Spudnik Press Welcomes New Program Director, Susannah Papish

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Spudnik Press Cooperative is excited to kick off the new year with new staff! Susannah Papish has joined the Spudnik Press team as Program Director. As an artist, a curator, and an educator, Susannah brings an abundance of experience to our organization. Please be sure to say hello the next time you visit our studio!

Our staff decided to put together a little interview to help our community get to know her:

Angee: What excites you the most about joining the Spudnik Press Cooperative family?

Susannah: Working with artists and creative people everyday!  I think of this position as part collaboration, part interaction and lots of generative thinking.

Tara: Can you talk about a specific instance when you have been significantly affected, influenced, changed by a work of art?

When I was a senior in high school I was able to take a class offered for high school credit at The Art Institute.  It was the year Dread Scott’s (a student at the time) piece “How to Display an American Flag” was exhibited at The School of the Art Institute.  Dread’s piece displayed the flag on the floor and invited viewers to comment.  In order to provide a comment, one was given the option of walking on the flag.  Needless to say, this created a huge controversy!  People all over the country were outraged–one side demanded it be removed and one side cited first amendment freedom of expression rights. The entire event it made me realize that art has this power to affect our lives with such deep meaning and in ways we wouldn’t anticipated.  After high school, I was determined to pursue making art and although it’s a difficult choice sometimes, I’m so happy I’ve remained tenacious.

Jess: If you could sit down to dinner with any artist in the world – alive or not – who would it be and why?

Susannah: Tough one, but I must say Louise Bourgeois.  Why–I love the way her work takes on so many different forms and how she brings in psychological content.  For me personally, I would love to talk to her about being a woman working hard in the art world during an even more male-dominated period and juggling parenthood along with being an artist.  Her deep experience with her work and all kinds of artists is endlessly interesting to me.

Mike: If you didn’t work in the arts, what other career/job could you see yourself pursuing?

Susannah: A librarian!  I love research and libraries.  I was actually set to attend a MLIS (masters in library and information sciences) program a couple of years ago, but I deferred for various reasons and then re-thought my career path.

Jess: Do you have pets? If so, can you introduce them to us? (We are pet people here at Spudnik)

I have four cats:  Eli, king of the castle, Panda, named for the black rings around her eyes, Poppy, a long hair tortoise who looks like she’s going burst into bloom, Margaret, “Margi” (hard g), sometimes called “Sister Margaret of Sorrows”  because she cries all the time and is mostly black with a little white like a nun’s habit.

Mike: Do you have any hobbies/What do you do in you free time (assuming you have any to begin with)?

Susannah: Ha, yeah not a lot of free time!  Outside of work, I run a contemporary project space called boundary.  It’s in my garage and we opened in June 2017.  We’ve shown local, national & international artists.  I also have my own studio practice as painter.  I am also a mom–which is not a hobby, but keeps me quite busy along with everything else!

Tara: What’s your desert island album? (Stranded on a desert island, one album for the rest of your life.)

Ooooh!  I guess I’d have to say the album that gets my studio time flowing is Sea Change, Beck.  I listened to this constantly post grad school so it’s attached to a particular time in my art-making life.  And anything by Erykah Badu.