Community Arts Center to host closing reception for "Art of the Book" exhibit Aug. 31

HANCOCK -- The Copper Country Community Arts Center has been hosting "The Art of the Book, 17 Artists from Minnesota Center for Book Arts" in the Kerredge Gallery through the month of August. A closing reception will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. TOMORROW, Friday, Aug. 31.

Copper Country Community Arts Center staff members, from left, Fred Knoch, Dan Schneider and Bonnie Loukus learn about letterpress printing from Sara Parr, right, artist and Adult Programs director at Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis. Sara will be at the Arts Center's Aug. 31 closing reception for "The Art of the Book, 17 Artists from Minnesota Center for Book Arts" along with Richard Stephens, one of the artists in the exhibition. She will give a brief gallery talk. (Photo courtesy Copper Country Community Arts Center)

"The Art of the Book" is a group exhibition of prints and artist books from the current members of the Artist Cooperative at Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA). The seventeen artists represent a variety of artistic perspectives, experience levels, and talents in the work they create at MCBA. The work presented in this new exhibition surveys this range, giving viewers a sense of the creative community that is MCBA.

Employing the traditional crafts of papermaking, letterpress printing and bookbinding as well as digital and modern techniques of publishing, the artists of the MCBA Co-op explore their ideas within the framework of the artist book form. Containing the elements of narrative, sequence, and reproduction of multiple originals, the question "What is an artist book?" has seemingly infinite answers. Each artist answers this question differently, creating a lively conversation through form, technique, and media used.

The Minnesota Center for Book Arts has played an important role for the Community Arts Center as it proceeds with development of its own letterpress studio and book arts programming. Last November CCCAC staff -- Bonnie Loukus, assistant director and Letterpress Studio manager; Cynthia Coté, executive director; Dan Schneider, printer in training and pressman; and Fred Knoch, CCCAC Board member attended an intensive two and a half day tutorial with five MBCA staff. They came back to Hancock invigorated with information and a connection to this nationally renowned organization.

Preparing to ink up type set in a chase on a Vandercook press. (Photo courtesy Copper Country Community Arts Center)

This exhibition is supported be a grant from the Laura Jane Musser Fund and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Copper Country Community Arts Center is located at 126 Quincy Street in Hancock. For more information call (906) 482-2333 or email
ccarts@coppercountryarts.com or visit www.facebook.com/CCCAC.