Category: Third Thursday

Edible Books! with Mary Baughman via Facebook Live

Thursday, March 19th, 7-8pm

Due to concerns for public health, this program will be broadcast only.
It will be live on the ABAC Facebook page.

 

Half Price Books, host of the Austin Edible Book Festival since 2014, has just announced that this year, the April 1st event is canceled…. However, Edible Book Lovers still have a chance to celebrate this weird art form.

Edible Book Festivals around the world celebrate books, humor, and imagination through the creation of dishes inspired by books and puns. Edible Book Festivals are fun and silly. Right now fun, silliness, and creativity are just what the Dr. ordered.

Are you hungry to learn more about Edible Book Festivals? During the Facebook Event to be broadcast from Austin Book Arts Center, admire inspiring images of past Edible Book Festival entries. Imagine the taste of materials you can use to make an edible book. Learn tips to prepare Edible Books with ingredients you already have at home.

Using a variety of delicious materials, Mary Baughman has created at least one yummy book for each of Austin’s past 17 Edible Book Festivals. Mary conserved inedible books at the University of Texas Ransom Center for 40 years, and now Mary serves up information about Austin Book Arts Center where everyone can have fun and learn about all sorts of book arts.

This event is part of ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly happenings are free and open to the public.

Cartonera Book Publishing

Thursday, February 20th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Artist Presentation
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

Join us to hear a brief history of the Latin American cartonera movement, from cardboard collectors to artists and writers who create cartoneras. See beautiful samples from Mexico and learn how folks of any age can publish cartoneras.

Jesse Gainer is a former elementary teacher who now works as an associate professor of literacy education at Texas State. He is interested in how young children develop language, literacy, and critical thinking, and ways teachers can bridge school-based instruction to children’s at-home languages and cultures.

Linda Anderson, a retired elementary teacher, currently conducts classes for artists and educators at ABAC. Linda will show examples of cartonera books children and adults can use for publishing their writing.

This event is part of ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly happenings are free and open to the public.

Heavy Prose with Jim Trainer

Thursday, January 16th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Jim Trainer Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

Self-publisher, personal journalist, singer-songwriter, storyteller, and poet Jim Trainer will discuss his creative process and the importance of publishing as the completion of that process. From composition to printing and binding to performing live, the written word is rife with potential better served, and even shaped, at the street level and when heard, read, and shared. Jim will touch on personal journalism, the why of art and creation, and ultimately how poetry and your personal vantage point as a writer will often ring truer than the hard news.

Jim Trainer will perform and share his work as part of the discussion.

This event is part of ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly happenings are free and open to the public.

Letterpress Play: Fostering PLAY for All!

Thursday, December 19th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Kyle Hawley Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

Kyle Hawley is a letterpress printer and creator of LetterpressPLAY. Kyle’s designs inspire curiosity and wonder through zero waste paper toys, cards, posters and more!

Letterpress PLAY’s paper products employ a full range of printing methods using lead or wood type, blocks, or polymer plates and are printed by hand or with machines dating back to the Industrial Revolution. Experience Kyle’s handmade paper toys!

More information may be found here!

Homemade cookies and hot chocolate by Laura Agnew.

This event is part of ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly happenings are free and open to the public.

How Will I Bind This Artist Book?

Thursday, November 21st, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Olivia Primanis Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

Join us for a hands-on exploration of a variety of materials used in bookbinding for centuries; and how materials and structure change the way a book moves when used, feels in the hand, and determine the way readers experience the work. Our guest artist, Olivia Primanis, asks, “which binding will create physical qualities that flow with the narrative of Christopher Hynes’ artist book: “Threads of Life: Of Birds and Clouds”.

Attendees are invited to bring bindings from their own collections to share with the group.

Olivia Primanis started binding in the mid-1970s during an arts and crafts revival of letterpress printing, bookbinding and an exploration of art possibilities in books. “Customers often challenged me to figure out a way to bind the various piles of contemporary papers and photos they brought to my bookbinding shop in Pittsburgh, Pa.” At the same time libraries were trying to figure out what to do with brittle books, which invigorated the fields of library preservation and book conservation. “Libraries captivated me and in recent decades, I repaired books from the 16th c to the 21st century, mainly at the Ransom Center, UT. One of my great pleasures is experiencing how each binding structure effects how a book’s ‘mechanics’ work!”

This event is part of ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly happenings are free and open to the public.

The Good Life: Letterpress

Thursday, October 17th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Kyle Schlesinger Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments & Socializing

You may have heard that printing is good for you, but nobody really talks about why. Like yoga, printing is beneficial to your mind, body, and even spirit. It is physically satisfying, mentally engaging, and repetitive enough to bring on a tranquil feeling. In a world mediated by technology we don’t understand, it is empowering to work with machines we can apprehend visually and mechanically. Moreover, letterpress is good for the environment, and it fosters community, teamwork, creativity, and a special view of history. Want to live the good life? Come to Austin Book Arts Center and start printing.

Kyle Schlesinger is a printer with twenty years’ experience. He is also the proprietor of Cuneiform Press, a literary arts organization based in Austin.

This event is part of ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly happenings are free and open to the public.

Paper + Weaving

Thursday, September 19th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Rebecca Switzer Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments, Socialize!

Rebecca Switzer will display and discuss the collection of paper weavings that she created during a workshop with Helen Hiebert: Weaving Through Winter*: an online sharing challenge of 30 weavings in 30 days. Discover the basics of paper weaving, and observe methods to combine weaving with pop-up book techniques and paper casting to make paper sculpture.

*Information about the weaving workshop can be found at https://helenhiebertstudio.com/

This event is part of ABAC’s new Third Thursday series. For each event, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly events are free and open to the public.

Spacey Repurposed Book Sculpture

Thursday, August 15th, 7-9pm

7-8pm: Lee Steiner Presents
8-9pm: Light Refreshments, Socialize!

Book artist Lee Steiner will demonstrate making space-y, far-out dioramas from discarded books. Lee will show cutting, folding, and construction techniques she uses to transform thrift shop books into a variety of out-of-this world sculptural elements that include cut-circle orbs, book sunbursts, folded UFOs, lunar cylinders, and a DIY spaceship!

This event is part of ABAC’s new Third Thursday series. For each event, we invite a special presenter to provide an educational demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly events are free and open to the public.

Sake and Suminagashi

Thursday, July 18th, 7-9pm

7pm & 8pm: Suminagashi Demonstrations
7-9pm: Drink Sake, Write a Haiku, Socialize!

Come learn about the ancient art of suminagashi, or Japanese paper marbling, with guest presenter Shawn Mauser, and enjoy delicious sake from our neighbors at Texas Sake Co. Tours of Texas Sake Co will occur throughout the evening. You can even type a Haiku!

This event is part of ABAC’s new Third Thursday series. For each event, we’ve invited a special presenter to provide a demonstration during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly events are free and open to the public.

Between the Lines and Beneath the Spines

Thursday, June 20th, 7-10pm

7-8pm: Presentation
8-10pm: Refreshments and socializing

Meet other book lovers! Have fun! Learn something new!

As part of ABAC’s new Third Thursday series, come hear Book Conservator, and Book Whisperer, Mary Baughman share secrets told to her by ancient and new books, at the Ransom Center, and around the world over the last 60 years. Bring your own books and Mary will interpret their secrets. Surprise guests.

This event launches ABAC’s Third Thursday series. For each event, we’ve invited a special presenter to provide a hands-on, interactive demo during the first hour. A reception follows. These family-friendly events are free and open to the public.