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University Libraries Receive Grant for Book Arts Mentoring Program

By Kimberly Singer

Washington University Libraries have been awarded a $12,000 grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. The grant will fund a fellowship that will establish a mentoring program for book arts students at Washington University in St. Louis. The fellowship, which takes place from June 2018 through January 2019, celebrates book arts at the university while promoting the Libraries’ rare books collection to the local St. Louis community and the book arts community nationally.

Julie Chen, “World without end”

Guided by mentors from the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, the fellows will be involved in exhibit planning and installation and learn how book arts collections are created and curated. An exhibit will be on display during the spring 2019 semester.

The program will also provide opportunities for students to attend book arts workshops at the Valley Book Festival in western Massachusetts. Ken Botnick, publication designer, printer, professor of art at Washington University, and director of the Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Studio for the Illustrated Book, is the organizer of the festival, which runs June 10-13, 2018.

The fellows also will teach two bookmaking workshops in fall 2018 at Olin Library. The workshops will include examples from Special Collections and will be free and open to the public.

Four students have been selected for the book arts fellowship: Lara Head, a master of fine arts student; Amanda Im, a junior majoring in communication design with a minor in Korean language and culture; Jee Kim, a senior majoring in communication design; and Madeleine Underwood, a senior majoring in communication design.

Cassie Brand, curator of the Rare Book Collections, and Garth Reese, (former) Head of Curation for Special Collections, will serve as library mentors. Professor Botnick and Michael Powell, lecturer in the Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Studio for the Illustrated Book, will serve as faculty mentors.