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| Like our exhibitions? Consider work/study! |
Happy Friday, everyone! As today is going to be my last blog at the Center for Book Arts, I thought today would be an excellent time to talk about just how these daily blogs came to be. I am a college student and, starting during winter intersession, I began to do work/study at the CBA in order to take more classes here. With work/study, each hour of time worked equates to a certain number of hours of class and studio time. While it takes more than 2 hours of work for 1 hour of class, the CBA is extremely generous with their studio hours: 1 hour of work/study is equal to two hours in the bindery or printshop! Very exiting.
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| Work/study volunteers from 2007 preparing for the Benefit |
When I first started doing work/study, the CBA was busy setting up for its first show of the year,
Fine & Dirty as well as our two Featured Artist Projects, Ethan Shoshan's
Strange Birds and Patricia Sarrafian Ward's
Re/Vision. At that point, I was busy working with the rest of the staff on prepping for the show: painting, putting up shelves, going through the pieces, and even (sometimes) asked where I thought a specific piece should go. Once we opened, I expected to do some usual filing and mailing, but, when I expressed my interest in the blog (I am a creative writing major, after all), I was given the chance to do something with it. I decided to blog daily, giving each day a theme, and working from there. I wanted to share all the exciting and interesting things that the Center for Book Arts does, and I hope I was able to bring that to you.
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| Work/study can give you hours to do this for free |
I also hope that, although I am finishing up my hours today and am moving on to finals week and graduate school, that someone else will continue to work on the blogs. We've had some great guest bloggers before, but it would be great if another intern or work/study student would be interested in continuing them and making them their own. Would Friday Insights work better as Friday Interviews? Should Monday Methods be changed to Monday Classes? Maybe Wednesday Exhibitions will start showing things from our permanent collection, or maybe not. But I would love for them to continue, and if anyone out there reading them is interested in doing it, contact us! We're always looking for new work/study students and interns, and it's a great way to earn hours for classes, studio usage, and/or college credit! Here's a mini breakdown of the two programs:
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| You can earn free workspace hours, too! |
Work/Study: What I did. A limited number of positions are available for students or artists who want to work to pay for CBA courses or workspace rental. After working a preset number of hours, a work/study student can study tuition-free. For courses, 50% of the hours need to be completed before the class begins, with the remainder being fulfilled by a point after the course ends. These are available for temporary and semi-permanent positions: temporary volunteers work on a specific project, such as the annual Holiday Sale, while semi-permanent positions can work on larger projects (such as this blog!). Both interns and work/study students will participate in the day-to-day activities of the Center. For more information and an application, click
here.
Internships: Available throughout the year. The reason I chose to do work/study was because, as a full-time student, I was unable to work the minimum 2 full days a week. Summer internships often give hands-on training in book arts techniques, which is very exciting, and definitely something to consider, although internships in many different aspects of arts administration, marketing, curating, management, etc are offered throughout the year. Instead of working for credit, interns are given the chance to take classes during their time as an intern, as well. Both interns and work/study students will participate in the day-to-day activities of the Center. For more information and an application, click
here.
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| And, like me, you can earn hours to work in the bindery |
Well, that's all for now! I hope you will consider doing work/study, interning, or volunteering at the Center. We do a lot of good (and a
lot of work!) and, being a non-profit in the arts, it's difficult for the staff to get the credit (and time off) that they deserve. Whether you are interesting in blogging or not, working at the CBA is a great experience for anyone interested in book or letterpress arts. And don't be afraid of what you don't know: I started this blogs having taken only Bookbinding 1. One of the best parts of working here is everything you will learn!
Bonsoir, adios, and ever truly yours,
-Christina Squitieri
Have any stories about your favorite part of the Center? Want to give us suggestions or comments? Comment on this post, email us at info@centerforbookarts.org, visit us on Facebook (/centerforbookarts) or follow us on Twitter (@center4bookarts). Can't wait to see you there!
