New Victor Hammer
Fellow
The Book Arts Center’s sixth
Victor Hammer Fellow was chosen in March from a pool of fifteen very qualified
applicants. For the first time, we had applicants from other countries,
including Korea, Russia, and Mexico!
Sarah Bryant is a candidate
for the MFA in the Book Arts Program at the University of Alabama, and
expects to complete her thesis project this summer. She is currently teaching
Introduction to Book Arts/Papermaking in Cortona, Italy, through the University
of Georgia’s study abroad program there. Sarah interned at the Press and
Letterfoundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler in Skaneateles, New
York, in the summers of 2006 and 2007, learning to cast type on the supercaster
under Michael’s watchful eye. As the proprietor of Big Jump Press, she
produces editions of letterpress printed artist’s books.
Concerning her approach
to teaching, Sarah says,
“Craft is at the heart of
Book Arts. A rigorous curriculum of practice and repetition is necessary
in order to develop students’ binding skills. But a Book Arts course should
be more than a series of binding demos, and students who are beginning
to study the book as an expressive form should not be limited to sewing
diagrams and paper grain exercises.
Books have evolved over thousands
of years to be vessels of information. In learning to create books, we
should not forget that content is the very reason for their existence.
While a teacher in the Book Arts must be able to train students in a high
level of craft, there is also an obligation to make students aware of the
links between content, structure and materiality. Encouraging students
to bring their own content to the structures they are learning enables
them to move beyond craft and think about book structures in a more comprehensive
way. It also changes the dynamics of a Book Arts classroom into a more
student-focused environment. ”
Sarah will teach one section
of Introduction to Hand Bookbinding each semester of the two-year fellowship,
as well as a third course of her choice each year in the spring semester.
The Victor Hammer Fellowship
was established in 1998 to benefit the College by offering courses in the
practice and history of the book arts. Designed to help emerging book artists
establish themselves in the larger book arts world, the Victor Hammer Fellowship
continues to attract excellent book artists from around the nation and
the world.
Susan Garretson Swartzburg
’60 Memorial Book Arts Lecture
The Wells College Book Arts
Center is pleased to announce that Martin Antonetti will present the 27th
Susan Garretson Swartzburg ’60 Memorial Book Arts Lecture, entitled “Arrighi’s
‘New Invention of Letters:’ Scribes, Printers, & Patrons in Renaissance
Rome.” The lecture will be given at 8:00 pm on Thursday, April 17th
in the auditorium of Stratton Hall. The event is free and open to the public;
a reception for the speaker will follow.
Ludovico degli Arrighi,
or Vicentino (1480?-1527?), printer, scriptor in the Papal Chancery, and
calligrapher of luxury manuscripts, was active in Rome in the early decades
of the 16 th century. His experience in calligraphy led him to create an
in?uential pamphlet on handwriting in 1522 called “La Operina,” which taught
italic type script in the chancery style. This work, a 32-page woodblock
printing, was the ?rst of several such publications. Fewer than ?fteen
manuscripts have been attributed to him, of which only two are signed.
An examination of a hitherto unknown illuminated manuscript of the works
of Petrarch, signed by Arrighi and bearing the date 1508, now adds substantially
to our knowledge of Arrighi's early days in Rome and alters some of our
basic assumptions about his professional life.
Martin Antonetti is the
curator of rare books in the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College,
where he also teaches courses in the history of the book and in contemporary
artist’s books for the Smith College Art Department. Antonetti has written
and lectured on many aspects of these ?elds including ?ne printing, the
evolution of letterforms, bookbinding, and book collecting. Before coming
to Smith College, he was librarian of the Grolier Club in New York City,
the country’s premiere organization for bibliophiles. Between 1986 and
1990, he was head of Special Collections at Mills College, where he regularly
taught courses in the history of books and printing. Antonetti is also
on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Rare Book School and is
currently vice-president for publications of the American Printing History
Association. He took his library degree from Columbia University where
he specialized in bibliography and special collections librarianship.
Summer Institute
2008
Check out the Summer Institute
page for information on our classes for the 2008 Summer Institute! We will
be offering courses in everything from Japanese wood block printing to
italics, kinetic book structures, letterpress printing, box making, font
design, and uncials during our three one-week sessions. Our classes are
filling up fast and space is limited, so get your registration in soon!
2008
Summer Institute Brochure (PDF)
Summer Institute
2009
Looking ahead to the future
and another summer of hands-on experience in the book arts, our confirmed
faculty for Summer Institute 2009 thus far include Carol Barton, Hedi Kyle,
Monique Lallier for binding; Steve Miller and Rachel Wiecking for printing;
and Nancy Culmone and Susan Skarsgard for lettering arts. Check back soon
to see who else will join our faculty for 2009.
Last updated 04/01/2008
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