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Art school comes with access to equipment and a community of other artists for critiques and collaborations. It’s harder to find those things after a degree. Local printmaker Michael Peterson wants to change that.

Peterson and his business partner Crystal Bueckert (of Storefront and BLDG Studio) recently opened Creative Commons YXE to address the needs of artists, particularly those who work in printmaking. The 1,250 square foot production space includes an etching press and room for workshops and small events. It will eventually have a small wood shop.

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“I remember when I was a student talking to others approaching graduation who would switch their focus from printmaking to a painting or drawing practice because they wanted to do something they could continue after school,” said Peterson.

Peterson hopes access to a full-sized press (something very few individual artists own) will allow printmakers to continue in that medium. It took five people to move the heavy piece of machinery into the second-storey space, a second-hand model purchased by the Ink Slab print collective and moved from its former home in the Tees and Persse building.