Soren Henrich received a City of Victoria Artist in Residence (AIR) grant for a series of four public pennant printings workshops to celebrate living in an urban watershed and encourage citizen stewardship of Bowker Creek.
Workshops are sponsored by local businesses, non-profit and community associations. Environmental education for Bowker Creek is provided by an interactive urban watershed model and educational display with information handouts.
Pennant printing provides an easy and colourful art-making activity for all ages. The value of the workshop is in the discovery of the process through individual artistic expression. The result is colourful and spectacular.
Sponsors are invited to share the cost for a half-day workshop where a 1000 pennants are made. Sponsorship offsets the cost of materials, table and tent set-up and honoraria for artist hosts. Sponsors receive recognition at the workshop, in pre-event social media promotion and follow-up posts. Assistant hosts who are students can receive record of community service hours. Volunteers are recognized for their service with a thank you gift card.
Pennants are given away to family and friends or sewn into pennant collections for display at future community events for corporate goodwill and awareness of urban watershed renewal.
Printing Method
This is an easy and safe relief-printing method that takes about 15 minutes to complete. Participants can work side by side at a table. Artist and student hosts help participants ink and print their printing plates.
- Styrofoam printing plates are enscribed with pencil or pen tips to make a relief print.
- The printing plate is rolled with water-soluable, non-toxic block-printing inks.
- Prepared fabric is positioned on top and burnished by hand.
- The fabric is removed to reveal the print.
- The plate can be re-inked for multiple prints.
- The prints are hung out to dry.
- Pennants are given away as gifts and sewn onto fabric binding tape for display at community events.
Short-term Goal
The short-term goal is to raise awareness of urban watershed renewal, and make connections to people, to nature and our place in the local land and watershed.
Long-term Goal for Bowker Creek
The long-term goal is to make 14 kilometers of pennants to decorate the Bowker Creek greenway route from end to end. Supporting communities receive finished pennant collections for display at community events.
