Center for Book Arts blog

The Big Draw 2009

2009-07-08T10:27:00.000-04:00

Discounts on Select July Classes

2009-07-06T13:27:00.000-04:00

The Center is now offering a discount on select July classes!

Follow the links below to register online, or call 212-481-0295.

Save even more by becoming a member today and receive a double discount.

Chapbooks
July 25-26, Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm
Poets and artists, here is your chance to give your content a worthy book form. Prior to the workshop, following instructors from a PDF, you will design and print the interior of your chapbook on 8.5" x 11" paper in an edition of 50. In class, you will print your covers letterpress and bind up to 4 hardcover sewn books and 45 papercover sewn books. If time permits, we will also bind a multi-section collaborative book. You will end the class with patterns to cut more materials for binding, the experience of actually binding an edition of your very own chapbooks, and of course, the books! Instructors: Karen Randall and Susan Mills. Click here for more information and to register.
Summer Special: $245
Special for Members: $230
(Regular Price: $260)

A World of Boxes
July 20-24, Monday through Friday, 10am-4pm
The world of boxes is large, magnificent and full of surprises. A tray, a case, a lid and a flap: four simple architectural elements- and hundreds of ways to combine them! Working with cloth and patterned papers, we will construct portfolios, hinge-lidded boxes, partitioned boxes, boxes with unusual closures and other decorative details. Please bring with you photographs, postcards, letter, buttons, ribbons, all sorts of doodads and ephemera - anything that will personalize your boxes and make them truly unique. Instructor: Barbara Mauriello. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $500
Special for Members: $475
(Regular Price: $525)

A Classic Hardcover Book - in Leather
July 18-19 , Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm
When properly tanned, leather is an excellent cover material for books. It is durable, flexible and allows for traditional finishing - the blind and gold tooling of letters and decoration on book covers. And despite its reputation for being "difficult", leather can be easy to work with. Building a traditional quarter-leather or half-leather case bound book is a good introduction to the basic tools, techniques and principles of hand binding with leather. Instructor: Susan Mills. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $245
Special for Members: $230
(Regular Price: $260)

Illuminated Manuscripts
July 11-12, Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm
They only illuminate Bibles, right? No! Manuscript illumination is a set of techniques developed in the Middle Ages. The brilliant colors, supple parchment, and luminous gold catch the eye and demand complete attention. Small and discrete or overwhelming in scope, illuminations delight the eye. Using traditional designs or images from their own work, students will create a small illumination while learning all the steps in the process. Instructor: Karen Gorst. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $245
Special for Members: $230
(Regular Price: $260)

The Handworked Surface
July 27-31, Monday through Friday, 10am-4pm
This class will focus on the use of embroidery, collage, stenciling, various paper treatments and low-tech printmaking techniques to produce one-of-a-kind artist books. Simple multi-section binding structures will be introduced as a launching off point to explore the tactile qualities of unique hand worked paper and fabric surfaces. We will explore the proper use of adhesives and preparation of materials such as backing fabric with tissue and wax treatments for paper. This class will run in conjunction with the 2009 Artist Members Exhibit "Threads", which explores the use of thread as a design element in book works. Instructor: Nancy Loeber. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $500
Special for Members: $475
(Regular Price: $525)

SAVE MORE WITH MEMBERSHIP!
Membership is only $50 annually.
Sign up for a class today, and your membership can pay for itself!
As a member you will receive year-round discounts on classes,
admission to programs, bookstore purchase, and more.

TEXTFORM Reading Series

2009-07-02T11:38:00.002-04:00

The TEXTFORM Series features readings and performances by writers whose methods of production, presentation, and distribution are a vital component of their work.

Book Arts Lounge: Mad About Matchbooks!

2009-07-01T17:25:00.001-04:00

BOOK ARTS LOUNGE
"Mad About Matchbooks"
Friday, July 10, 6 to 9pm

A fun, creative, accessible book arts lounge. Come prepared with your creativity! This night's lounge is like a casino buffet! After learning the simple binding structure and setting type and printing on a Vandercook press, everyone can create their own series of Matchbooks and bind one with special prepared content. In conjunction with the new exhibit opening July 8th, Racism: An American Family Value we'll see how common place objects, icons and materials can be reconfigured.

Led by 2008-09 Stein Scholars Taelor Reid and Liz Zanis!

