Kim Van Someren (MFA 2004) is an artist, educator, and advocate whose career has been dedicated to printmaking. For nearly two decades, she has worked to sustain and grow the printmaking community in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. This summer, her contributions were recognized with Seattle Print Arts’ Golden Brayer Award, an honor celebrating individuals who go above and beyond in supporting printmaking across the region. Van Someren previously served on the organization’s board from 2007 to 2013 and has been a consistent presence in fostering community through the print arts. Earlier this year, she was elected Vice President of the Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI), the largest print organization in North America, where she will serve on the Executive Board from 2025 to 2028.
Printmaking is an ancient art that has remained traditional while being adaptable to new technologies. Its anti-formulaic, reactive way of revealing new layers is what drew Van Someren to the medium over 27 years ago, eventually leading her to pursue an MFA in Printmaking at the University of Washington. She has built an impressive portfolio as a practicing artist, with exhibitions across the country and works held in notable collections. For her, however, printmaking is more than a medium; it’s a community — one she has helped nurture for nearly twenty years.
Since 2009, Van Someren has served as the Instructional Technician in Printmaking at UW School of Art + Art History + Design, supporting generations of students, assisting visiting artists, and continuously advocating for the arts on campus. In 2023, she secured a UW Technology Fee Grant to upgrade the department’s letterpress lab, strengthening resources for both art and design students. Yet her influence extends well beyond the University.
Van Someren regularly teaches printmaking courses and workshops at institutions including Pratt Fine Arts Center, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Frye Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and Pilchuck Glass School. Every year, she even spends two weeks teaching printmaking to kids at her daughter’s elementary school — an experience she describes deeply gratifying. “Working with kids brings out the best of printmaking,” she says. “The playfulness and unpredictability.”
The beauty of printmaking, Van Someren explains, lies in its collaborative nature. Much like ceramics, it often happens in the community. “The printmaking community is my FAMILY, both here and abroad,” she says. “Printmaking communities are the bloodwork that keeps us all making — Printmakers are the loudmouths, the sharers, the helpers, and the curious crows of the art world. We plan, yet pivot. We’re traditional, yet always on the edge of technology. We’re clean, yet dirty.”
Art education has changed significantly over the past decade. Like many art schools across the country, UW no longer offers a specialized printmaking program, opting instead for interdisciplinary approaches that combine print with painting and drawing. Yet printmaking courses at UW remain incredibly popular among art students. In today’s digital age, printmaking offers a refreshing and transformative experience rooted in process and experimentation. For many, it’s their first encounter with a more traditional art form — one that celebrates chance, variation, and hands-on learning — a process that feels almost radical today, where mistakes can lead to something unexpected and beautiful.
The broader printmaking landscape is also shifting, in part due to the rise of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI). Fewer artists now maintain practices devoted solely to print, and this year, Seattle’s only gallery dedicated exclusively to printmaking, Davidson Galleries, closed its doors. Despite these changes, the Pacific Northwest remains a vibrant hub for the medium — many galleries continue to embrace printmaking, and community organizations are expanding access through classes and workshops. Thanks to advocates like Van Someren, printmaking is far from obsolete. There is, she says with hope, “a vibrant future for print.”
Van Someren is currently preparing for her next solo exhibition in spring of 2026 at J. Rinehart Gallery.
Learn more about Kim Van Someren and her work on her website and a Behind the Scenes by King 5 Evening Magazine from 2023.