SaveTheGlooFactory

The Gloo Factory Art Auction was a huge success!

admin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:41:52 +0000

The Gloo Factory Art Auction held Sunday April 25th at Raices Taller Gallery 218 E. 6th Street (1/2 block east of 6th St. & 6th Ave.) was a wonderful success.

We want to thank all those who came out, and all the artists and volunteers, for your purchases, and contributions of artwork and time!

The event raised $5000 towards our goal, and was only possible because of your commitment to a free press, social justice and progressive causes.

Check out most of the submissions here!

Thank you!

Regards,
The Gloo Factory

Why We Must Save The Gloo Factory

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:33:18 +0000

The Gloo Factory is an independent media center located in the warehouse arts district in Tucson, Arizona. The Gloo Factory is home to a number of projects, including Feral Press and Peace Supplies, and offers services and education in printing and the graphic arts. Our clients are primarily from Tucson’s progressive community. They include labor, environmental, and human rights groups, and progressive political groups and candidates.

Currently, the Gloo Factory is threatened with eviction from the warehouse it has rented for the last decade, as the building is scheduled to be auctioned to the highest bidders.

As a result, we’ve launched a campaign to raise the funds needed to buy the building in which the Gloo Factory is currently located, so that we can continue to serve the community without interruption.

MLK Day at The Gloo Factory

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:33:15 +0000

AmeriCorps member Luz Torres, along with her daughter, Jerhaldy and husband, Jose, assisted with the production of buttons to help out The Gloo Factory in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, on January 18. The Gloo Factory was one of nine different organizations chosen to receive volunteers for MLK Day as part of “MLK through Art & Accessibility,” a string of day-long service projects created by AmeriCorps Leaders Sara Scott and Ryn Shane-Armstrong to give back to artists and community organizations in Tucson.

In addition to help with production, storage cleaning and organizing, The Gloo Factory also benefited from having volunteer, Daina Dajevskis, who completed data entry tasks to keep the volunteer database up to date and organized. Thirty-four other volunteers were spread out around the city painting, cleaning and organizing storage units and offices, all in the spirit of MLK.

The other eight organizations that received volunteers for “MLK through Art & Accessibility” were: Arts for All, Inc., Arc of Tucson, Bicas, Direct Center for Independence, Inc., Handi Dogs, Raices Taller 222 Gallery, The Drawing Studio and United Cerebral Palsy of Southern Arizona (UCPSA). Brooklyn Pizza contributed by donating seven pizzas for lunch for volunteers.

New short from Pan Left Productions- Video by Daniela P. Ontiveros

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:05:03 +0000

Save The Gloo Factory! from Daniela Ontiveros on Vimeo.

Screen Printing workshops!

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:41:44 +0000

Please be sure to scroll all the way down so you don’t miss any of our awesome up coming workshops. We are currently offering 2 beginning Screen printing workshops and one more advanced workshop.

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:54:32 +0000

Event Registration for

Event Registration for Screenprinting 101 April 10th 9am-5pm

Basics of Do-it-Yourself Screenprinting. Take your artwork from concept to print. In this class you will: Stretch your own silkscreen. Prepare your artwork. Expose and prepare photo silkscreens for printing. Print your image on a t-shirt. In addition, we will discuss screen printing processes, materials and techniques and advise students on how best to set up their own printing systems.

Screenprinting 101 April 10th 9am-5pm - Cost $ 120.00

Event Registration for Screenprinting 102 April 11th 10am-5pm

$80 (completion of Screenprinting 101 required) includes materials We will build upon the basics from the first class and include more time for hands on applications. This class will provide information on printing processes beyond textiles, including stickers, posters, and signage. Participants will reproduce their own designs on vinyl stickers. We will also cover: Image manipulation and preparation techniques Making color separations for multiple color prints Printing two color designs Printing vinyl bumper stickers Proper screen exposures and handling More on setting up your own system

Screenprinting 102 April 11th 10am-5pm - Cost $ 80.00

A Brief History

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:49:36 +0000

The Gloo Factory (named for the “gloo” that keeps community together) began almost twenty years ago with the acquisition of two offset printing presses, and has evolved into a significant community resource. It now offers offset printing, screen printing, graphic arts services, and technical assistance and education. The Gloo Factory produces books, newsletters, bumper stickers, signs and banners, t-shirts and much more, almost exclusively for non-profit groups and progressive causes. As a community-oriented facility, The Gloo Factory’s 4000-square-foot rented warehouse has become a center of activity for grassroots groups. In addition to providing printing and related services, The Gloo Factory provides workshops, classes, and other training to give people the knowledge (and encouragement) they need to produce their own printed materials.