Book Arts Lounge is a monthly art-making extravaganza and open studio event at the Center for Book Arts. Each month, we focus on a different book arts theme, covering printing, bookbinding, and paper treatments, among other exciting topics. This low cost, high energy event takes place on the second Friday of every month, and is open to arts enthusiasts of all skill levels. Snacks provided. $10 suggested donation.

No registration required, but you can let your friends know about the event on Facebook.

Tuesdays with CBA

2009-06-30T12:10:00.003-04:00

What a busy day today! Click here to see some pictures of the Center at work.

The binderies are full with our Bookbinding for Artist class with Barbara Mauriello, as well as with archive materials and artwork that's being catalogued and prepared for storage. (Note, Barbara has another class coming up in July, A World of Boxes.)

Plenty of printers as always in the printshop, under the guidance of Printshop Steward Roni Gross.

We have a full crew of summer interns and workstudy volunteers in the galleries helping us de-install, spackle, paint, and install our two new exhibitions, opening reception next Wednesday, July 8, 6-8pm.

And we just got our refurbed A/C units installed so that we can do all this work in comfort this summer!

Two New Exhibitions: Opening Reception Wed, July 8, 6-8pm

2009-06-25T10:18:00.002-04:00

Two New Exhibitions Opening
At The Center for Book Arts, NYC
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
6:00 - 8:00 pm

EXHIBITIONS:
Racism: An American Family Value investigates how visual artists have used the printed word in their artistic practice to address one of the country's oldest and most challenging social problems. Mixing humor with subversive symbolism, the art exhibited reveals the vast reach of contemporary book art as practiced by a wide spectrum of American culture.

Artworks included by: Manuel Acevedo, Tomie Arai, Jamil Azim, Karen Baldner, Ben Blount, Michael Paul Britto, Josely Carvalho, Irene Chan, Maureen Cummins, Ken Gonzales-Day, Rory Golden, Caren Heft, Barbara Henry, Jayson Keeling, Maureen Kelleher, Glenn Ligon, Miguel Luciano, Jason Lujan, Clifton Meador, Douglas Miles/Apache Skateboards, Shervone Neckles, Jessica Peterson, Adrian Piper, Rosae Reeder, Lisa Beth Robinson, Karina Skvirsky, Danny Tisdale, Kara Walker, Shu-Ju Wang, Carrie Mae Weems, and Lynne Yamamoto.

Organized by: Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Artist, Teacher, and Independent Curator; and Alexander Campos, Executive Director of The Center for Book Arts.

Film Night: Proceed and Be Bold! Feature Documentary on Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. Wednesday, August 5, 6:30 pm

Threads: Interweaving Textu[r]al Meaning, our annual Artist Members Exhibition, brings together current members of the Center's artistic community and invited artists who use actual thread as a design element to convey both content and form. Artworks featured in this exhibition represent a broad range of book and related arts, including prints, books, sculptures, and multi-media installation.

Participating artists include: Jen Bervin, Inge Bruggeman, Macy Chadwick & Lisa Hasegawa, Rosemarie Chiarlone, Patricia Dahlman, Andrea Dezsö, Ipek Duben, Tiffany Dugan, Elsi Vassdal Ellis, Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, Dianna Frid, Ximena Perez Grobet, Tanya Hartman, Candace Hicks, Yoko Inoue, Vandana Jain, Heather Johnson, André Lee, China Marks, Pamela Matsuda-Dunn, Heidi Neilson & Chris Petrone, Tara O'Brien, Iviva Olenick, Yani Pecanins, Catya Plate, John Risseeuw, Donna Ruff, Meda Rives & Veda Rives, Stephen Sidelinger, Robbin Ami Silverberg, Edyth Skinner, Tamar Stone, Dana Velan, Elise Wiener, and Anne Wilson & Shawn Decker.

Organized by: Lois Morrison, Artist and Independent Curator; and Alexander Campos, Executive Director of The Center for Book Arts.

Two Artist Talks (Featuring Artists from the Exhibition):
Wednesday, July 29, 6:30 pm
Wednesday, August 12, 6:30 pm

LOCATION:
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, ThirdFloor
Between Broadway and SixthAvenue
Subway: N, R, W to 28thStreet; F, V to 23rd Street; 1 to 28th Street
Telephone: 212-481-0295
www.centerforbookarts.org

HOW MUCH:
Opening Reception: FREE
Admission to Galleries: FREE
Artist Talks & Film Night: suggested admission of $10/$5 members

GALLERY OPENING HOURS:

Monday to Friday, 10am-6pm
Saturday, 10am-4pm

For more information please contact
James Copeland,212-481-0295, jcopeland@centerforbookarts.org.

