Publishing at the Center

Starting a press is probably the most empowering thing a writer can do. We want to help writers publish their own work and the work of the people they admire, and we think it's easier to do than you suspect.

Every season, we offer a tuition free workshop for writers, our Fine Press Publishing Seminar. It's a four day intensive workshops that introduces writers to the wonders of hand set lead type, letterpress printing, and self-publishing, and hopefully inspires them to start a press and use these techniques in what they produce.



Students spend four days with Barbara Henry, our local type and printing guru, learning the ins and outs of letterpress technology. They print an assortment of texts which are editioned and collected in a portfolio for each of them to take home. Students leave with a basic knowledge of the printing on a Vandercook, and hopefully the desire to continue on with their skills.





Students also hear from a variety of presenters active in the field; we've had a wide variety of printers and publishers come speak over the years. Ugly Duckling Presse, Booklyn Artists Alliance, Peter Kruty, Kyle Schlesinger, and Ryan Murphy are only some of the people who've shared their work with us recently. This recent session in November we invited Jon Beacham, of Hermitage Beacon. Jon learned how to set type in this very workshop, here at the Center, and has gone on to publish chapbooks of poetry and set up a workspace/bookstore/exhibition space for poetry and art in Beacon, NY. You can learn more about his work here. We were very happy to see what he 's been up to.

Also in attendance this weekend was Andy Birsh from Woodside Press, who shared with his us his vast knowledge of the history of type and the intricacies of monotype. Woodside Press is the proud purveyor of traditional letterpress technology in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the leading source for monotype in New York City. We were lucky he could squeeze a visit in to the Center during his holiday rush season!

If you are a writer interested in taking this workshop, there is an open call for entries three times a year. Guidelines are posted on our website for the Letterpress Printing and Fine Press Publishing Seminar For Emerging Writers on the page marked 'opportunities' . The next call for entries should be in January, for the next session scheduled for spring of 2009. Eight students are accepted into each session of the workshop.

Holiday Gift Fair and Preview Party

The Center for Book Arts Presents its Annual Holiday Gift Fair and Preview Party Handmade Objects for Sale, a Silent Auction, & Many Wonderful Gifts Ideas Preview Party: Fri, Dec 12, 6-9 pm Holiday Fair: Sat, Dec 13, Noon-7 pm

WHAT: Throughout this two day event, artists and instructors from the Center will be selling their handcrafted creations. The Center's annual book fair is popular with anyone searching for beautiful, unusual, and affordable gifts.  Come Friday for the Preview Party for a first chance to purchase objects, bid on the silent auction, and enjoy live music and cocktails in a festive holiday atmosphere. On Saturday, drop in and peruse the extraordinary selection of handmade items on sale directly from the artists. Saturday admission is free and open from Noon to 7:00 pm. WHEN: Preview Party: Friday, Dec 12, 6-9 pm ($10 ticket) Holiday Fair: Saturday, Dec 13, Noon-7pm (Free admission)   PREVIEW PARTY: Join us Friday evening for the Preview Party and have the first chance to purchase unique and affordable handmade gift items, while enjoying a festive atmosphere with live music, hors d'oeuvres, and holiday cocktails. Click here to see images of work that will be for sale at the Fair! There will also be live Klezmer music with the holiday-themed duo Klez Humbug, featuring Gregg Mervine and Michael Winograd. Vendors include: Jenna Adams - Studio on the Square, Laurie Alpert, Kristin Anderson, Marvin Bolotsky, Susan Bonthron - Otter Pond Bindery, Carolyn Chadwick, Teresa Federer - Acorn Letterpress, Emily Gold - Paper Cake Scissors, Michael Held - Memex Books, Barbara Henry - Harsimus Press, Ruth Ann Howden, Tom Jessen - Foxglove Press, Sara Elizabeth Jett, Debbie Ma Designs, Barbara Mauriello, Susan Mills, Purgatory Pie Press, Connie Smith, Julia Solis - Furnace Press, Friese Undine, Jennifer Verbit, and Ulla Warchol & Kristann Heinz - Fold Over Press. There will also be a silent auction, with items from: Amy's Bread, Art on Paper Magazine, Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie Hall, Dieu Donne, the Drawing Center, En Foco, the Grolier Club, MoMA, Murray's Cheese, New York Central Art Supply, the New York Historical Society, Talas, the Morgan Library and Museum, Ugly Duckling Presse, Vosges Chocolate, and the Yale University Arts Library. All attendees of the Preview Party will receive a special letterpress printed keepsake! HOLIDAY FAIR: Visit the Center on Saturday from Noon to 7pm to find this unique studio and exhibition space transformed into a book artists' marketplace!  Items for sale include hand-bound books, journals, greeting cards, decorative boxes, photo albums, and original artwork and artist books.  Admission to the fair is free on Saturday.  Prices on items start as low as $5 and most can be found in a range of $15-$75. WHERE: The Center for Book Arts 28 West 27th Street, Third Floor Between Broadway and Sixth Avenue Subway: N, R, W to 28thStreet; F, V to 23rd Street; 1 to 28th Street   Snow Owl Artwork by Tim Fite. For more information and for photo credits, please contact James Copeland at jcopeland@centerforbookarts.org.

Support the Center for Book Arts!

