Blog - MANCHESTER ARTISTS BOOK FAIR

MANCHESTER ARTISTS BOOK FAIR

Welcome and thank you to G F Smith

3/9/2015

MABF is feeling very lucky today, as G F Smith, the business that brings us a billion (well, maybe not quite that many, but it must be close...) different shades and weights of paper, joins with the book fair to provide paper and card for our bookmark flyers and for our mini-workshops. Shall we be restrained, shall we limit ourselves to a small range of colours? Shall we heck!

Thank you G F Smith, and we look forward to working with you.

Ten!

19/8/2015

Well would you look at that! Manchester Artists' Book Fair is ten this year, and so is Manchester Literature Festival! They're on in October too, wrapped around our event like a comforting shawl. If you're visiting the fair or exhibiting at it, either way you might like a few literary extras - however, their twitter feed @McrLitFest suggests that a lot of their events are selling fast, so waste no time in booking!

Manchester Literature Festival is 10
MLF celebrates 10 years with a programme packed with award-winning writers and performers including Melvyn Bragg, Joanne Harris, Jeanette Winterson, Michael Rosen, Sarah Hall, Robert Harris, Tracey Thorne and Kathryn Williams. The festival takes place 12-25 October; view the full programme and book tickets at manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk

Tables are filling up nicely

30/7/2015

Tables for this year's fair are filling up nicely, so don't wait too long if you're thinking of booking one. We're developing the usual mix of new and old exhibitors (which I like to think pleases everyone) and are working on the 'extras' - mini workshops, special exhibitions, demonstrations, that sort of thing. It's all beginning to be quite exciting!

Exhibitors only go on the website once they have found an image they're happy to use, so those on the 2015 exhibitor page at the moment form just a fraction of the total booked so far, but do go and have a look at what's on offer already.

And we're on twitter

15/7/2015

Yes, folks, we've joined the modern age and we're on twitter. The website will be tweaked to reflect that sometime (quite) soon, but meanwhile you can follow us at @mcrartbookfair

We're taking bookings!

14/7/2015

Manchester Artists' Book Fair is now open for bookings for this year's fair on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th October. If you would like to book a stand, there's a booking form link on the Home page, This Year's Fair page and here.

Opportunities up and (a little bit) down the country

28/4/2015

We might not be able to bring you information about this year's Manchester's artists' book fair as yet, but meanwhile There Are Others out there...

First up, a new fair:

Calling All Book Artists!

We are happy to announce that we are starting up an Artist’s Book Fair at West Studios in Chesterfield on the 6th and 7th of June 2015, and we need you!

West Studios is based at Chesterfield College and is a new and exciting creative development. We house 16 creative businesses in 4 large shared studio spaces, as well as offering a meeting room, exhibition space, gallery shop, retail space and drop-in studio. Please visit West Studios’ Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/WestS41

Our event space can hold up to 18 tables which will be available on a first come first served basis. The tables will measure approximately 6’x2’6” and will be provided with a chair, but please bring your own table covering. Fixing to the walls is not allowed, however in some areas things could be hung from the wall.

If you would like to take part in this year’s fair the fee will be £25 for a full table or £12 half a table, payable in advance. Applications to participate are open, and if you have any further questions please contact us at: weststudios@chesterfield.ac.uk or telephone 01246 500799.

Please visit our Chesterfield Artist Book Fair Facebook page, http://on.fb.me/1CUglwt

Secondly, a fair at the Baltic:

Call for Exhibitors: Artists’ Book Market at BALTIC, Gateshead, UK

Friday 10th & Saturday 11th July 2015, 10.00-17.00 BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead plays host to a national two day Artists’ Book Market. Submissions for tables are welcome from artists, bookmakers, small press publishers, artist’s groups, zine artists, bookbinders, trade and suppliers. Exhibitors’ stalls are 90 x 180 cm approx.

Prices for stalls are as follows:- Individual artist/imprint/collective: £60- College/university: £120 - Trade/supplier: £150

CALL FOR ARTIST’S BOOK INTERVENTIONS: An opportunity to propose ideas for talks, demonstrations, performances, screenings and other interventions that could last between 15 minutes – 2 hours. Selected interventions will receive a bursary of £100 as well as curatorial/technical support and documentation.

Deadline for submissions for exhibitors’ stalls and/or interventions is 18th May 2015.Selected applicants will be notified by 22 May 2015. To secure a stall the exhibitors’ fee must be paid within14 days from receipt of invoice.

For further details on how to apply and to download submission forms please go to: www.balticmill.com or contact the organiser, Theresa Easton:theresa_easton@yahoo.co.uk

So come on, all you lovely book artists, apply today!

Book arts residencies for 2015

17/3/2015

Apologies - I should have posted this information way back when, and most certainly by the beginning of this year. Hot Bed Press chose residencies at the 2014 fair as at all the previous fairs they have run, and this time indulged themselves with two - Old Bear Press and Jo Wilkinson.

Joanna Wilkinson intends to spend her residency exploring screenprinting and embossing, as well as her old love, the risograph. Old Bear Press members Heather Chou and Kathryn Poole, comprising two thirds of the group, are also having a lovely time with the two Hot Bed Press risograph machines, as well as experimenting with lead and wood in the form of letterpress. For more information, please look at the new Residencies page of this website, where you can follow links to their own sites.

work by Jo Wilkinson

Old Bear Press

It's been a while...

18/1/2015

Where does the time go? Instead of weeks it has been months since photos from the 2014 fair should have been uploaded (sorry about that), but at last they're there, and gradually being labelled so that people know who's who.

Looking at the photos of the marbling demonstration was a reminder of how much fun visitors and exhibitors alike had, taking their own turn at mixing colours and making marbling magic. So you might like to know that Sue Shaw will be running a marbling course at Hot Bed Press this spring. Places are limited, but if you would like to book yourself a place or find out more, try here.

And for anyone chasing down book arts fairs around the country, how about Counter, in Plymouth? It should be taking place this year at the end of October.

And don't forget the Zitouna Press talk at Hot Bed Press tomorrow

19/10/2014

25 YEARS OF ZITOUNA - EVENING TALK WITH RONI GROSS
Monday 20th October 2014
From: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Tomorrow - Monday 20th October - £10 (£5 Members) Based in New York, Zitouna have issued multiples for the past 25 years. Begun as a means of celebrating the secular holidays Halloween and Valentine’s Day these projects developed into explorations of the themes of love and death. The objects have taken many forms over the years: from constructed rolodex to broadsides, photographic puzzles, volvelles and flip books. Letterpress, offset and xerox prints, photography, watercolour and collage are some of the mediums employed. Many of the pieces are in the permanent collections of universities and museums (including Harvard, Yale, Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library).

Cost: £10.00 / £5.00 members -

No need to book, just arrive and pay on the door!

All over for 2014

19/10/2014

All the preparation, the frantic last minute tweaks of this and that, the problems, the rushing every which way - then the fair is there for a scant two days before it's all over, done and dusted for another year.

As ever, thank you to everyone who was involved in anyway - the volunteers from Hot Bed Press who made everything run so smoothly, the gallery staff, Duncan who designed the lovely new banners for us, Sue and Martin who demonstrated paper marbling and letterpress printing respectively, the visitors and of course the exhibitors who produced such a fantastic range of work for us all to enjoy.

Here's just a flavour of the fair - the rest of the photos will arrive on the site in the next few weeks. If you missed the whole thing this year, let's hope we'll see you next autumn.