The Center for Book Arts - POSTER - By Bryan Baker

2009-06-23T19:19:00.002-04:00

July Workshops at the Center for Book Arts!

2009-06-20T12:44:00.029-04:00

Things I am looking forward to this summer include:

1. Peaches & Cherries
2. The consistent application of sunblock
3. Advancing the art of the book with a workshop at the Center for Book Arts!

Some of which can be seen here and here. Classes in bookbinding and printing now in session, ongoing throughout the summer. Highlights of the season include:

Linoleum Prints.

Summer is linoleum season. We will explore the medium and its myriad uses, from simple patterns to complex color compositions. Linoleum is a perfect accompaniment to type, and a great way to add color to the page. It can be used to tell a story, to illustrate or to decorate, and can be printed on the Center’s Vandercook Proof Presses or at home on a kitchen table. Barbara Henry will lead the way the week of June 29th, Monday through Friday, 10 am to 4pm.
Registration can be achieved here.

Letterpress II: Portfolio Exchange-The Secret Plan
Calling all printers: Bryan Baker will amaze you with his whiz-bang letterpress expertise. Each participant will venture further onto more advanced compositions with the incorporation of hand-carved blocks, and learn to utilize various methods of color overlay. As a class we will edition a portfolio that will contain a piece by all those involved with "The Secret Plan". Join us every Tuesday and Thursday in July to help advance the plot.
June 30-July 30, Tuesday and Thursday nights, 6 to 9pm
Register here.

A World of Boxes
The world of boxes is large, magnificent and full of surprises. Join Barbara Mauriello in an in-depth exploration of all that is enclosed.
July 20-24, Monday through Friday, 10 am to 4pm. Register here.

Historical Bookbinding
Recreate three books based on 16th and 17th century bindings: a limp multi-section book sewn on leather thongs with hand sewn endbands and a durable non-adhesive paper cover; an Ethiopian book with exposed sewing and wooden covers; and a large northern Indian account book with a stiff quilted fabric cover. Mark July 6th through the 10th on your calendar as the week that Susan Mills will show you how to make the historical contemporary.
Register here.

NYC Zine Fest - June 27th and 28th

2009-06-20T12:33:00.006-04:00

The NYC Zine Fest 09 is this coming weekend: June 27th and 28th at the Brooklyn Lyceum. This is what the organizers have to say for themselves:

The mission of the NYC Zine Fest is to circulate and promote independent, homemade, self-published, and small publications. We aim to support and expand the network of creators who self-publish zines in and outside of the NYC metro area. The Fest will connect artists, writers, and collectors of zines and further the NYC zine community through a two-day annual series of events, including tabling, workshops, presentations and parties. The NYC Zine Fest '09 will celebrate and highlight the spirit of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture that zines represent.

The Center for Book Arts will have a table at the event and will be doing a bookmaking workshop at 1:30 pm Saturday. Come down and say hello and check out the best of NYC independent publishing!

Rainy Weekend? Take a class at the Center!

2009-06-18T13:40:00.002-04:00

If you've looked at the weather reports for this weekend, you know we're in for a wet one - so what better time to pick up a few new bookbinding skills?

We have a few opens spots left in our Book Emergency Room - Cloth Reback class with Sophia Kramer. This is a unique chance to learn basic book repair techniques from a Metropolitan Museum Book Conservator.

This class is also being offered now as part of our June Discount promotion - sign up for this class now at a reduced rate!

We hope to see you here at the Center soon - and stay dry!

BENE-FÊTE: Weds., June 24, 6-9pm

2009-06-16T11:29:00.006-04:00

Please join us at The Center for Book Arts for our SUMMER BENE-FÊTE & SALE, a special one-time opportunity to purchase at discounted rates a wide selection of original prints and artists' books. Admission is free! With refreshments, a bake sale, music, and more!

All proceeds to benefit the Center for Book Arts, so please make a special effort to attend this wonderful event, or click here to make a contribution to the Center now.

Artwork on sale includes limited edition artists' books, broadside prints, poetry chapbooks, and more - all created here at the Center for Book Arts and not available anywhere else! All work will be offered at a discounted rate.

