I knew at the beginning of this trip that I would want to visit Philadelphia and the University of the Arts, which shares one of the few MFA concentrations in Book Arts in the country. I had also received a few suggestions about contacting the Philadelphia Center for the Book, and luckily, I found someone who has experience in both: Amanda D’Amico, graduate of the MFA program who now works at UArts’ offset facility *and* is also the President of the Philadelphia Center for the Book. We’re so glad that such a busy lady could show us around!
Amanda D'amico and her beloved Heidelberg
Unfortunately, we had a rather hectic time getting into Phila (what should have been a twenty minute drive turned into almost two hours…yeah…), and combined with the heat, arrived a bit frustrated and grumpy. (My deepest apologies Amanda!) but after some water and a bit of rest, Amanda showed us UArts’ facilities and I immediately got to geek out over the equipment.
one of the binding rooms
UArts has some really amazing printing facilities, which is no surprise if you know about the city’s international printmaking festival, Philagrafika.
the lithography print room
UArt’s MFA program has access to the undergraduate litho and screen printing facilities, as well as graduate letterpress and edition printing rooms, *and* a separate graduate bookbinding lounge area. Sweet!
graduate binding lounge
textile screenprints
displays in the letterpress room
We also talked about the Philadelphia Center for the Book, which began as a way for book artists to collective utilize the many book arts and archival resources in the area. While the PCB has no physical facility yet, they do meet on a regular basis to visit local collections, as well as take book arts workshops that are currently being hosted by UArts. Their members list is also a delightful collection of artists from the book arts world, local and nationally, and I’m sure the PCB will grow into its own under Amanda’s leadership.
Amanda, thank you so much for showing us around and talking to us — I wish we could have stayed in Philly longer! Next time (when it’s not so hot, perhaps. :)
No surprise! Amanda D’Amico is wicked decent. As is UArts…glad you had such a great time!