project’s achievement of social change is largely made possible by its collaboration with the Latino and cultural community. Since 1998, the organization has collaborated with the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas, to present exhibitions on a yearly basis. The Mexic-Arte Museum is also the official archive of Serie Project prints. In 2002, the Serie Project became one of the founding members of Consejo Grafico, the first nationally recognized consortium of Latino printmakers in the United States. The Serie Project has also had the pleasure of collaborating with the Mexican American Cultural Center in Texas, as well as with the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection and the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Serigraphs from the Serie Project have gained the attention and support of multiple museums, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, the Austin Museum of Art in Texas, and the Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State University in Tempe. Selected prints have been featured in the PBS Series “Art Journeys” and in the publications Triumph of Our Communities, Chicano Art for our Millennium, and Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art. Artwork from the Serie Project is also part of a number of prominent private collections, including the Ricardo and Harriett Romo Collection and the Gilberto Cardenas Collection.
MISSION STATEMENT
It is the mission of the Serie Project to produce, promote, and exhibit the work of Latino artists and others, and to make the production and sale of prints affordable to both artist and patron.
Achievement of Social Change The goals of the Serie Project are as follows:
When Sam Coronado founded the Serie Project in 1993, he envisioned a workshop where underrepresented artists could benefit from collaboration and learn the serigraphy technique. In the last two decades the organization has fostered over 250 artists from different professional levels and ethnic backgrounds, who together have produced a rare and special collection of serigraphs.
About the Founder
Sam Coronado is a Chicano painter and printmaker who has practiced serigraphy for over thirty years. Yet his vision for the Serie Project came after he encountered Self Help Graphics in 1991. Coronado’s participation in this program advocated to him that prints, a vital aspect of the Chicano art movement, can continue to reflect the Mexican American and Latino experience in the United States.
Hoping to grant better access to this historically significant medium, Coronado made it his mission to provide affordable printmaking services in his hometown of Austin, Texas. In 1992 he established Coronado Studio, a commercial printmaking facility, and in the following year founded the “Serie Print Project” as a separate, nonprofit entity. The Serie Print Project enabled Coronado to direct an Artist in Residence program through which artists could utilize Coronado Studio at no cost to them. The organization was renamed and incorporated as “The Serie Project” in 1999, yet it has continued to employ the printmaking resources at Coronado Studio to date. With much dedication, Coronado has served the Serie Project as executive director since its inception.
Cultural Presence
The Serie Project’s achievement of social change is largely made possible by its collaboration with the Latino and cultural community. Since 1998, the organization has collaborated with the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas, to present exhibitions on a yearly basis. The Mexic-Arte Museum is also the official archive of Serie Project prints. In 2002, the Serie Project became one of the founding members of Consejo Grafico, the first nationally recognized consortium of Latino printmakers in the United States. The Serie Project has also had the pleasure of collaborating with the Mexican American Cultural Center in Texas, as well as with the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection and the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Serigraphs from the Serie Project have gained the attention and support of multiple museums, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, the Austin Museum of Art in Texas, and the Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State University in Tempe. Selected prints have been featured in the PBS Series “Art Journeys” and in the publications Triumph of Our Communities, Chicano Art for our Millennium, and Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art. Artwork from the Serie Project is also part of a number of prominent private collections, including the Ricardo and Harriett Romo Collection and the Gilberto Cardenas Collection.
MISSION STATEMENT
It is the mission of the Serie Project to produce, promote, and exhibit the work of Latino artists and others, and to make the production and sale of prints affordable to both artist and patron.
Achievement of Social Change The goals of the Serie Project are as follows:
- Promote local, national, and international artists from various professional levels and ethnic backgrounds.
- Produce and exhibit works by established and emerging artists with emphasis on the cultural diversity of the Latino community.
- Promote awareness of Latino art and its importance in the community.
- Encourage artists to explore the serigraph print medium and establish communication between participants.
- Foster a physical and human environment of encouragement for artists and art producers.
- Allow all participants to benefit from the interchange of ideas and experience.
- Make fine art available to the public through affordable, signed, and numbered prints.
- Partner with museums and galleries around the United States in order to reach as many people as possible through the exhibition of the prints.
