Advantages of Diversification of printmaking in Uganda

Abstract

Printmaking has been in existence on the globe for many centuries. In Uganda, it can be traced back to the missionaries. Specifically the church missionary society in the nineteenth century who introduced the printing press as a means of improving information flow within the local population they were christianizing. Currently, printmaking is done at a small scale and and at large scale in form of commercial printing, with different commercial printing firms in the market. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diversification of printmaking in Uganda. Another aim was to differentiate traditional printmaking and digital print making and how the two serve each other. A case study research design was used with both quantitative and qualitative methods. The data was collected from employees and customers of Dnyke stationers Limited using mainly a self administred questionnare. While data analysis entailed descriptive, factor analysis, correlation and regression analysis. It was revealed that commercial print is more desirable in the art industry conpared to printmaking which is in art form. The performance of printmaking was found to use traditional techniques in forms of screen printing, metal etching, engraving, and wood cut printing among others. The performance digital print making was found to use machinery. It is reccommended that artists adopt digital printmaking methods such as those used in commercial printing in order to get quality outputs. This can increase market share within the industry and also increase production techniques by adopting mordern machines so as to diversify printmaking in Uganda.