Printmaking Studio Propels RISD Students to Turn Words and Imagery into Catalysts for Change

RISD CommunicationsOctober 8, 2026

Students review relief prints in a fall Printmaking studio.Placeholder image, picsum.photos

College campuses have historically served as bastions of free speech, protest and self-expression, and the power of images, placards and other visual media has never been more apparent. Students in a fall studio called Printmaking and the Politics of Protest are mediating numerous social, economic, cultural and political differences as they learn to turn words and imagery into catalysts for change.

“The course examines the role of prints and printed matter in the context of political protest and the many ways people have supported social justice and sustainability issues through art,” says Associate Professor of Printmaking Tyanna Buie. “We’re creating and discussing images that help to define the issues impacting our own lives.”

The course is open to students outside of the Printmaking department, she adds, and provides a safe environment in which individuals from all disciplines can think critically about societal concerns while developing visual literacy. They’re investigating design elements such as line, shape, value, texture and color and the principles of organization—including balance, proportion and dominance—and learning to apply them to their own work.

College campuses have historically served as bastions of free speech, protest and self-expression, and the power of images, placards and other visual media has never been more apparent. Students in a fall studio called Printmaking and the Politics of Protest are mediating numerous social, economic, cultural and political differences as they learn to turn words and imagery into catalysts for change.

“The course examines the role of prints and printed matter in the context of political protest and the many ways people have supported social justice and sustainability issues through art,” says Associate Professor of Printmaking Tyanna Buie. “We’re creating and discussing images that help to define the issues impacting our own lives.”

The course is open to students outside of the Printmaking department, she adds, and provides a safe environment in which individuals from all disciplines can think critically about societal concerns while developing visual literacy. They’re investigating design elements such as line, shape, value, texture and color and the principles of organization—including balance, proportion and dominance—and learning to apply them to their own work.

Placeholder: a hand-cut woodblock — Above, a hand-cut design in wood by grad student Catalina Martinez Rojas; below, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow Sarah Mirseyedi walks the class through political posters and prints in the RISD Museum’s collection.

Placeholder: posters in a museum study room — Above, a hand-cut design in wood by grad student Catalina Martinez Rojas; below, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow Sarah Mirseyedi walks the class through political posters and prints in the RISD Museum’s collection.

At the beginning of the semester, the class visited the RISD Museum, where Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow Sarah Mirseyedi showed them political posters and prints dating back to the 1970s, many created by RISD students.

“This group of prints was put together between 2002 and 2003 by the artist collective Dirt Palace, which was mostly RISD alums,” Mirseyedi said as she slowly turned the posters over one by one. Many of the works decried the war in Iraq, but some in the larger collection speak to the evils of fascism and hate crimes directed at Asian-Americans. Others were created to support social justice movements like the Arab Spring and the call for women’s rights.

Weeks later, the class gathered in Benson Hall to review prints they had made using the relief technique, many for the first time. The process involves carving a design into a wooden block, inking the raised surfaces that are created and then using the block to print the image on paper with a printing press.

Grad student Elysa Adams MFA 26 PR showed an image of a striking Black woman printed on fragile, rough-edged paper. “I like showing my people in a beautiful light,” she explained, “and I’m leaving it to the viewer to interpret the meaning and imagine the words.” Buie was taken with her delicate mark making and appreciated her desire to create work that changes the conversation about Black people. “Our story is bigger than all the sorrowful stuff,” she noted.

At the beginning of the semester, the class visited the RISD Museum, where Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow Sarah Mirseyedi showed them political posters and prints dating back to the 1970s, many created by RISD students.

“This group of prints was put together between 2002 and 2003 by the artist collective Dirt Palace, which was mostly RISD alums,” Mirseyedi said as she slowly turned the posters over one by one. Many of the works decried the war in Iraq, but some in the larger collection speak to the evils of fascism and hate crimes directed at Asian-Americans. Others were created to support social justice movements like the Arab Spring and the call for women’s rights.

Weeks later, the class gathered in Benson Hall to review prints they had made using the relief technique, many for the first time. The process involves carving a design into a wooden block, inking the raised surfaces that are created and then using the block to print the image on paper with a printing press.

Grad student Elysa Adams MFA 26 PR showed an image of a striking Black woman printed on fragile, rough-edged paper. “I like showing my people in a beautiful light,” she explained, “and I’m leaving it to the viewer to interpret the meaning and imagine the words.” Buie was taken with her delicate mark making and appreciated her desire to create work that changes the conversation about Black people. “Our story is bigger than all the sorrowful stuff,” she noted.

Related stories