Saturday, February 4 will serve up printmaking, button making, yoga, and more
Minnesota Center for Book Arts is excited to welcome the public back for our first in-person “Love Local” Open House event since February 2020. On Saturday, February 4 from 10am–12pm, four free activities will get kids, families, and adults in the spirit of self- and community-love: screen printing, button making, letterpress printing, and yoga!
Continue reading “All-Ages Open House Offers Free Artmaking”
Experience the exceptional work of these mid-career book artists January 21–April 1, 2023
This winter, in our Main Gallery, experience the exceptional work of the first four McKnight Book Artist Fellows: Paula McCartney (2020), Lisa Nebenzahl (2020), Mary Hark (2021), and Sonja Peterson (2021).
Continue reading “Exhibition to Highlight First Four McKnight Book Artist Fellows”
Visitors can watch the exhibition unfold in MCBA’s Outlook Gallery on January 13 & 14 from 10am–5pm.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts is pleased to welcome back Kansas-based visual artist and professor Dr. Rachel Epp Buller for the closing weekend of her fabric installation, In/Visible Care.
Continue reading “Artist-In-Residence Makes Caring Gestures Visible”
Left: Brooks Turner. Top right: Leah Willemin. Bottom right: Nicole Soley.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts is pleased to announce an exhibition featuring the recipients of our sixteenth series of the MCBA/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Residency. These early career book artists include St. Paul printmaker Nicole Soley; Minneapolis artist, writer, and educator Brooks Turner; and St. Paul-based artist and designer Leah Willemin. The exhibition will be on view from November 5, 2022–January 7, 2023, with an opening reception on Friday, November 11 from 6–8pm.
Continue reading “Jerome Book Arts Residency XVI: Exhibition Opening Soon!”
with Michelle Lee Lagerroos
Wednesdays: March 1, 8, 15; 7–9pm CT
Photoshop is the perfect way to convert your photographs to screen-printable positives and to preview your layers before ink hits the screen! This virtual workshop is a guide to using Photoshop for screen printing, including converting grayscale images to halftones, using threshold filters for easy posterization, and other tips and tricks. Participants will not be screen printing in this workshop, but they will have the opportunity to turn photographs into positives, which can later be screen printed in another workshop or independently (depending on the individuals’ prior experience). Participants must have a general knowledge of screen printing as well as access to and familiarity with using Adobe Photoshop independently. Continue reading “Digital File Preparation for Screen Printing”
with Anna Haglin
Thursdays: March 2 & 9; 6–9pm CT
Most hardcover books with spines thicker than 3/4” should be rounded and backed. Participants must arrive with a text block that they have already sewn on tapes or cords. Together, we’ll glue up text blocks and use hammers and finishing presses to round the spines. Then, we’ll hand-sew silk head and foot bands around a leather core and construct spine hollows which helps a rounded text block lay open. This workshop does not include the full case-making process, but participants will have access to the board shears should they wish to prep materials for their own cases during the workshop. Participants can expect to leave with rounded, backed, and forwarded text blocks that are ready to case in. Continue reading “Bookbinding 3: Rounding, Backing, and Sewing Endbands”
with Bridget O’Malley
Thursdays: March 2, 9, 16; 6–9pm CT
Learn the tools, terminology, and procedures of European-style papermaking in this in-person studio workshop. Participants will be guided through fiber preparation, the process of using molds and deckles to form sheets, and techniques for pressing and drying. Our focus will be on consistent sheet formation and safe, effective beater use, empowering participants with a solid grounding in materials and techniques for future independent papermaking in MCBA’s Papermaking Labs. Continue reading “European Papermaking”
with Laura Brown
Monday, March 6; 7–8:30pm CT
Art Practice Circle meets virtually and offers a friendly community space to listen and share about artmaking. The benefits of connecting with fellow makers are multiple: to inspire and encourage one another, to be an audience for one another’s work and creative process, and to move our work forward by talking about it out loud. This gathering will provide time for each person to share about their work—a particular work in progress, an idea that needs exploring, or a struggle with a specific work—as well as a conversation about what inspires us and strategies for tracking progress. Recommended for those who practice some form of book arts (book/paper/print) or related process (such as calligraphy, papercutting, marbling, etc.). Continue reading “Art Practice Circle: March”
