Discover New York

Understanding Prints: An Insider’s Look at How Prints Are Made

Discover New York’s Best Chelsea Art Tour

Learn all about the newest trends and artists in the world of prints, and then discuss it with friends, old and new, over lunch or dinner.

OUR Four hour programs include:

• Expert guide for interactive discussions about a neighborhood.
• Visit several leading galleries that concentrate on the buying and selling of prints. Gain insights into recognized artists in the field and the market for contemporary prints. Chat with dealers and directors; and see first-hand what makes a rewarding collection. Which artists are working with prints? Who is collecting? Which artists are most collectable? What do dealers do? How can you tell the condition of a print?
• Insider’s Access for a private visit to a printmaking studio, learn the differences, see the techniques, and speak to the experts. How does an etching differ from a lithograph? What is a printmaking studio like? Why does an artist prefer one method to another? How does printmaking benefit artists?
• Bragging Rights over lunch or dinner at Dos Caminos –Who can tell the difference between etching and a lithograph?
• All taxes and gratuities included

Not included:

• Transportation is additional upon request since all programs are designed for walking rain or shine
• Alcoholic beverages may be paid individually at the end of the meal

Neighborhood Background:

Chelsea is a mix of commercial and residential tenements, apartment blocks, city housing projects, townhouses and renovated rowhouses, reflecting the ethnic and social diversity of the population. The western part of Chelsea has become a center of the New York art world, with many art galleries located in both new buildings and rehabilitated warehouses.

Chelsea takes its name from the estate and Federal-style house of retired British Major Thomas Clarke, who obtained the property when he bought the farm of Jacob Somerindyck on August 16, 1750. Clarke chose the name “Chelsea” after the manor of Chelsea, London, home to Sir Thomas More. Clarke passed the estate on to his daughter, Charity, who, with her husband Benjamin Moore, added land on the south of the estate, extending it to 19th Street. The house was the birthplace of their son, Clement Clarke Moore, who in turn inherited the property. Moore is generally credited with writing “A Visit From St. Nicholas” and was the author of the first Greek and Hebrew lexicons printed in the United States.

In 1827, Moore gave the land of his apple orchard to the Episcopal Diocese of New York for the General Theological Seminary, which built its brownstone Gothic, tree-shaded campus south of the manor house.

In 1847 the Hudson River Railroad laid its freight tracks up a right-of-way between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, separating Chelsea from the Hudson River waterfront. The industrialization of western Chelsea followed, and brought immigrant populations from many countries to work in the factories, including a large number of Irish immigrants, who dominated work on the Hudson River piers that lined the nearby waterfront and the truck terminals integrated with the freight railroad spur.

As New York’s visual arts community moved from SoHo to West Chelsea in the 1990s, the area bounded by 10th and 11th Avenues and 18th St. and 28th St. has become one of the global centers of contemporary art. The West Chelsea Arts District is home to over 370 art galleries and innumerable artist studios.

1-2 minimum:  $971 per person
3 people $695 per person
4 people $554 per person
5 people $470 per person
6 people $415 per person
7 people $377 per person
8 people $358 per person

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