The programme entitled “Relief Print Techniques: Linocut and Cardboard Prints” is an introduction to basic printmaking. Printmaking is a very specific fine arts discipline that demands specific work conditions which are provided in the printmaking workshops at the Department of Visual and Media Art of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek. The potential of the workshop is great, considering the fact that the workshop is the only workshop in the region that is equipped according to printmaking standards. The programme includes relief print techniques of cardboard print (monochrome and multi-coloured) and linocut print (monochrome and multi-coloured).
The programme is primarily intended for artists who have not had an opportunity to work in a professional printmaking studio and for fine arts teachers who learn these techniques using alternative methods that can be used in preschools and schools. Printmaking is very interesting when it comes to education since it is the only fine arts technique in which multiplication is possible. Today, it is also mandatory in primary schools according to the Croatian national education standard. This programme would also be useful to preschool and primary school teachers since it would provide them with an insight into the ways of approaching artistic printmaking as a specific artistic medium. Until the foundation of the Academy, there has not been a systematic education of fine arts teachers in Slavonia and Baranja that would include the printmaking segment. Therefore, children in kindergartens and schools are currently taught by teachers who do not have the adequate printmaking education. So, this form of life-long education would offer them the necessary knowledge and skills regarding these two relief techniques, information about their characteristics and the ability to perform the entire process demanded by printmaking (idea development, creation of sketches, possibilities of relief print, matrix creation, the process of printing, signature on the printed paper).
With this approach, teachers could pass on the knowledge to their students, using alternative methods of printing. This programme would also be offered to other interested individuals, regardless of their previous education. The programme is also intended for all those (artists, amateur artists, textile designers, graphic designers) who wish to add this creative, interesting and expressive technique to their visual and artistic creation.