Programs > Conference > 2010
Learning to Print, Teaching to Print
Washington, DC: October 15–17, 2010
NOTE: Download the Call for Proposals here.
Since the time of Gutenberg, the arts and techniques of printing have been passed down though a variety of means. This conference will explore the ways people learn to design, print, illustrate, bind, and make books and other printed matter—and how they are taught. The individual mentor or master, the role of guilds, apprenticeships, commercial training, professional and amateur organizations, formal academic programs, and the self-taught practitioner are among our interests. Presentations might also deal with the transfer of knowledge through print: using the work of other printers as models; type specimens; printers’ manuals; how-to books; instructive periodicals; and the building of personal, corporate, and institutional libraries on book arts. In addition, we might consider the transfer, by gift, purchase, or mere acquisition, of type, presses, and other tools from one printer to another. The focus will be both historical, examining the way in which methods and styles are consciously continued, and contemporary, looking at how people learn now in an era in which new technologies and aesthetics coexist with tradition. Particular attention will be paid to the increasing and important role of letterpress and book arts programs at art schools, colleges, and universities. The conference program will be as varied as the ways of teaching and learning printing; along with keynote addresses by a historian and a practitioner, we envision scholarly papers, panel discussions, pedagogical and hands-on workshops, demonstrations, specially arranged tours, and an exhibition. With its new M. A. program combining book history and book arts, the Corcoran, long one of Washington’s premier museums and art schools, is a the ideal venue for a conference on the theme of learning and teaching.
Further details are forthcoming. Be sure to check back.
APHA’s 35th Annual Conference, “Learning To Print, Teaching to Print,” meets in Washington, DC, October 15th–17th, 2010, at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Download the Call for Proposals here.
The Winter 2010 issue of the Newsletter is comprised of an invitation to the upcoming annual meeting; an overview of the 2010 annual conference; detailed reports on the recent 2009 conference; chapter activities from across the country; a plea for information on Ramage hand presses; a synopsis of a talk by Matthew Carter at the Type Directors Cub; a report on a conference in Munich concerned with the materiality of early printed books; obituaries of Ed Rondthaler and Charles M. Antin; and notes the appointment of a new editor. Download it in PDF form here.
The 2010 Annual Meeting will feature the presentation of our prestigious annual awards for distinguished
contributions “to the study, recording, preservation or dissemination of printing history.” The
2010 Individual Award will be presented to Johanna Drucker, prolific author, teacher, speaker and internationally
recognized authority in the book arts. The 2010 Institutional Award will go to the Center for Book Arts, for its encouragement of both
traditional printing and of the contemporary exploration of the book as art object. See a list of past APHA Award-winners and read some of their acceptance speeches here.
You'll read in the summer newsletter that from the fall issue 2009 (number 172) onwards the Newsletter will only be available in electronic form on this website. It will no longer be printed and mailed to members, a significant cost savings that may have an unexpected benefit: going electronic will make it possible for us to produce more newsletters each year. For the time being the design of the newsletter will remain the same, so those who wish to print it out will have the recognizable and familiar object to hold. Soon though we will reformat it somewhat for easier reading on your iPhone or Blackberry. Of course we will continue to archive the newsletter on the website, so that all back issues will be available. We are also investigating ways to feed the publication to interested subscribers.