Welcome to Sambaa K’e Print Studio

Welcome to the Sambaa K’e Print Studio. Our printmaking facility is open to anyone interested in learning printing techniques and producing art. It’s also for those interested in collaborating with us and our Dene ideas, stories, thoughts, culture and history. This unique facility, operated by Sambaa K’e Dene Band, is located in one of the Northwest Territories most traditional First Nation communities.

We would like to encourage all ages from near and far, especially the youth, who are interested in taking part and learning something new to come to our community. Those uninitiated in printmaking as well as professional artists are welcome to both Sambaa K’e Print Studio and Trout Lake.

I would like to thank all who made the Sambaa K’e Print Studio possible, the Sambaa K’e Community members, our elders, our youth, the chief and council.

Mahsi.

Carielyn Jumbo, Print Studio Manager

Contact: sambaakeprintstudio@gmail.com

In the late summer of 2010 a printmaking facility was established by Sambaa K’e Dene Band as a creative tool for the community to visually explore aspects of their culture and relationship to the land. In addition, it is hoped that the artwork produced will contribute towards a regional and international dialogue between Sambaa K’e and other communities.

To initiate this project Sambaa K’e, in partnership with Professor Gavin Renwick, invited printmakers Paul Harrison, of the Visual Research Centre, University of Dundee, and Scott Hudson, of Dundee Contemporary Arts, to develop a series of training workshops based on, and through, the medium and practice of printmaking.

The purpose of their initial visit had more than one objective. The printmakers undertook training that introduced aspects of the printing process through an appropriate traditional Japanese technique called Gyotaku (fish printing). This induction will be incorporated into more mainstream techniques such as relief and intaglio, combining these with contemporary developments such a digital processes, through ongoing training and capacity building. Another aim was to utilise printmaking as a tool that Gavin Renwick could utilise within the initial communal design envisioning process for a new cultural facility for the community.

Enthused with the potential of a practical visual language to develop creative dialogues Sambaa K’e invested in the capital equipment and space to establish a long term facility where printmaking can become an accessible creative tool for the community.

The press was built to order by the Takach Press Corporation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Along with the inks, brushes, papers and other materials it was delivered overland to Fort Simpson where it was flown into Sambaa K’e by Wolverine Air on a Britten-Norman Islander. The workshop was established within the old band office in the Sambaa K’e Gathering Hall. The initial set up, through basic training to a fully working workshop took just over a week.

Images of studio: http://www.gavinrenwick.org/Sambaa_Ke_Printmaking_Workshop/Images.html