News

Thank you for rallying for Partners in Print this season! Your goodwill and generosity during our latest Giving Tuesday campaign is galvanizing, motivating, and inspiring. Read on for just a fraction of what you made possible in 2023, with the promise of even more PiP-tastic progress in the new year.

The perennial upside of not having a physical space at the moment is that we always need to be extra creative with how we serve the community. PiP’s innovative Print Kit program powerfully shifts how people experience and access letterpress tools. As you’ll see, it unexpectedly broadened our reach and won letterpress many new inky and appreciative fans.

Your support of artists who put their presses into action for social justice is more important than ever. During Banned Books Week, October 1–7 2023, and always, PiP provides a platform for expression.

It’s back-to-old-school season for letterpress lovers, with a double dose of Print Futures, more Long-Distance Letterpress classes, and a deluge of fall letterpress conferences on the horizon. See you online or in-person this fall!

In mid-July we took our presses and wood type to Path with Art, whose programming fosters the restoration of individuals, groups, and society from the effects of trauma through arts engagement and community-building. In only a few hours, participants created a multitude of prints affirming the transformative power of art in their lives.

Books are a powerful tool to ignite conversations, challenge perspectives, and inspires change — which is why Estelita’s Library invited everyone to their annual Juneteenth Day of Freedom Story Swap and celebration in Seattle’s Central District on June 17, 2023. Visitors contributed to a social justice book exchange, enjoyed food and music, toured a new ADA electric van co-op, and letterpress printed messages of books, paz and amor with Partners in Print.

Book bans are drastically on the rise in many communities — even as a majority of Americans don’t support them. If the idea of books being removed from libraries and classrooms riles you up, learn ways to take grassroots action by joining the Free the Books campaign, organized by Jennifer Farrell — host of our free, virtual Shop Talk about print activism on October 7, 2023.

Lessons from Lockdown: Rethinking Book Art Education explored how the pandemic forced radical rethinking and innovation in the way book art is taught, learned, and experienced. Keynote speakers Jenny Wilkson (PiP) and Erin Beckloff (LEAD), along with other presenters, share insights and resources for online adaptations to book art education in these videos from the event.

Print Futures will soon be soliciting presentations for winter 2024, from emerging letterpress printers with an interesting project or experience in book arts, design, printmaking, or other related area. Speakers 18 years or older, especially those from traditionally underserved communities, are welcome to apply.

Partners in Print took presses, wood type, paper, and ink to Seattle Art Book Fair at Washington Hall on May 6 for a free, family-friendly poster printing event. Using wood type, participants composed messages starting with the phrase “Books are…” and then letterpress printed them on posters, which were displayed for all to see.