Your support is needed! The SUMMER BENE-FÊTE & SALE will provide essential funds for the Center's ongoing mission to explore and cultivate contemporary aesthetic interpretations of the book as an art object while invigorating traditional artistic practices of the art of the book. Funds will directly provide for the Center's core programming areas of exhibitions, classes, public events, literary presentations, opportunities for artists and writers, publications, and collecting.

Please take this opportunity to support the Center for Book Arts' important work, while also taking home beautiful and unique artwork.

Click here to see examples of some of the work that will be available for sale.

WHEN:
Wednesday, June 24, 6:00-9:00 pm

HOW MUCH:
FREE ADMISSION!

WHERE:
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, Third Floor
Between Broadway and SixthAvenue
Subway: N, R, W to 28thStreet; F, V to 23rd Street; 1 to 28th Street
www.centerforbookarts.org

For more information please contact
James Copeland,212-481-0295, jcopeland@centerforbookarts.org.

If you are unable to attend the event, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to The Center for Book Arts today. We need your help to continue our important mission - thank you for your support.

Let your friends know that you're attending this event on our Facebook page: we have a live feed to our blog and listings of upcoming events.

Summer 2009 Special Appeal

2009-06-14T14:35:00.002-04:00

Dear Friend,

At The Center for Book Arts, we look for every opportunity to make your experience meaningful and rewarding, with the aim of creating a community of artists, writers, students, scholars, and art enthusiasts from all backgrounds.

Now, the Center for Book Arts seeks your support. By making a meaningful contribution today, you will help ensure the Center continues the fulfillment of its important mission. This is a crucial Special Appeal to meet the challenges of this difficult financial period, and we need your help.

Click here to make an online contribution now.

Your gift directly supports the Center's many diverse programs:

Exhibitions, public programs, and readings that promote the extraordinarily rich field of the art of the book
New and diverse classes continually offered at competitive rates
Artist opportunities, residencies, scholarships, internships, and more
Free seminars for writers and outreach programs to university students
Broadsides, chapbooks, artists' books, and other unique publications

The Center is meeting its financial challenges head on by:

Reducing its operating budget by 15%
Raising over $20,000 in emergency funds for a new elevator
Reducing materials expenses in all areas
Engaging more interns and volunteers to assist with special projects

And,we have accomplished all of this without cutting any programs.

Your tax-deductible gift can help ensure that the Center's programs continue without having to reduce artist stipends and staff. Please make a secure, online contribution, or send a check to the Center today. Every contribution makes a difference.

Thank you!

Michael Held
Chairman, Board of Directors

AlexanderCampos
ExecutiveDirector

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION ONLINE.

Any amount is helpful!

If you prefer to make your contribution by phone, please call 212-481-0295.

Or send a check to:

Summer Appeal
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001

Center for Book Arts, Incorporated 1974 is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

click the form above if you would like a printable version

Tomorrow: AGITPROP!

2009-06-11T15:58:00.002-04:00

Please join us tomorrow, Friday, June 12, 6-9pm as we turn The Center for Book Arts into the Recessionary New York Department of Agitation & Propaganda. The summer's first Book Arts Lounge is AGITPROP! and we will print a selection of handbills and small posters relevant to the economic situation affecting all of us.

The Lounge is a monthly open studio & workshop event, designed for beginners and old hands alike. The Center will provide materials, or feel free to bring your own papers.

Suggested admission: $10 / $5 members and students. No registration required. Click here to see photos from the last Lounge, and you can also let people know you're coming on Facebook.

The French Tablet Display Structure - New Class at the Center!

2009-06-10T10:55:00.002-04:00

The French Tablet Display Structure, French Tablet Toolbox, and Not Your Mother's Carousel or Star Book: Georgette Freeman's French Tablet display structure is a delightful hybrid - part book, part accordion, part box, and part chemise.

It's a new class at the Center, running next week - click here to register!

Untie the doors, and the structure opens to reveal panel after panel for displaying artwork, text, and/or other objects. A version of this structure is featured online at Ink Monkey.

The French Tablet Toolbox is a unique and sophisticated toolbox based on Georgette's French Tablet display structure. Sharpen your box making skills and get specific instructions, with variations, for this versatile and useful form. If you use this box to hold calligraphy or bookbinding tools, it's sure to be a conversation piece wherever you work. And, as if that were not enough, Georgette will also be revealing for the first time in any workshop, her novel, 21st Century methods for making the carousel (also known as a star book).

