PAFA students and printmakers Justine Ditto (BFA '17) and Alyssa Ebinger (MFA '18) have been accepted into The Tamarind Institute’s prestigious lithography program in New Mexico and will be starting this August.

Tamarind’s Printer Training Program offers the only formal educational program in the world for professional fine art collaborative printers. This intensive, full-time program concentrates on strengthening and refining one’s lithography skills, along with developing working qualities necessary for a productive collaborative print relationship.

Each year, a maximum of eight students are accepted into the program worldwide. This year, two of the eight selected are from PAFA.

“This [achievement] recognizes the high quality of their art and skills; also reflecting upon the strength of our PAFA printmaking department,” said Ron Wyffels, professor of Lithography at PAFA. “The aesthetic and technical proficiency learned and developed by both Alyssa and Justine while studying lithography at PAFA, has positioned them as excellent choices for the Tamarind Program.”

The 2019-20 Printer Training Program begins August 19, 2019, and runs through May 9, 2020.

Ditto, a Certificate student and BFA printmaking major who graduated in 2017, said she came to PAFA specifically for its Printmaking program.

“The Shop itself and its amazing faculty, manager, and assistants created an incredibly nurturing environment for me to explore printmaking and my own artwork,” Ditto said. “I fell in love with the endless possibilities of image-making that printmaking offers in addition to its capacity for collaboration…. Tamarind felt like a dream situation that would maybe be a part of my life at some point. I am so excited to deepen my pursuit of this poetic, historic, and thriving craft.”

Ebinger (MFA '18) added: “Tamarind is a once in a lifetime opportunity and something I have been dreaming about for years! I never thought it was a possibility until I decided to go back to school and get my master’s degree. With the tutelage of Ron Wyffels and the fabulous print shop at PAFA, my dream has become a reality! I cannot wait to see what exciting challenges and adventures this next year will bring.”

The Tamarind Institute and PAFA have had a long relationship. PAFA and Tamarind Institute alumnus Peter Haarz is currently the Master Printer in Residence for the Brodsky Center and worked on the first edition the Center published at PAFA, a print by Jonathan Lyndon Chase (MFA '16) entitled Forehead Kiss, which is also the first print Chase ever created. The Brodsky Center, a collaborative paper and printmaking center devoted to the creation of new work by contemporary artists, relocated from Rutgers University to PAFA in late 2018. The longstanding Artist-In-Residence program enables artists to work in collaboration with the Center’s master printers and papermakers