Kristen Necessary

The thing about being a young printmaker is that you probably don’t have your own press. Weighing more than 1,000 pounds, they’re not exactly portable. And they’re sure not cheap.

When Kristen Necessary graduated from the University of Iowa MFA program in printmaking, she needed a place to continue her work. “Wouldn’t it be terrific to have a community print shop,” she asked out loud at an event in PS1’s gallery.

Soon other printers, and other artists, got involved. They raised more than $10,000 via a Kickstarter campaign to launch that community print shop at PS1.

“I still have a picture of ten or twelve of us standing outside the Wesley Center, staring at this press and trying to figure out how to get it inside,” says Necessary. That same behemoth, along with two others, was later moved a few blocks to the current home of the IC Press Co-op (formerly Zenzic Press).

Today, Necessary operates Starfangled Press in Appalachia, a combination of retail and fine art printmaking. She’s doing well–getting coverage and regional fans. It thrills her that IC Press Co-op is going strong. “There’s just a handful of community print shops around the country,” she says, and adds how important the organization has been to her. “After grad school, they were my community. My trajectory as an artist would have been really different without PS1.”