Pre-cut materials will be provided for you to make and personalize the structures Georgette will be presenting.

The class is next week - register by Thursday, June 11!

Application Deadline Extended to June 12: Fine Press Publishing Seminar

2009-06-08T10:11:00.003-04:00

We've extended our application deadline for the next Fine Press Publishing Seminar for Emerging Writers!

The new deadline is this Friday, June 12.

The next section of this seminar is scheduled for Thursday through Sunday, July 16 through 19, 2009. The seminar is tuition free for participants and includes the cost of materials. Those selected must attend the entire four-day workshop.

Click here for an application and to read more about the program.

To see some photos from past sessions of the program, take a look here.

Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts

2009-06-07T12:43:00.003-04:00

We're happy to announce that we're working together with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts on their upcoming program:

Film • Music • Interactive Legal & Business Bootcamp
Friday, July 10, 2009: 10am-5pm
VLA is pleased to announce this intensive new program about the legal and business issues that affect individual artists and individuals within arts cultural institutions who make and work in film, music and interactive media.

Special for members of The Center for Book Arts! You can receive a 20% discount on this workshop (off their already reduced rates) if you're a current members of the Center.

For more information about the Bootcamp, click here. If you'd like to know more about how to get the 20% discount, send an email to James Copeland at jcopeland@centerforbookarts.org.

Summer Classes Now Online

2009-06-04T14:40:00.000-04:00

The Book Arts Summer Classes you have been waiting for are now online!

What better way to spend the season than creating your own Book Arts summer retreat? This is the perfect time to explore new techniques or brush up on essential skills. We've got an exciting schedule of classes for artists, writers, and students new to books to expand their knowledge and immerse themselves in the book arts.

Lauren Rowland will help you get into the flow of Paper Marbling's fluid surface design, and the decorative possibilities of paper open up in The Hidden Art of Kozo Paper.

Illustrate your work with Linoleum Prints under the expert tutelage of Barbara Henry, or challenge yourself by translating your full-color images into Four Color Printing from Polymer Plates with Karen Randall.

Now is the chance to deepen your printing skills in the new class, Letterpress II: Portfolio Exchange - The Secret Plan, with Bryan Baker.

Or are you an artist or writer looking for new options for binding your ideas? Barbara Mauriello's week-long exploration of simple but elegant structures A Sewing Marathon: All About the Pamphlet should be right up your alley.

Do you want to explore the possibilities of alternative materials in your books? Susan Mills can be your guide to the possibilities of vellum, felt, neoprene and even dental floss in her upcoming class, Bookbinding III.

Check the classespage of The Center for Book Arts website to see a complete list ofofferings, and register online from the course description page or byphone at 212.481.0295.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Sarah Nicholls
Programs Manager

PS - Please join us this Friday, June 12, 6-9pm as we turn The Center for Book Artsinto the Recessionary New York Department of Agitation &Propaganda. The summer's first Book Arts Lounge is AGITPROP! and we will print a selection of handbills and small postersrelevant to the economic situation affecting all of us. The Lounge is a monthly open studio & workshop event, designed for beginners and old hands alike. The Center will provide materials, or feel free to bring your own papers. Suggested admission: $10 / $5 members and students. No registration required. Click here to see photos from the last Lounge.

Patricia Smith and Matthew Hittinger

2009-06-02T11:33:00.000-04:00

with
Patricia Smith
and Matthew Hittinger

This Wednesday
June 3, 6:30pm

Join us for this dynamic pairing of two poets and take home a unique letterpress broadside of the poets' work. A reception accompanies the reading, and a limited-edition broadsideprint of work by each poet is produced by an artist at the Center anddistributed at the reading

Patricia Smith is a poet, spoken word performer, playwright, author, and writing teacher. Her most recent book of poetry, Blood Dazzler, was selected as a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award.

She is the author of Teahouse of the Almighty, a 2005 National Poetry Series selection; Close to Death; Big Towns, Big Talk, which won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award; and Life According to Motown.

A four-time individual champion on the National Poetry Slam, Smith hasalso been a featured poet on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and has performed herwork around the world. She has written and performed two one-womanplays, one of which was produced by Derek Walcott's Trinidad TheaterWorkshop. She is a Cave Canem faculty member and has served as theBruce McEver Chair in Writing at Georgia Tech University.

