The Estampería Quiteña is a printmaking workshop which was founded in April, 1998 in Quito, Ecuador by way of an agreement of International Cooperation signed between the Municipality of Quito, the Spanish International Cooperation Agency and the Ecuadorian Printmaker Association, with the technical advice of the Calcografía Nacional of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid-Spain; this agreement ended in the year 2002.

Some of the objectives are to offer artists the opportunity to practice and improve the art of printmaking, to offer technical assistance from highly qualified artists and to diffuse national graphics by coordinating exhibitions in Ecuador and other foreign countries.

The Estampería Quiteña is run by the Ecuadorian Printmaker Association, it has its own autonomy and must obtain the necessary economic resources to sustain this cultural center. The artists that are members contribute with a monthly fee of $ 10,00 which gives them the right to five workshop hours per month and to discounts on supplies.

It is a chalcographic engraving workshop with an optimum substructure which offers constant instruction through courses and daily advising from the technical artists who are responsible of the workshop.

The name of the “Estampería Quiteña” is in honor of the extensive artistic tradition of the Art School of Quito.

HISTORY

Courses:

Courses: High level courses were given by Spanish artists for 5 years, such as: Carmen Corral, Manager of the Print Workshop of the Calcografía Nacional in Madrid; María Álvarez Morán, Director of the Art School of Oviedo; Juan Pablo Villalpando, Director of the “Escuela 10” of Madrid; Carlos González Villar, Ricardo Mojardin, José Ignacio Rincón, Martha Matías, José Ferrero, North American artist John Edwards and Cuban artist Tamara Campo.

Exposiciones:

September 2001: Exhibition named “La Huella del Grabado” (The Trace of Engraving), in coordination with the show at the Cultural Center of the Catholic University of Quito, which had 1,000 prints from all over the world: The disasters of the War by Goya, a retrospective of Ecuadorian engraving, Luis Caballero from Colombia, Wilfrido Lam from Cuba among others, European and Iberian engravers, and young Ecuadorian, Colombian and Peruvian artists.

April 2003: Exhibition carried out at the Guayasamín Foundation for the Estampería Quiteña’s 5th Anniversary; this show had around 300 prints from the archives of the Ecuadorian Printmaker Association, founded in 1991 and the archives of the Estampería Quiteña, (there is a copy of these archives at the Municipality of Quito and at the Calcografía Nacional in Madrid).

April 2003: City of San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

October 2003: City of Quito. Exhibition “Grabado Sin Fronteras” (Printmaking Without Borders), coordinated by the Estampería Quiteña and the Kala Institute of San Francisco. At this show, 32 North American and 18 Ecuadorians artists participated with 110 prints, exhibited during the months of April and May at the Mission Cultural Center and Kala Gallery in San Francisco, and during the months of October and November at the Metropolitan Cultural Center in Quito.

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