Portland Hosts the Third Annual Letterpress Printers’ Fair

Portland Hosts the Third Annual Letterpress Printers’ Fair

Saturday, August 14, 2010, 11am-5pm
At the intersection of SE 4th Street & SE Division Place, Portland Oregon, 97202
Admission: 11am-2pm – $2 and from 2-5pm – Free

Portland hosts it’s third annual Letterpress Printers’ Fair on Saturday, August 14th from 11-5pm, presented by Em Space Book Arts Center and key members of the local letterpress community. This outdoor event will be located at the intersection of SE 4th Street & SE Division Place, down the road from Em Space Book Arts Center and near the start of the Springwater Corridor Trail. It will feature vendors and suppliers of letterpress equipment, foundry type, cards and broadsides, ephemera, rarities and more. Many vendors will be offering ‘scratch and dent’ items and bargain prices. There is a $2 admission from 11am-2pm and is free from 2-5pm. There will also be demos and resources offered from various print shops.

In conjunction with the Portland Letterpress Printers’ Fair, CC Stern Type Foundry will be screening “Farewell: Etaoin Shrdlu,” a documentary about the last issue of the New York Times to be composed in the hot metal printing process. In addition there will be some other short films with a discussion to follow. This screening will be held Friday, August 13 from 7:30pm-9:00pm at Em Space Book Arts Center, 407 SE Ivon Street Portland, OR 97202. There is a suggested donation of $5.

Last year, the event, organized by Cayre Bye of Red Bat Press and Ivan D. Snyder of the AAPA, was a huge success drawing hundreds of people interested in finding old type, a table-top letterpress, or a beautifully printed keepsake.

Portland has a huge number of letterpress printers and many schools and organizations that offer letterpress workshops. The fine art of printing by hand is highly appreciated in the form of band posters, wedding invites, book and zine covers, cd packaging, stationery, fine art prints and so much more. You just can’t get the same look from a computer, and in the case of the table-top variety letterpress, you don’t even need a cord to plug in!

The letterpress scene in Portland is growing. In the last couple of years, Em Space Book Arts Center has set their roots in the community by offering artists access to rare equipment, Portland publishing staple, the IPRC, continues to offer low-cost, beginners letterpress courses, Oregon College of Art and Craft is expanding their campus and improving their facilities, and C.C. Stern Type Foundry’s new operative letterpress museum is well underway.

Participants of the fair will include: Participants of the fair include: 23 Sandy Gallery, Alisa Walton, American Amateur Press Association, Autumn Attic Press, Bartleby’s Letterpress Emporium/Letterary Press, Bedouin Books, Buzzworm Studios, CC Stern Type Foundry, Crack Press, Ecanto Press, Cathemeral Press, Em Space Book Arts Center, Gann Printing Co., Green Grass Press, Ilfant Press, Independent Publishing Resource Center, Ink in Tubes, Keeganmeegan Press & Bindery, Liber Apertus Press, May Day Press, Ms. Starry Art, Oregon College of Arts and Craft, Painted Tongue Studios, Power and Light Press, Reading Local, Red Bat Press, Rendij Studio, Scantron Press, Stumptown Printers, Tiger Food Press, Twin Raven Press, Weldon Teetz and more. Also printers and suppliers from around the US and abroad who cannot attend our event are sending us brochures and printed keepsakes.

About Em Space Book Arts Center:
Em space fosters collaborative art endeavors including idea exchange, exhibitions, and education. Em Space fills a gap in the arts community by providing space and rare equipment to artists and interested community members. Em Space aims to evolve awareness of book and letterpress arts within Portland and beyond while upholding the traditional crafts of book arts and letterpress.

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