Matthew Hittinger is the author of Pear Slip, winner of the Spire Press2006 Spring Chapbook Award. Shortlisted for the National Poetry Series,the New Issues Poetry Prize, and twice for the Walt Whitman Award,Matthew's honors include a Hopwood Award and The Helen S. and JohnWagner Prize from the University of Michigan, the Kay Deeter Award fromthe journal Fine Madness, and three Pushcart nominations. His work has appeared in many journals including American Letters & Commentary, Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, DIAGRAM, Mantis, Memorious, Meridian, Michigan Quarterly Review, Oranges & Sardines and elsewhere, including the anthology Best New Poets 2005. Matthew lives and works in New York City.

This reading is organized and will be introduced by Sharon Dolin.

Click here to see recent poetry broadsides from the series, and you can also take a look at photos from previous Broadsides readings.

WHEN:
Wednesday, June 3, 6:30 pm

WHERE:
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, ThirdFloor
Between Broadway and SixthAvenue
Subway: N, R, W to 28thStreet; F, V to 23rd Street; 1 to 28th Street
www.centerforbookarts.org

HOW MUCH:
Suggested Admission: $10/$5 members

Discounts on June Classes!

2009-06-01T17:49:00.002-04:00

The Center is now offering a limited-time discount on all June classes!

Take advantage of these discounted rates
This is your chance to jump in, learn new techniques,
and start new projects!

Follow the links below to register online, or call 212-481-0295.

Save even more by becoming a member today and receive a double discount!

Bookbinding I
June 8-12 , Monday through Friday, 10am-4pm
This introductory course will familiarize students with the basic materials (paper, cloth, board, and adhesives), techniques (folding, sewing, gluing), and history of bookbinding. Students will make several structures, including a pamphlet, a flat and a rounded case bound multi-section book, and a photo album. Instructor: Nancy Loeber. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $500
Special for Members: $475
(Regular Price: $525)

D-I-Y Bookbinding (Do-It-Yourself)
June 13, Saturday, 10am-4pm
Do you have a book you would like to bind? Bring your pages to class and bind them into a traditional, sewn cloth-covered book. You could bind your novel, thesis, drawings, digital photos, field notes, children's art, recipes, family history or even blank pages to make a sketchbook or travel journal. Bind almost anything - in almost any size. Instructor: Susan Mills. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $135
Special for Members: $120
(Regular Price: $150)

The French Tablet Display Structure
June 15-19, Monday through Friday, 10am-4pm
Georgette Freeman's French Tablet display structure is a delightful hybrid: part book, part accordion, part box, and part chemise. Untie the doors, and the structure opens to reveal panel after panel for displaying artwork, text, and/or other objects. Instructor: Georgette Freeman. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $560
Special for Members: $535
(Regular Price: $585)

Cloth Reback
June 20-21, Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm
This course is aimed at students with some experience of bookbinding who want to further develop their skills in conservation and restoration. Students will learn how to restore a cloth bound book and conserve the original binding materials. Instructor: Sophia Kramer. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $245
Special for Members: $230
(Regular Price: $260)

Contemporary Stereo Card Making
June 20-21, Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm
Retro and nostalgic, yet so-o-o up to date, stereo cards are an intriguing and versatile book structure. A pair of pictures taken in the same plane, then mounted on a card and viewed through a special viewer, stereo cards create the illusion of a three-dimensional scene. Starting with a history of the structure, Georgette will lead you through how your binocular vision works, how to de-construct it with your own camera and, then, how to reconstruct your resulting stereo image on a card for viewing by others. Instructor: Georgette Freeman. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $275
Special for Members: $260
(Regular Price: $280)

Printshop Renter Training and Guillotine Workshop
June 21, Sunday, 6-9pm
Get trained to use both the guillotine and the printshop in one three hour workshop. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $65
Special for Members: $50
(Regular Price: $80)

Double Talk: Duality in the Artist's Book
June 22-26 , Monday through Friday, 10am-4pm
In this workshop we will explore notions of duality: two languages, two voices, reading in two directions, two narratives. We will divide our time between the printshop, where we will work on the Vandercook proof presses to create printed covers for our books, and the binding studio, constructing a book format appropriate for this notion of duality. Instructor: Lynne Avadenka. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $500
Special for Members: $475
(Regular Price: $525)

