This spring we welcomed Evelyn Davis-Walker for the Book Arts Residency. Evelyn is Associate Professor of Art Graphic Design at Valdosta State. During her residency Evelyn plans to “combine my love of letterpress printing and pop-up engineering into the form of a handmade book focusing on my passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, access and belonging.” The program included an artist talk on May 11th and workshop on May 18th.
Residency applications CLOSED for 2024
Central Print provides access to the printmaking studio for two weeks. The Resident will have exclusive use of The Printery Book Arts Lab and access to Central Print as needed. The studio will be made available for printing the Resident's proposed series with extended hours per request. Technical assistance and administrative services to facilitate the residency, a stipend, and honorarium will also be provided(see application for details). The Printery Book Arts Lab is a collaboration with The St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. It was established in 2019 in order to preserve and make available the high-quality letterpress equipment and type inventory of Kay Michael Kramer’s private press, formerly known as The Printery.
2024 Applications were due June 1, 2024.
Email to Marie Oberkirsch, marie@centralprint.org
Call 314-241-1346 for more information, equipment list available upon request
Location: Central Print, 2624 North 14th St., St. Louis, MO 63106
Three jurors participate in the application review process remotely and meet for group discussion on Zoom. One Resident is selected from the applications received for participation by a panel of jurors comprised of practicing artists, board members, and educators.
The residency is made possible thanks to the generous support of The Whitaker Foundation, The Trio Foundation of St. Louis, and in collaboration with The St. Louis Mercantile Library.
The Printery Book Arts Lab Resident 2023
Evelyn Davis-Walker is Associate Professor of Art Graphic Design at Valdosta State. During her residency Evelyn worked to “combine my love of letterpress printing and pop-up engineering into the form of a handmade book focusing on my passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, access and belonging.”
Storytelling is one of the most powerful forms of visual communication. As a professional graphic designer and professor of design and storytelling, Evelyn has extensive experience teaching people of all ages to communicate visually using images and type by designing brochures, posters, books, board games, etc. As Diversity Coordinator for the Art & Design Department, “I am keenly aware of the urgency in restoring and preserving equity and inclusion within the arts. The visibility of my role is particularly vital for our students at my university, Valdosta State, as it is precariously located in southern Georgia – 20 minutes north of the Florida boarder. Recent legislations passed in states such as Florida has limited or even stripped the rights of vulnerable populations that my students identify with. As an artist and educator, I feel it is my obligation to amplify underrepresented groups, (whether I am working with my non-profit clients or my college students) to ensure awareness and visibility is brought to society through my designs.”
The Printery Book Arts Lab Resident 2021
Leah Mackin, The Printery Book Arts Lab Resident for 2021 spent two weeks working in The Printery Book Arts Lab at Central Print on a publication/print series in response to the collections held by the St. Louis Mercantile Library. The Library’s collection aligns with her interest in waterways (both historical and contemporaneous) as an area of artistic research. Using metal type in abstract forms and as text, Leah explored a narrative that considers the physical and intellectual connections between Western/Central NY state where she lives and the St. Louis/Mississippi River community. Leah Mackin is a visual artist and educator who explores themes of reflection, response, and re-creation through performative publishing projects. Mackin holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Printmaking+Book Arts from The University of the Arts.
https://leahmackin.com/
https://www.instagram.com/leahmackin/
The Printery Book Arts Lab Resident 2020
Rachel Linn Shields, The Printery Book Arts Lab Resident for 2020 created a book including a letterpress transcription and translation of a few sections of a middle English poem called Layamon's Brut. The poem is nearly 1,000 years old, 16,096 lines long, and filled with more violence than most video games. Rachel is interested in questioning idealized interpretations of the Arthurian legends and introducing the complexities of this literary tradition to new readers. During her residency Rachel utilized “the tools of letterpress printing (which) allowed me to rethink the process of translation (and expand meaning into new dimensions)--and how the strategies of letterpress printing are not so different from creating a medieval manuscript.”
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English, St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO), Fall 2019 – present
M.F.A., Department of Creative Writing, University of Washington (Seattle, WA), 2014