Letterpress fans in Nashville have a chance to roll up their sleeves and print like the pros at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where Hatch Show Print is running its Family Block Party, a hands-on session built around hand-carved printing blocks and some of the city’s most recognizable imagery. The workshop costs $75 per participant and takes place at the museum, located at 222 5th Ave S in downtown Nashville.
According to Nashville Lifestyles, the event provides all materials needed to get started, including a blank tea towel or tote bag for printing. Participants can also bring their own clean, washable item, such as a T-shirt, if they want to print on something personal rather than the provided blanks.
Learning the Craft Behind the Posters
The session is designed to walk participants through the fundamentals of relief printing. Instructors cover composing an image, creating layers and using color, according to Hatch Show Print, with hands-on practice in ink application and brayer rolling along the way. Adults at the event work with a selection of hand-carved printing blocks featuring Nashville imagery cut by the shop’s own designers.
That imagery comes from a business with deep roots in American design history. Hatch Show Print is described as one of the oldest poster and design shops in America, per the same Nashville Lifestyles listing, and the shop still produces show posters for musicians, bands and performers one at a time using letterpress printing, according to its own site.
Who Can Attend and What It Costs
The Family Block Party is open to people aged 13 and older, and the shop’s program details specify that anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a paying adult. The $75 fee covers participation and the provided printing materials, per Hatch Show Print’s program page.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where the workshop is held, has long served as a home base for Hatch Show Print’s public-facing programming, putting the printing experience within the same downtown complex that houses the museum’s broader exhibits. Hands-on sessions like this one give visitors a direct look at the hand-carved-block process that has defined the shop’s output for generations.
