Book Art Gives Back

College Book Art Association is delighted to announce a new community initiative. Book Art Gives Back is a day for the book art community to come together to honor the communities in which we live and work, while doing activities that provide support where it is needed.

Our inaugural theme is One Day for Books, and our launch date is April 16, 2016.

The idea for Book Art Gives Back grew out of CBAA’s desire to have more events for our members, particularly those that provide opportunities for members who live near each other to spend time with each other; adding an activity that benefits our communities provides the perfect reason to get together.

Here are some ideas of activities your community could sponsor:

• bring young people to your campus to make books in the studios
  
• print broadsides of poetry by newly emerging readers & writers, as identified by adult or second-language literacy programs
• bind blank journals for prison writing groups
  
• hold a printing or binding workshop for people in the transgender community to create journals for their artwork
• host a print-a-thon around an urgent community issue, then flier your community with the posters
• work with veterans to bring them to campus to create art
  
• make special paper for a community printmaking program or elementary art class
  
• hold a book drive for a local institution (classroom, hospital ward, veterans home)
  

CBAA will list all events on our website. We hope to be live tweeting, blogging and possibly connecting groups through live streams.

Public libraries and public schools, particularly in underserved parts of the community, are especially likely to help with ideas. Materials should come from donations, your program offcuts, overages and other sources.

Book Art Gives Back is not a day to highlight your institution, recruit students, seek donations or otherwise promote your own work. It is a day to explore your community to identify activities that promote social justice and community awareness in a spirit of partnership and joining together.

Be sure to consider all aspects of what you intend to do. For instance, bringing groups to campus may require arranging transportation or on-site child-care. Journals for prison writing groups may have limitations about size, paper, etc. Fliers should not create litter.

Please let us know what you are planning for One Day for Books. We will post ideas on the CBAA Facebook page. Above all, have fun! Creating community is one of the most critical ways we as artists can move beyond our own studios.

Contact: programs1@collegebookart.org