Courses

The first semester is an intensive project-oriented curriculum of courses which intersect, reflecting the integration of media and ideas integral to book arts. Students take two studio courses, a generative visual vocabulary building and concept developing course called Color/Mark and a double (6-credit) studio, Concept/Image/Type, focusing primarily on the art of letterpress, typography, and lithography. They also take two colloquia, History of the Artist’s Book, and a course that includes creative writing, Text and Image. Bookbinding, a core course, continues through all four semesters. Finally in the first semester, students take an elective.

In contrast to the first semester, the major studio courses in the next three are tutorial, with students meeting faculty weekly and, in the final semester, also working under the supervision of a thesis committee selected by the student. The colloquia after the first semester are History of the Book (taught a couple of blocks away at the Library Company of Philadelphia) and Professional Practices. After the first semester, students take at least 3 credits of electives each semester. They also take an academic seminar on art and design each of those semester. One of the key features of these seminars is the opportunity for interaction among students from the various graduate programs: three Museum Studies programs, Industrial Design, and Art Education.

History of the Artist's Book class at the University of Pennsylvania

Laura Beyer, printing in Concept / Image / Type

The program requires 10.5 credits of electives, but tuition allows for 22.5 credits, and it is a rare student who, by the time he or she graduates, hasn’t taken considerably more than the minimum. Students have access to courses across the art and design spectrum as well as Liberal Arts.

Assistantships

The assistantship component of the financial aid award (for which all accepted applicants are automatically considered) carries with it a ten-hour-a-week work commitment. These assistantships, beyond their importance for the running of both the graduate and undergraduate programs, have considerable pedagogical value. The jobs are varied—including mounting shows, assisting the master printer in the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts, in out-reach for Philadelphia Center for the Book, as print shop monitors, designers, researchers, book conservators for the library, and, probably most important, as teaching assistants. These are primarily in undergraduate printmaking and book arts, but occasionally also other departments, such as Media Arts and Graphic Design.

Field trips

There are numerous field trips to museums, galleries, studios, and Special Collections in libraries. Philadelphia is a rich city in that area, as well as being close to New York, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.

Program Table at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Fair

Students have three program exhibitions. They participate in a Works-in-Progress exhibition in their 2nd and 3rd semesters.The culmination of the program is each student’s Thesis Exhibition at the end of the 4th semester. Students are also required to exhibit outside of school.

Each year a required two-day workshop for both first and second year students with a prominent artist is required. In the spring semester smaller optional workshops with artists in varying fields—e.g., Japanese woodblock printing, ink-jet fine printing, paper marbling, photographing one’s art work—are offered. There are extensive opportunities to experience various visitingartists and critics, not only in workshops, but also in lectures and critiques. Complementing lectures and demos offered by the program are those sponsored by other departments in the university.

The Von Hess Visiting Artist Program exposes students to important artists as they work in the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts. Visiting artists critique both of the Works-in-Progress Exhibitions required of students in the program.

Workshop with Amos Kennedy

A recently established fund in honor of Arthur Williams supports the coming of a prominent artist or critic in the field of book arts. Not only does this artist deliver a public lecture, he or she is the final critic for the graduating class. To date the artists have been Daniel Kelm, Susan King, Buzz Spector, Frances Jetter, and Lesley Dill.

See the list of past visiting artists and critics.

Critique with Joan Lyons