Shortly after he learned “Porgy” was coming to town, Driesbach stumbled upon 12 high-quality lithographic stones in storage at Central State University. He was given permission to borrow the stones and began the job of recruiting black visual artists for “From Porgy to Barrack.”
“This is a fortuitous combination of things,” said Driesbach, husband of Dayton Art Institute’s Director and CEO Janice Driesbach. “My neighbor is Chuck Duritsch (Dayton Opera marketing chief), so I have a connection with the opera that way. I’m a lithographer. So I hand-print in a 19th-century manner from stones. It’s a way of making multiple copies that’s unique to printmaking.”
Driesbach put the two elements together, and with the full cooperation of Dayton Opera, laid the groundwork for the project. Local artists involved include Abner Cope, Olu Bandlee, Dwayne Daniels, Willis “Bing” Davis, Donovan Hahn and James Pate. Althea Murphy-Price is from Indiana, Ellen Price teaches at Miami University; Terrence Hammonds, Anissa Lewis and Velma Morris are from Cincinnati.
“I have sat down over coffee with most of them and said, ‘here’s my theme’,” Driesbach said. “You’re free to respond to that. ... Most of them have turned around and either read the original “Porgy” or checked out a couple of visual versions of the film.”
The ultimate goal of “From Porgy to Barrack” is to aid Central State University.
“Altogether there will be 25 boxed portfolios,” Driesbach said. “Each artist gets one box. One box will be archived and Central State will get the remainder, which should be 12 boxes of prints. Sales of these portfolio will benefit the university’s art department.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2167 or kmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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