The Project
Arprim’s initiative À l’affiche, developed in partnership with Université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM) École des arts visuels et médiatiques, assists the creation of original prints and posters by contemporary artists. Since 2013, the project has evolved to sustain two main goals : support and facilitate the integration of young artists in a professional setting and generate funding for Arprim’s activities. Furthermore, thanks to its focus on accessible prices, À l’affiche is an unique opportunity to start or grow a collection of works of art.
The process is simple: each year, two renowned professional artists are invited to create an image that will be printed in limited edition and sold at an affordable price. The limited editions, numbered and signed by the artists, are printed with silk-screen by UQAM’s students on archive quality paper. Invitations are sent to artists whose practice is not necessarily rooted in print media, thus contributing to the development, growth and prestige of the discipline.
THE IDEA IS TO PROVIDE AN EXPERIMENTAL SPACE WITH ALL THE NECESSARY TECHNICAL SUPPORT, LEADING TO EXCLUSIVE, ORIGINAL AND PROFESSIONNAL PRINTS.
Through close collaboration with Université du Québec à Montréal’s (UQAM) École des arts visuels et médiatiques, this project lets printing arts students get better acquainted with the printing process, and gives them a chance to work in close collaboration with professional and renowned artists for the production of one of their pieces. UQAM therefore opens their production facilities’ doors to Arprim and offers salary to the student-printers. In return, Arprim redirects parts of the proceeds from À l’affiche towards the Fondation de l’UQAM to fund grants for students in the field of print media and to support projects carried out by the École des arts visuels et médiatiques.
In addition to UQAM’s outstanding collaboration, this project could not exist without the help of numerous partners. Namely, Encadrement Tout Autour provides a framing service for À l’affiche prints since 2015. Arprim also thanks the Caisse de la Culture for its generous support.