NEW CHAPTERS NOW OFFICIAL
Three new chapters of the Guild have now been officially formed, the Rocky Mountain Chapter , California Chapter, and the Southeast Chapter. To become official, a chapter must have 20 or more members; both of these chapters have more than 30 members, with more joining all the time.
The Rocky Mountain Chapter draws its membership from a huge area, taking in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Pamela Barrios, in Provo, Utah is the president; Martha Little, in Santa Fe, NM is the editor of their Newsletter.
The California Chapter met on August 27 at Mel Kavins Kater-Craft Bookbinders in Pico Rivera, CA and elected Ruth-Ann Rohman as their first president.
The Formation of the Southeast Chapter was announced by Paula Gourley at the General Meeting of the Guild following the Standards Seimnar in Tuscaloosa, September 30, 1995.
This brings the total of chapters to nine and it is expected that the dissemination of information among the various chapters will help us all to keep abreast of activities around the country and that chapters will trade exhibitions, workshops, lecturers... All chapter chairmen will receive the newsletters of other chapters to help in the process.
STANDARDS SCHOLARSHIPS
Three scholarships for the Seminar in Tuscaloosa were awarded this year. They have gone to Steven Loew, in Baltimore, Md., Nysa Wong Kline, in San Francisco, and Connie Wasny, in Kentucky.
EXHIBITIONS
PAPER, the next exhibition of the Guild now has all its sites set and will be CLOSING during our next Standards Seminar in California. It will open at Scripps College in late August and run through the end of Standards. If everything works out we will have a closing reception at Scripps. Other sites, in order are: The University of Rochester, Columbia College (Chicago), and Ohio University. The Lone Star Chapter is also working on finding a site. Peter and Donna Thomass book PAPER, which is being featured in this exhibition, has all but sold out with three copies remaining available. 33 copies have been sold to binders of very diverse backgrounds. Due to the scheduling change, the books will be due MAY 1, 1996 to allow sufficient time for catalog production. The estimated budget for this exhibition is $7000 of which $1000 has already been donated. Fundraising efforts are also conmencing at this time. In addition to the catalog, the exhibition will be opening on the Internet at the same time, allowing it to reach a much wider audience than ever before.
The New England Chapters exhibition Created Space closed at Syracuse University on October 15. The exhibition was incredibly well received both by the general public and members of the University community. All foundation classes in the Visual and Performing Arts School toured the exhibit and now, freshly inspired, are beginning work on their projects, all of which have as a part of them, the book. The interest created in the book arts by this exhibit is also leading to the formation of an informal book arts group on campus and in the community.
INTERNET NEWS
The presence of the book arts on the internet continues to grow. Book_Arts-L has passed the 500 subscriber mark, many of them practitioners of the book arts and Guild members. Peter Verheyen who started the list in July of 94 and continues to maintain it has many book arts related links on his homepage which, along with Walter Henry's CoOL (Conservation OnLine) contains the list archives and back issues of the Guild Newsletter, membership, publications and chapter information. Peter has also established a book arts gallery to which list subscribers submit images. To subscribe simply send a message to listserv@listserv.syr.edu. The message should read subscribe book_arts-l Your Name. Thats all there is to it. To access the list via the web connect to either http://web.syr.edu/~pdverhey or htp://palimpsest.stanford.edu. The two locations are connected both ways, so one will get you to the other. CBBAG has also established a very nice presence on the web and is to be congratulated. They can be reached through the "Bookish Links" section. Also present are most of the book arts programs as well as printmaking, letterpress and book collecting sites.
As the virtual book arts continue to grow and flourish, much of this work is beginning to become overwhelming, especially with the other tasks of exhibitions planning, library school, work, binding projects (ie exhibits), and oh, home life. If anyone is familiar with computers and html and interested in becoming involved they should send me a message at pdverhey@mailbox.syr.edu.