The Brown Bag Bindery: Essential Tools 101
June 27, Saturday, 10am-4pm
Many book arts facilities are limited in storage space and budgets to purchase additional equipment. Now students can begin to acquire equipment as they advance in their knowledge and skills. Continue creating books at home after taking a workshop or community class. Complete and personalize: a piercing cradle, sewing frame and finishing press. All tools are knock-down, hand finished with multiple layers of eco-friendly paints. A carrying tote is included. Instructor: Sylvia Alotta. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $285
Special for Members: $270
(Regular Price: $300)

Bookbinding for Artists
June 29-July 3, Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm
This intensive, beginning workshop is designed to enable artists to use the book format in their work as a means of expanding, preserving, and restructuring ideas. Students will make four to five books, including an accordion book, a long-stitch book, and variations on the pamphlet binding, as well as a simple box (or two). The properties of bookbinding materials will be discussed in detail. Instructor: Barbara Mauriello. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $500
Special for Members: $475
(Regular Price: $525)

Linoleum Prints
June 29-July 3, Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm
Summer is linoleum season. We will explore the medium and its myriad uses, from simple patterns to complex color compositions. Linoleum is a perfect accompaniment to type, and a great way to add color to the page. It can be used to tell a story, to illustrate or to decorate, and can be printed on the Center's Vandercook Proof Presses or at home on a kitchen table. We will look at historical examples and learn techniques for transferring images, for registration, color mixing and layering and combining linoleum with other media such as watercolor, gouache and acrylics. Instructor: Barbara Henry. Click here for more information and to register.
Spring Special: $500
Special for Members: $475
(Regular Price: $525)

Quick and Dirty (and Affordable!) Bookbinding

2009-05-21T11:16:00.005-04:00

If you're looking for an accessible and affordable way to get your feet wet with bookbinding, there's a perfect class coming up this June:

D-I-Y Bookbinding (Do-It-Yourself)
Sunday, June 13, 10am-4pm
Tuition: $150
Member rate: $135 (or $120 if you register by May 31!)

In this one-day workshop, master binder Susan Mills will take you through the essential steps of bookbinding, giving you the skills you need to jump into your own book arts projects, send you off in a new creative direction, or inspire you to begin binding at home.

Click here to learn more about the class and to register!

Note! If you're a member of the Center, we're offering a double-discount rate on this class if you register by May 31!

Cuban Artists' Books at the Grolier Club

2009-05-20T14:34:00.003-04:00

The Grolier Club has launched this impressive new exhibition on Cuban Artists' Books.

In addition to the exhibition (on view through Aug 1, free admission), there is a related event tomorrow evening:

May 21, at the Grolier Club: Curator Linda S. Howe will speak about the exhibition, 6 pm. Reception follows. No charge.

Book Arts Loungers Practice Razor-Sharp Skills

2009-05-15T11:33:00.000-04:00

Look at those blade-sharpening skills! Binder and conservator Sophia Kramer led a group of dedicated binders last week at Book Arts Lounge as we learned about possible ways to customize our own tools for maximum comfort and effectiveness. Folks brought their questions, and one person brought her own handcrafted tool: a most impressive bookbinding hammer which she had wrought in an iron shop. Incredible!

We all made pocket strops to keep our knives keen, especially useful for saving money on replacement scalpel blades in these tough times. What's a strop? Those of you who haven't been to an old-timey barber shop in a while might not be familiar with these blade-sharpeners. You can see several strops in this photo: it's essentially a piece of leather used to hone blades and reduce the need for serious sharpening on a stone. Sophia demonstrated on her full-sized strop how to sprinkle carborundum powder (used as a pumice), mix it with vaseline, and deftly sharpen all manner of tools. Our strops were mini; basically a sheet of leather (suede side-up) and a sheet of fine-grit sandpaper mounted on 2 sides of a 3-part case (bound in fabulously-colored buckram) that folded up neatly enough to fit in any toolkit. I think everyone left feeling eager to put their sharpening skills into practice.

Click here to see more pictures from last week's Lounge.

Next month, we'll be rolling up our sleeves in the printshop with poet-printer Jeremy James Thompson, former Stein Scholar and creator extraordinaire of exciting printed materials at the Center for Book Arts. The theme, AGITPROP!, will have us converted into members of the New York Department of Agitation & Propaganda, where we'll print a selection of handbills and small posters relevant to the economic situation affecting all of us, and discuss some techniques for distributing the message. Join the movement! Apolitical printers welcome!

