erlenwerk

We are artists and graduates of the Art Academy in Dresden who have extensively engaged in traditional printmaking and paper crafts throughout our academic and professional careers. We love it and believe it is a benefit for our city if we create a place where such work is possible for us and others.

The project aims to establish a paper and graphics workshop, which will be a learning place for people looking for artistic experiences and a place of work for artists.
In different course formats, we pass on our knowledge of various techniques to children, young people and adults and create a space for artistic work and experimentation.

We want to explore the question of what artistic printmaking and paper crafts mean today and thus create awareness of resources and sustainability.
The graphic workshop erlenwerk will be a place for the community. Working in a workshop is always a communicative collaboration, which is also what we look for and desire.
We are planning exhibitions, readings, festivals, workshop concerts, and a workshop bar that invites people to linger and become part of the art place.

The aim of the Erlenwerk workshop is to create an art place in Dresden in which old crafts are practiced and taught, art is created and shown.
The aim of the crowdfunding is to set up the graphics workshop and the workshop bar. In order to work, we have to buy different machines, tools, room equipment and materials.
The target audience is anyone who is interested in art and artistic processes and wants to get involved in it themselves.

The graphics workshop wants to preserve and continue old crafts and, in doing so, tell a piece of human history.
A new space is being created for people who live in Dresden in which they can experience art and exchange ideas about it during their everyday lives. Many people lack a place that allows them to continuously work on their own art.
Even people who don't live in Dresden can always take part in the graphics workshop: There will be events that go beyond everyday life (in the form of a traveling workshop, festivals, holiday programs, residencies, international symposia,...). We will also be found online at www.erlenwerk.de and www.instagram.com/erlenwerk/ and want to make our artistic work visible to the outside world in monthly newsletters. In the future, we are planning an online shop that can bring our art anywhere.

We appreciate your support!

A graphics workshop means purchasing machines, tools, room equipment, and materials:
For the lithography, etching and woodcut we need:
-a friction press for lithography, intaglio press for etching and woodcut
-stones, copper/zinc plates, wood
-rollers, eraser needles
-Material such as paint, etching, paper etc.
various work tables, tubs

For the paper workshop we need:
- a Holländer beater (a machine used to grind fiber materials into a pulp).
- Scoop screens
- felts
- Press
- Fibers
- other tools and working materials

For the workshop bar we need:
Espresso machine
coffee grinder
dishwasher
Refrigerator
Kitchen
Kitchen appliances
Bar, tables, chairs, lamps

There will also be a small art library in the workshop bar, which will contain artists' monographs and books on paper crafts and printmaking. If there are people who have something to give away by clearing out a household, we would be very happy!