with María Carolina Ceballos
Wednesdays: March 8, 15, 22; 4:30–6:30pm CT
Inlays and onlays are pieces of paper adhered to the cover of a book as a decorative element. In this virtual workshop, learn how to create paper inlays and onlays for book covers or as standalone, one-of-a-kind art pieces. Learn how to prepare the book cover or plaquette by creating a background, then build figurative or abstract imagery over the background with paper of various thicknesses, transparencies, and shapes. Participants will come away with techniques needed to decorate bindings with paper found around their home or from a local art store. No previous experience needed, but some knowledge on how to use adhesives, along with familiarity working with handmade and decorative papers (or paper other than commercially produced copy paper), is helpful. This workshop is for beginner book artists and paper enthusiasts. Continue reading “Paper Inlays and Onlays for Book Covers”
with Michelle Blodgett
Saturday, March 11; 10am–4pm CT
Experience the magic of marbling firsthand with this single-day, in-person workshop! Learn the basic process of paper marbling with acrylics, including recipes for the various components of the process. Make four basic patterns (stones, moire/waved, git-gel, and nonpareil), explore seasonal color palettes, and take home your own marbled papers ready to be used in bookbinding and other arts. Participants will leave the workshop with the confidence to work independently at MCBA’s Marbling Labs. Continue reading “Introduction to Marbling: March”
with Savannah Bustillo
Saturday, March 11; 10am–4pm CT
This in-person letterpress workshop offers an introduction to MCBA’s print studio—including key equipment, tools, and terminology—in addition to an opportunity to experience the satisfaction of printing a message through the hands-on process of letterpress printing. Get to know MCBA’s wood type collection and learn beginning typesetting with wood type. Learn the basics of working with a flatbed cylinder press, including operation, safety, and care while building skills using the equipment with support from a teaching artist. In pairs, choose a text (three to five words) and print your own small edition of posters on a Vandercook press. Continue reading “Letterpress 1: Printing Basics (March)”
with Camilo Aguirre
Saturdays: March 11, 18, 25; 1–2:30pm CT
As part of his art practice, Camilo Aguirre explores relationships between personal anecdotes and historical narratives to highlight the participation of every person in the weaving of the social fabric. Learn strategies and formats for autobiographical comics that feature your experience through written memoir and drawings. Each session will feature a topic—language of comics, memoir comics references, and script structure and approaches—and will begin with a presentation and examples followed by exercises designed to support participants in building their skills to write their own autobiographical comics. Sessions two and three will begin with friendly group conversation about works-in-progress. Demonstrations will be drawn digitally but participants are welcome to draw in any format they choose, from digital drawing on a tablet to pen/pencil on paper. This workshop is designed for those who would like instruction and guided practice in illustration and drawing. Intermediate-level illustrators are welcome as well. Continue reading “Autobiographical Comics”
with grace (ge) gilbert
Tuesdays: March 14, 21, 28; 5–6:30pm CT
In telling our own story, we tend to putter around trying to find the proper container, oftentimes bracing up against the limitations of genre. A “hybrid form,” however, is a form that borrows from multiple genres. Experimenting with multiple genres can help us discover how to tell the stories we’ve been meaning to tell. In this workshop, we will discuss how to use artifacts and found materials around the home (including personal photographs and documents) to create 2D collages and how to incorporate these collages into a hybrid narrative project. Learn simple tools and tricks for creating mixed-media collages, and ways to form relationships between text and image. In each session, learn by examining a sample hybrid text together as a group, followed by a demo by the teaching artist. Then, put your new skills to practice with generative prompts inspired by the sample examined earlier. Come away with a generous reading list, new collage skills, and the beginnings of a hybrid text/image project idea. Continue reading “Storytelling with Mixed Media Collage”
