Art Exhibition: Making Impressions

Archives, Printmaking, and Robert Blackburn

This exhibition explores the Master Printer's legacy through artworks, archives, and documentation that intersects with Miami's own art history. For more information, please contact 305-375-5572 or specialcollections@mdpls.org. All ages.

This exhibition was made possible through generous funding from the James L. Knight Foundation and Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs in connection with the Vasari Project archive and to support the Miami Art Timeline project.

Making Impressions: Archives, Printmaking, and Robert Blackburn is an exhibition that explores a Master Printer’s legacy through artworks, archives, and documentation featuring internationally known artists and students who have intersected between his Printmaking Workshop and Miami’s communities. While this exhibit is a celebration of Robert Blackburn (1920 – 2003) and the Printmaking Workshop, it also honors the Miami-Dade Public Library System’s history. Thirty-five years ago, then art librarian Barbara Young and Blackburn collaborated to combine two touring exhibitions at the Main Library. Blackburn would later visit Miami and share his knowledge with the community at Young’s invitation.

Artworks featured are from the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (EFA-RBPMW), the Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Permanent Art Collection, and archival materials from both the Library’s Vasari Project archive and the RBPMW. This exhibition was made possible through generous funding from the James L. Knight Foundation and Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs.

About the Vasari Project:

The Vasari Project is a library collection at Main Library dedicated to documenting, collecting, and preserving Miami-Dade County's art history from 1945 to the present. It is a living archive that grows through contributions from artists, art professionals, exhibition spaces, galleries, institutions, and private donors.

The Vasari Project is a resource for ongoing research, scholarship, publications, artists' projects, exhibitions, and events. The archive collects documentation rather than original works of art composed primarily of printed matter: correspondence, press clippings, photographs, posters, books, exhibition catalogs, artists' files, oral histories, and other ephemeral materials.

About the Division of Special Collections & Archives 

Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Division of Special Collections & Archives is located at the Main Library and holds rare and irreplaceable historical materials for the benefit of the public and scholarly community. They oversee the Helen Muir Florida Collection, 16mm Film Collection, Cuban Collection of Rare Books & Ephemera, Genealogy Collection, Vasari Project archive, and Rare & Antiquarian books from as early as the 17th century. The Division aims to provide the public with the contents of these collections at their request, which include books, original manuscripts, over 18,000 photographs, prints, artifacts, audiovisual resources, and electronic media. 

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