Kickstart this: London Centre for Book Arts
Time to kickstart a brand new start! London Centre for Book Arts is reopening. In doing so the LCBA's founders aka Simon Goode (Wolverhampton, UK) and Ira Yonemura (Kagoshima, Japan) have launched a Kickstarter campaign.
LCBA was started by Goode and Yonemura (Kagoshima, Japan) back in 2012. The creatives aim to rebuild the artist-run open-access studio and education centre dedicated to all thing books.after Covid and create a new exhibition space dedicated to artist books and publishing.
"We started LCBA in 2012 with the goal of creating a space where artists, designers and the wider community could affordably access equipment, resources and expertise to create and edition books and publications – becoming the first and only centre of its kind in the UK. A space open to everyone, regardless of background, education, or experience" they note.
Based in Fish Island in east London, which was once home to a thriving print industry, the LCBA studios have become "a home to a thriving and tight-knit community of artists, designers, craftspeople, illustrators, writers, educators, self-publishers, hobbyists, and everyone in between."
LCBA regularly run events, host residencies, publish books, and run advice sessions and have hosted over 600 public workshops in nine years. Then the pandemic happened.
"Like many arts organisations and venues, the majority of our funding stream was wiped out overnight due to the pandemic. All workshops were cancelled and our open-access studio remained closed for most of 2020. Luckily, through a combination of support from our community, SPACE Studios, and London Borough of Tower Hamlets, we were able to keep the studio running with the hope that we would still be here to welcome everyone back when the time came. All of our workshops were cancelled and our open-access studio remained closed for most of 2020."
"After a difficult year, we’re happy to say that we're slowly but surely on track to fully reopening to the public. But before we can do that, we want to rebuild the studio to better suit the new realities of shared work spaces after Covid-19, and create a new exhibition space dedicated to artist books and artist publishing – and here's where we need your help."
LCBA Studios enlisted the help of local architects Studio Bark to help them make a few key changes to the layout of the studio so that they can safely accommodate a mix of visitors, workshop participants, and studio members on any given day.
"As well as creating a safe and accessible space for studio users and visitors alike, we want to build a new communal space within the studio for exhibitions and events, creating one of the very few exhibition spaces dedicated to showcasing artist books and publishing in the UK."
As noted any additional funding that exceeds our goal will go directly into our public programming, such as artist residencies, advice sessions, publishing collaborations, talks, exhibitions and other events.
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Tags/ books, letterpress, kickstarter, print
