UC Santa Barbara

During the Great Depression, many artists and arts organizations required federal aid through programs such as the Works Progress Administration to survive. One remarkable exception to this trend was the dynamic growth of print clubs, with new groups founded throughout the United States and many membership levels reaching new heights. Join the Club: Regional Print Clubs in the United States addresses this anomaly: why did regional print clubs thrive when other arts organizations required federal support to survive? This dissertation reveals that print clubs are critical sites for understanding how regional constituencies expressed specific aesthetic, political, and social distinctions through the circulation of fine art. Bringing together artists, collectors, and community members keen to develop their knowledge of art, I suggest that these print clubs were regional formations of what would ultimately become a thriving art market in the United States following World War II.

Join the Club: Regional Print Clubs in the United States presents three case studies from across the United States including the Print Makers Society of California, The Prairie Print Makers, and the Philadelphia Print Club. These three case studies, with their regional features and differing emphases, form a representative history of print clubs in the United States and demonstrate their essential role in the development of collecting and production practices characterizing American printmaking. As such, Join the Club: Regional Print Clubs in the United States is part of a growing literature that addresses the work of artists who experimented outside of the academy and traditional gallery settings, revealing a more nuanced story of American art and the dynamic role of printmaking within it.