What began as a small group of like-minded artists opening their printing studios for a community open house has grown into the Portland Print Crawl, this year featuring 10 print studios on the peninsula.

Each will host an open house 5-8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, with prints for sale and introductions to printmaking processes. This is the third year of the print crawl.

Pilar Nadal, who operates Pickwick Independent Press in the Space Studios building at 536 Congress St., got the idea for a Portland print crawl after encountering a print fair while visiting Oaxaca, Mexico, a few years ago. “I was so impressed. Right in the city center, there were 12 print shops that you could walk to, and they were all organized to bring people around from one to the other. They do it multiple times in the year. I thought, ‘We have a lot of print shops in Portland. We have a cool, walkable downtown. This is something we can do.’ ”

Year one included Pickwick, Peregrine Press and Running With Scissors. Last year, it grew to eight shops. This year, it’s up to 10, from one end of the peninsula across to the other, although most are clustered downtown.

Participating studios are Pickwick Independent Press at 536 Congress St.; PrintCraft at 246 Danforth St.; Peregrine Press at 61 Pleasant St.; Wolfe Editions at 61 Pleasant St.; Little Chair Printing at 648 Congress St.; Running With Scissors at 250 Anderson St.; Publication Studio at 613 Congress St.; Perm Press at 82 Parris St.; Ferdinand at 243 Congress St.; and Wing Club Press at 128 Cassidy Point Drive.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s uncanny,” Nadal said. “When I explain it to anybody who doesn’t live in Portland, they say, ‘Wow, how do you do that?’ ”

But if you live in Portland, it makes sense. Portland is an art community, and home to many artists who have learned printmaking at Portland art schools, which have taught various printmaking techniques for years. It’s good economics for artists to work together and share the costs of maintaining a press, printing supplies and studio space, said Debbie Schmitt of Peregrine Press.

“Rents have gotten so high, people are just finding ways to bring other people together,” she said. “Everybody gets so isolated on their own. It’s wonderful to share a space, collaborate on ideas and be with other artists.”

The Portland Print Crawl brings the larger print community together in a fun way. The group hand-printed passports for the print crawl. Inside, there’s a page for each shop involved. The idea is for people to grab a passport and map, which are available at all the shops, and then collect all the unique passport stamps – and maybe buy some original art.

The booklet and map are pieces of art. James Sylvester printed the map, David Wolfe printed the letterpress passport cover and Nadal created the passport booklet. Each shop created its own specialty stamp. There is no charge, and people are encouraged to visit any and all studios in any order.

They printed 1,600 passports. “We’d be excite for that many people to come,” Nadal said.

Original prints have always been popular with the art-buying public because they are generally less expensive than paintings and they often reflect the collective energy and zeitgeist of a community. Each print shop has its own environment, its unique press or presses and its original, custom feel. Printers can find their niche among the various print shops, and they’re all supportive of each other, Nadal said.

Interest in printmaking as an art form continues to grow, evidenced by the growth in the print crawl in a short amount of time, Nadal said.

Hope Rovelto, owner and operator of Little Chair Printing, moved to Portland two years ago and opened her commercial screen printing studio as a way to reintroduce herself to the community. She lived in Portland when she attended Maine College of Art in the late 1990s. She moved back to Maine from Philadelphia.

“I will try to make it work in Portland,” she said. “It’s a smaller city, and I knew there would be support for small business. I felt it was tangible for me to open a commercial retail space. I couldn’t see myself doing that in Philadelphia. I took major chances, but I had that feeling,” she said.

This is her second year participating in the print crawl. Rovelto will demonstrate the screen-printing technique. “I participate because it’s a good way to introduce what I do to the public,” she said. “People know the studios are open, but they don’t always know what goes on in the studio. This is a great way to show people the equipment and processes.”

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