Pressing Matters: Community Printmaking to Support Recovery & Eliminate Stigma
Pressing Matters is a series of workshops held at Public Space One in June 2026 bringing together printmakers, public health researchers, and addiction medicine providers alongside community members with lived and living experience of substance use to create original artwork reflecting their experiences with recovery, resilience, and community.
On Monday, July 6, from 5-7pm, members of the public are invited to join workshop participants, teaching artists, and project collaborators, for the culminating exhibition at PS1 Close House, where new artwork created by workshop participants will be on view in the Main Hall gallery, alongside work from the INTO LIGHT Project.
All are welcome at this free and public event; light refreshments provided.
About the project organizers:
Dr. Nichole Nidey is a maternal and child health epidemiologist at the University of Iowa, where her research is focused on improving healthcare experiences and outcomes for individuals with substance use.
Dr. Alison Lynch is a family physician, psychiatrist, and addiction medicine specialist at the University of Iowa, where she directs the Division of Addiction Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. Her clinical work focuses on providing high quality care to people who use substances, particularly pregnant and parenting people and people who are reentering the community after incarceration. She is also passionate about training the next generation of healthcare providers to provide excellent care to people who use substances.
This project is made possible by a 2026 Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grant. Read more about the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies here.
About the teaching artists:
Laura Moser is Public Space One's Community Stewardship Director. She has an MFA in Literary Translation and studied book arts at the University of Iowa Center for the Book before joining the Iowa City Press Co-op in 2022, where she is always learning more about letterpress and other print techniques.
May Roded is an artist and current MFA candidate in Printmaking at the University of Iowa (class of 2027). Her work spans intaglio, lithography, cyanotype, and monoprint, often combining these in layered, complex images. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from Cal State University Long Beach and has taught printmaking at Loyola Marymount University and Otis College of Fine Art, and managed Josephine Press, a community printmaking studio in Santa Monica. May brings extensive experience in collaborative printing and community print education, and is deeply committed to her printmaking communities.
Jenny Gringer is a self-taught linocut printmaker specializing in single and multiblock color printing. Through years of dedicated experimentation, she has developed a distinctive style and approach. Her work often explores political themes, the human condition, and resilience — alongside a recent interest in carving human-like fish. Jenny enjoys being an active member of the Iowa City arts community. Her work aspires to use art as tool for human connection, and the creation of spectacle.