The Printing Museum is pleased to announce the Spring 2022 class of the Museum’s Artist-in-Residence Program. The artists will join the vibrant, creative community at the museum and use our studio spaces and teaching resources to create unique bodies of work.
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The Dictionary of Lost Words
Pip Williams | 384 pgs | Affirm Press
In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.
Esme is born into a world of words. She spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme begins to collect other words that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men.
Continue readingSamuel Bangs: Pioneer Printer
Samuel Bangs (ca. 1798–1854) was the first printer in Texas, west of the Mississippi, and three Mexican states. Trained in New England, he contributed greatly to the cultivation of a printing culture in the region. Documents printed under his oversight tell some of the story of a turbulent slice of history. Bangs faced a seemingly unending catalog of adversity over the years, from a seven-year imprisonment to being cheated out of his lands to being beset by highway robbers. Despite his tribulations, Bangs created technically impressive and lasting work. Several fine examples of his printed specimens are on display in the museum’s Texas Gallery.
Continue readingFrom the Director: Relocating The Printing Museum
I am excited to announce we have secured a new location for the museum, 3121 San Jacinto Street in Midtown. We are thrilled to join the many vibrant cultural institutions in the district such as the Buffalo Soldiers Museum, DiverseWorks, The Ensemble Theater, The MATCH, and Houston Community College. At 9,500 square feet, it offers us the chance to create a purpose-built facility that will support our programming goals well into the future. First, the new building will offer a better climate-controlled environment for our permanent collection galleries; second, the building will support greater access to our book arts studios, equipment and resources, which will increase the growing number of workshops and kickstart our studio membership and rental program for artists. Third, the building will be more ADA accessible and compliant, and galleries will feature more resources for the hearing and vision impaired. We’re energized by the possibilities this new space can present.
We have already started renovations which we expect to take six months. That means all in-person programs will be on hiatus this summer. We will continue to offer virtual exhibitions and public programs during our transition. We hope to welcome you to our grand reopening and 40th anniversary celebration in October. Stay tuned for this and other anniversary events!
A new space has new realities, which for us means increased occupancy expenses. In the coming months, we will launch our campaign for the future of The Printing Museum: Forward@40.
In the meantime we invite you to become a member or make a tax-deductible gift today.
We hope you will be able to experience the exciting new programming at the Museum on your next visit.
Brian Hodge
Executive Director
FORWARD @ 40
The FORWARD @ 40 campaign supports our relocation to Midtown which will give Houstonians and visitors from near and far greater access to our outstanding exhibition, studio, and education programs. We depend on the generosity of supporters like you to ignite creativity, foster hands-on self expression, and champion the history and power of print. Make an investment in your independent, community museum today, so thousands more can benefit.
Support us today for as little as $25. Thank you!
Announcing the Fall 2021 Artists-in-Residence
The Printing Museum is pleased to announce the Fall 2021 class of the Museum’s Artist-in-Residence Program. The artists will join the vibrant, creative community at the museum and use our studio spaces and teaching resources to create unique bodies of work.
Launched last fall, the Artists-in-Residence provides access to TPM studios, one-on-one instruction in book arts, mentorship, and a materials stipend. Each artist will create a unique body of work from the residency and donate an edition to the museum.
Continue readingLindsay Gary selected as 2021 Writer-in-Residence
2021 Writer-in-Residence
The Printing Museum is proud to have selected Lindsay Gary as it’s inaugural Writer-in-Residence for 2021. Museum staff will guide and support the publishing of Gary’s book proposal, tentatively titled “A Guide to Black Houston.”
The printed and virtual guidebook will feature historical and cultural sites central to the experiences of African American Houstonians and to Houston at-large. These include the first schools, cultural institutions, and churches for African Americans. Currently, there are very few projects that share a comprehensive story of the contributions of African Americans to the life of the city.
Continue readingJuneteenth
Celebrating freedoms, fighting for equality
Juneteenth — short for “June Nineteenth” — is an annual holiday in African American communities that commemorates the symbolic end of slavery in Texas. Also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day or Liberation Day, Juneteenth is observed primarily in local celebrations nationwide and also serves as an occasion to reflect on social, political, cultural, and economic progress of African Americans.
Continue readingThe Bookseller of Florence:
The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance
Ross King | 496 pgs | Atlantic Monthly Press
A thrilling chronicle set against the dramatic artistic and scientific advances and turmoil of the Renaissance in Florence, The Bookseller of Florence, by bestselling author Ross King, tells the forgotten story of “the king of the world’s booksellers,” Vespasiano da Bisticci.
Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop over four decades at a time when all books were made by hand. Works of art in their own right, his books were copied by the finest scribes and miniaturists. He counted the elite as his patrons: popes, kings, and princes across Europe. Vespasiano reached the height of his influence as the era’s most prolific purveyor of knowledge when a new invention appeared in the 1450s: the printed book. Within 30 years, his world was upended by this technological disruption that brought cheap books to the masses.
Continue readingBehold, one of the world’s smallest books
Published in Padua by the Salmin Brothers in 1896, the Galileo was until recently considered the smallest book printed from movable type, and it remains one of the most renowned miniature books in existence. The text is the Novantiqua, the famous 1615 letter sent by Galileo to his friend and patron Madama di Lorenza, in which he argues for the harmony of religion and science.
Continue readingHope Is Action
CONTEMPORARY LETTERPRESS PRINT EXCHANGE
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow” by Laura Bentley
“The future looks bright”
“The future looks bright” by Stephanie Carpenter
“You better hope…”
“You better hope…” by Rick Griffith
“Learn from yesterday…”
“Learn from yesterday…” by Veronica Vaughan
“Hope Perseveres”
“Hope Perseveres” by Tony Guadagnolo
“Hope is an Action”
“Hope is an Action” by Denise El-Hoss
The Printing Museum in collaboration with Thomas Printers and Partners in Print invited contemporary artists from around the world to participate in a print exchange with the theme Hope is Action. Over 50 artists submitted printed works inspired by this theme — diverse in style, content, and printing technique. What’s assembled is a survey of the breadth and depth of contemporary letterpress printing taking place around the world.
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