Banditry Press

Banditry Press is a letterpress print shop under development on Vinalhaven island. The 2020 Kindling Fund grant will assist in the shop build-out, restoration of the 1920’s letterpress and a residency wherein artists/activists working on the front-lines of resistance movements would be invited to the island for nourishment and regeneration. With collaborator Steph Richardson, lead-artist Hillary Savage will print posters, signs, and pamphlets that will be carried back for use in direct actions for social change alongside printworks for local community engagement. The paradox of the island’s isolation is fertile ground for mutual exchange and can tether both needs: empowering a rural voice and providing retreat for front-line activists.

Banditry Press was birthed out of a desire to produce handmade works of visual merit and literary intrigue. Affluence is increasingly dictating access to coastal Maine and as global issues are playing out on a local scale, Savage feels it is a critical time to use our voice for defense as well as visioning. She envisions the Banditry Press residency as a meeting point for two artists/activists to come to the island simultaneously and make work as a direct action. Over five days on-island, providing the spaciousness necessary for nourishment and printing, this residency will utilize the press’s collection of lead type, die cuts and digital plates to make work including signs, pamphlets, a zine or other printed matter.

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