Wax Paper Sticks with Silicone Release and Tyvek

2009-05-12T10:27:00.000-04:00

Ana Paula Cordeiro is an artist, printer, bookbinder, author of a blog, and teacher, who has been active in the Center's community since 2002. Most recently, she's been working with interns on creating special leather journals, printing a broadside for the poet Erica Hunt, exhibiting her work in the summer Member's Show, and much more. As Ana writes below, the community of the Center is part of what makes it such a fun place to work and create.

- Ana, is there a place around for scraps of wax paper?

It happens more often in the summer, when interns spend more time in the studio than in the office. I can see it coming: usually there is some glue waiting to spill in their hands. They look around, they raise their eyebrows, they search, they sigh. To my knowledge no one has ever found it without asking.

- Yeap, in the flat files by the nipping presses, inside a drawer with yellow label that says "silicone release and tyvek".
- What?

I know, it doesn't make any sense. No wonder! We giggle, The Center for Book Arts is not the neatest spot on earth, really. We look around and burst into laughter: clearly!

Then I see it coming: next thing, another one will come with the same dilemma. I stay out of the scene, and as one tells another I take pleasure to notice how they also giggled in unison. Silicone release and tyvek means wax paper, how much sense does that make?

For a while I thought it was only me being weird with labels (full disclosure: labels make me nervous). Although even I could have fixed that; all it takes is a sharpie, and make it "silicone release tyvek AND wax paper" and that is the end of it. Then how come no one - not even the ones with traces of OCD that go around labeling everything - could fix this?

Seasons have come in and out, though, and now I know better. This is not about anti-adherence materials randomly bundled. That giggling together is welcome, is come on in, is a stepping stone out of the awkward, clumsy, hope-for-the-best moment most of us go through at first, bumping into this rather outdated technology and trying to figure out how to start conversation with these people so focused in handling huge sheets of paper as if there is no tomorrow. Wax paper inside the silicone release and tyvek drawer is insider, is translating, is we are into this together. That giggle and that glance will grow as the summer goes into a partners-in-crime kind of connection, to the point that when they show me what came out of Bookbinding I - a hardcover journal complete with endsheets that somehow got a bit crooked - we burst into laughter without warning. We both agree that this one will be Mom's.

We know that the next one will be better, that life is imperfect and full of labels that don't match their contents, and that we can make things anyway just because we can.

Artist Talk with Roni Gross

2009-05-05T11:55:00.002-04:00

This just in! Roni Gross will be joined by Robert Gilbo at her Artist Talk tomorrow, Wednesday May 6, taking place here at the Center at 6:30 pm. Robert, a theater director and actor, will be reading aloud the texts from Roni's artwork featured in her current Featured Artist Project, Zitouna at 20. We hope to see you here!

Broadsides are for Poetry Lovers (and everyone else, too)

2009-04-27T18:25:00.003-04:00

Working late into the night, hunched over the press bed, tweezers gripped in hand, the printer grapples with the ever-apparent enemy: the typo. In casual correspondence, one might laugh at such an occurrence, puzzling over how the fingers were incorrectly oriented over the qwerty row, or roll one's eyes, scoffing at another's inability to proofread. But when a printed item is to go out into the world for public scrutiny, the typo is the ultimate foe, and must be discovered and corrected at all costs.

That's why I was so relieved when my fellow printers and staff at the Center for Book Arts obligingly checked my work as I prepared to print a broadside in honor of the poetry reading on Wednesday, April 29. As you can see in the photo, I am diligently checking the copy of a beautiful poem by Anna Moschovakis, which I was so excited to design and print for the Center. This moment came near the culmination of the process, which for me is always marked by a combination of agonized pondering and sudden moments of clarity, driven by the knowledge that a deadline is looming.

This poem was actually a pleasure to print. I'm no connoisseur, but I felt that the poem was meditative and ethereal, yet also somehow tangible and pertinent to real life. I tried to convey my feelings about the poem without being too obvious, to add to its mystery without fussy distractions. Come Wednesday and see if it worked out. The reading with Anna Moschovakis and Monica de la Torre will be reason enough to entice you. And I'll give you a prize if you can find any typos in the broadside.

- Corinna Zeltsman