About the Press

Manneken Press, founded by Jonathan Higgins and Sarah Smelser, is an independent fine art print studio and a publisher of limited edition prints and artist's books located in Bloomington, Illinois. Jonathan Higgins, Manneken's Master Printer, has collaborated with many artists and worked at printmaking studios in the U.S and Europe, including Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA; The Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY; Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, New Brunswick, NJ; Vinalhaven Press, Vinalhaven, ME; ARTica Studio, Bilbao, Spain; and the Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium. In 1995 he founded Galamander Press, New York, NY which he ran with several partners until 2000. Sarah Smelser has printed for The Printmaking Workshop and K. Caraccio Studio, New York, NY, is an Associate Professor of Art, teaching intaglio printmaking, at Illinois State University in Normal, IL, and is the current president of the Mid-America Print Council.

Higgins and Smelser started Manneken Press in 2000 with the desire to publish original, limited edition artist's prints. Their idea was to invite exceptional artists to Manneken Press to work with Higgins on print projects in the tradition of collaborative print workshops such as Crown Point Press. Working with a small but growing group of artists, they have published a significant body of prints which have been exhibited internationally and acquired by museum, individual and corporate collections nation-wide.

A series of monotypes by J. Carlos Ferguson, created in November 2000, were Manneken's inaugural publications. Since then a steady stream of projects have followed, including several etching and relief suites by New York artist Rupert Deese, a series of large photogravure monoprints by Dallas-based artist Ted Kincaid, an etching by Bay Area artist Betty Friedman, and two artist's books which are collaborations between Rupert Deese and poets Todd Young and R. Sam Deese. Other artists who have worked at Manneken Press recently include Jane McNichol, Claire Lieberman and Rhea Edge.

Manneken Press was relocated to Bloomington, IL in the summer of 2002. Recent, current and in progress projects in our new studio include: a suite of 15 woodcuts by Rupert Deese, 2 color etchings by Rhea Edge, an etching by Susie Rosmarin, 3 photogravure monoprint editions and 4 photo-etchings by Ted Kincaid, and a suite of 3 etchings by Tom Orr. An exhibition of more than 30 prints produced at Manneken Press between 2000 and 2006 by 8 different artists is currently traveling to several different venues in the United States through 2009.

Artist Ted Kincaid with Higgins and new prints on the wall.