Dear Friend, As you know, the scope of the Center's activities is truly remarkable. Though we are widely recognized for our variety of book arts classes and provocative exhibitions, the Center also provides crucial studio workspace for artists, opportunities for emerging writers, and services for the greater arts community. We are entering our 35th year of operation, and could never have made it this far without your support. We are writing to ask you to help us continue this vibrant programming by making a tax-deductible, year-end contribution to the Center for Book Arts today. You can bring us closer to our Annual Fund goal of $75,000. Your donation will sustain our diverse and dynamic programming in the coming year, including many new courses and workshops in the Printshop and Bindery. The Center's exhibitions promise to be as thought-provoking and stimulating as ever, with the exhibition Artist Books as (Sub)Culture, opening in January, showcasing the many ways artist groups throughout the nation use book arts to advance their missions. There will also be artist installations, readings, special events, lectures - and a lot more! This past year, the Center achieved important institutional goals that focus on our future. We initiated a comprehensive Strategic Plan to promote growth and stability through grants from many sources, including the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, while the National Endowment for the Arts and others have provided support for cataloguing and preserving our Book Arts collections. This unprecedented recognition, coupled with the continued, enthusiastic support of our members, will enable us to begin implementing a long-term vision for the Center as we continue advancing the field of Book Arts in all its forms. Despite these accomplishments, the Center for Book Arts remains especially vulnerable in these uncertain economic times. But we know we can rely on your support. By contributing to the Center's year-end appeal, you will be directly investing in this organization we all love and believe in. We also encourage you to ask a friend, family member or colleague to match your contribution, and to join the Center for Book Arts community for all the programs, classes, and exhibitions they won't want to miss! Please contribute online or return the reply form with your check or credit card details. Donors of $100 or more will receive a special item from the Center's letterpress printshop. Please note that this contribution to the Center is for general operations and is not a membership gift. You may also donate by calling the Center at (212) 481-0295. Warm Regards, Michael Held Chair, Board of Directors Brian Hannon Chair, Development Committee Virginia Bartow Chair, Annual Fund Drive

Click here to make your contribution online We will send you an e-mail confirmation and a paper thank you letter for your tax records. We can accept MasterCard and Visa online. If you prefer telephone for your donation, please call 212-481-0295.  Or, send a check to: Annual Fund 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

2008 Pyramid Atlantic Bookfair and Conference

The Center for Book Arts was pleased to take part November 8th and 9th in this year's Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair and Conference in Silver Springs, MD. This was the 10th edition of the event, which is organized every two years by Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. The bookfair and conference connects book makers, publishers, scholars, collectors and enthusiasts in a two day exchange consisting of a dynamic book fair, exhibitions, discussions and events. As an exhibitor at the fair, the Center brought along new publications, including our exhibition catalogs, chapbooks and artist books, and took the opportunity to spread the word about our activities.

This year the fair featured an upper level featuring new artists in the medium, offering recent grads and new faces a forum for their work. New faces included former CBA student and recent UArts Alum Regan Gradet (Great Danger Press); former CBA volunteer Jessica Peterson and Alabama graduate student (Paper Souvenir) and Elysa Voshell (After Nostalgia Press) CBA's 2006 Stein Scholar.

We were excited to see leafletting alive and well under the auspices of Impractical Labor, a collaboration between Emily Larned and Brigid Elmer, whose aim appears to be the promotion of the conceptual in the handmade.

Conference presenters focused on time, pace and the book. Jana Harper spoke eloquently about the parallels between walking and reading, drawing from the collection of Urban Books at Washington University. Mary Tasillo, proprietor of Cake & Pie Press, examined new forms of the democratic multiple, complementing another new component of this year's event, "Democratic Organization", a display of books made for wide dissemination.

The Center was very pleased to take part in such a dynamic display of the wide variety of activities and projects produced in the name of book art. It seems like the number of conferences and fairs devoted to artist books is increasing exponentially; this was the second fair we had attended (Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair just having passed) in a month. Several institutions brought along promotional materials for events they are planning for 2009. We're looking forward to the next opportunity to gather to see new work and it doesn't seem like we'll have to wait very long.

Vandercook Book

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Vandercook Proofing Press, a limited edition publication of 100 copies is being published by Roni Gross and Barbara Henry to highlight the work that master printers across the county are doing on their Vandercooks. 30 printers have contributed folios that employ techniques from handset type, to polymer, linocuts, pressure printing, woodcuts and a myriad of other methods which they describe in their individual colophons.

A number of the classes at The Center participated in working on another section of folios dealing with various printing-related issues, such as correct inking and roller height issues, handset versus polymer printing and design, etc.

There is a bound section of essays by Henry Morris of Bird & Bull Press, Michael Peich of Aralia Press, Fritze Klinke of NA Graphics, Paul Moxon and Perry Tymeson.

Scheduled for completion in early 2009, there will be a publication party at the Center in late February, which will be paired with a series of panel discussions focusing on artists, teachers and historians who are or have been involved with the press.

Framed master printer folios will comprise a traveling show beginning in January of 2009, and is scheduled to go to The Printing Museum in Houston Texas, Rutgers University in New Jersey, Columbia University in New York, The Book Club of California and the University of Washington.

This project shows an enormous range of work being done on the press today, and contains a good deal of technical knowledge that would be valuable to students and printing aficionados.

Click here for more information and to place an order.

View Poetry Broadsides Online

Our complete catalogue of broadsides from the Center's Poetry Broadside Reading Series is now available online with images - click here to take a look!

The collection includes over 100 broadsides, featuring exciting established and emerging poets, all of whom have read at the Center. Each broadside is a unique artist creation, printed in a limited edition, made at the Center for book arts, and especially designed for the poet's reading.

Are you a collector of unique letterpress artwork? In search of a unique present for the holidays? New broadsides are being added throughout the year, so please check back!