From the front lines of wilderness defense to addressing the interrelation between art and social healing, the Gloo Factory has been involved in supporting cutting-edge causes and in promoting an ethic that fights for justice for all species and all people. In an age of corporate media domination, the Gloo Factory has consistently supported independent media initiatives.

The unique and anomalous affordable warehouse space it occupies has allowed the Gloo Factory to expand its services greatly over the years and, more importantly, expand its ability to offer low-cost and often-free services and training in printing and the graphic arts. For the last ten years we’ve worked with Tucson’s countless schools and community groups, and a vibrant warehouse arts community to make accessible hands-on media experience. We are currently working with other independent media projects to create a framework that will provide regular, low-cost or no-cost training in printing and the graphic arts.

We are asking you to help us raise the money to keep The Gloo Factory running in its current historical setting. As a community, we must act together to secure our access to independent media. And keeping The Gloo Factory in operation is a vital part of that.

The Hut Benefit was a blast

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:25:15 +0000

Our Gloo Factory benefit at the Hut was a huge success! Supporters came out in droves. It was great to see many new faces finding out what we are all about and getting a taste of some stickers and schwag we passionately produce everyday. It was also wonderful to see our loyal patrons, work traders, contributing artists and friends.
Nearly $1600 was raised, through donations and sales of our awesome benefit t-shirt and cool merchandise.

Flam Chen was haunting the scene with their legendary style, there were characters in costume, and amazingly surreal stilt walkers wandering around fascinating the guests all night long. We were so grateful for their presence and honored by their terrific performances.

The bands rocked hard!

and a merry time was had by all.

Share Your Gloo Factory Story

burdenelizabeth — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:49:15 +0000

For more than a decade, Dwight and The Gloo Factory have been involved in the community, working with a plethora of causes, events or groups. As we talk about saving The Gloo Factory, people often share a story about working together on an action or event. From our Facebook Cause page:

The Gloo Factory has done several dozen printing projects for See Sharp Press. It keeps in print classic anarchist works that would otherwise be out-of-print, and puts worthwhile essays in more permanent format. Having a printer that shares our principles is extremely important. Without The Gloo Factory, these materials would not exist. —Chaz

I find Dwight to be one of the most altruistic, generous, and open minded people I have ever met. He is sweet and soft spoken and would do anything for the people and causes that he loves! Truly passionate, gifted, and selfless people are the most precious social resource I can imagine. We can’t let greed and “progress” obliterate the last remnants of our communities voice. Please everyone give to Dwight now because I promise that in some way shape or form it will come back to you in the future! Save the Gloo Factory! —Colin

I have worked with Dwight on and off for the past 11 years screen printing, tabling at events, and doing web support. He has been an inspiration to countless activists over the years and I am really excited to see the community rallying behind him in this time of need! We can do it! Rock on and see you at the events! —Martin

What’s your Gloo Factory story? Submit a comment using the form below to share your story.

Community is the Inspiration for The Gloo Factory

burdenelizabeth — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:25:28 +0000

Next week will be my 21st anniversary of arriving in Tucson. As a young traveler, I was blown away by the Sonoran Desert landscape and my first days in Tucson were like being in a completely new world. The cultures, climate, critters and community were immediately special to me, and still are today. My own assimiliation here hasn’t diminished my passion, and though this week my jobs involve seemingly mundane tasks (printing shirts, making buttons etc.) I am thrilled to be a part of the causes this work will benefit, and want to mention a couple.

This week we will produce a new t-shirt created to raise awareness and funds to mitigate the threats to wildlife from the border wall. Designed by local artist Dennis Caldwell, the Keep Our Borders Wild! shirt is sponsored by the Tucson Herpetological Society in conjunction with the Sierra Club Borderlands Project (and will be available soon through SierraClub.org/borderlands.) You may recognize some of your favorite desert megafauna in the picture of the silkscreen; better though to get your own shirt and appreciate the fabulous detail and all that it says about life here in Arizona.

I referenced my more carefree, wandering days earlier, but these days I have a much different perspective on the privilege of mobility. Whether it is the Northern Jaguar isolated by the border wall, or the thousands of migrants that face harrassment, detention and death in crossing the desert to find work here, there is no doubt that the US border policy is having tragic consequences. No More Deaths is an effective coalition that has been dramatically calling attention to border issues. This week we cranked out another bunch of buttons for their outreach campaign. The buttons feature a water jug in the desert and were designed here at the Gloo Factory. They are particularly relevant to the current political trials of No More Deaths volunteer (and Peace Supplies web designer!) Walt Staton, who is facing jail time stemming from a citation for leaving water in the desert as humanitarian aid for migrants. See more at www.NoMoreDeaths.org.

I have a strong sense that these issues, and the communities that care about them, are what gives us here at The Gloo Factory the meaning and motivation to do our part every day. Thanks to all of you for the inspiration.