The Southern Poverty Law Center has created a new set of campus resources to counter the alt-right movement.
SPLC releases campus guide to countering ‘alt-right’ – With college students returning to class in the coming weeks, the SPLC released a new guide today that advises them on how to respond when speakers associated with the growing white nationalist, or “alt-right,” movement, appear on campus.
Thursday, September 7: Behind the Archives Door: Collecting Incunabula. David Wertheimer, an avid collector of early printed books and a Director at the Gates Foundation, will share his story of collecting. Many of the books that he owns, all printed before 1502, will be available for viewing. 4:00–5:00 p.m. light refreshments and an informal lecture. Archives & Special Collections Seminar room.
“TheProposal” (2012) Artist Book by Clarissa Sligh
Join us for a conversation with visual artist and social activist Clarissa Sligh. For over 30 years, Sligh has woven together the cultural, historical, personal and political to explore concepts of memory and transmutation, and perceptions of boundaries and identity: themes that have roots in her own experiences. Her photo-text images, artists’ books and installations have been exhibited in places such as The Museum of Modern Art and the Jewish Museum, New York, NY, Walker Art Center and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN, The National Gallery of Art and Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National African American Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. The Archives & Special Collections holds six of Sligh’s artists’ books, which will be available for viewing.
Two books on view here in the Equal Justice exhibition.
An interesting podcast to listen to: Facing America’s History of Racial Violence
Clarissa is joined by Kim Purser, an artist, poet and teacher she met while at the Penland School of Crafts in the mid-nineties. Kim is a photographer and book artist and has worked with Clarissa on many projects. She is currently employed as a clinical director working with young people and professionals at Eliada Homes in Asheville. In 2005, she taught Clarissa how to fold cranes and has been helping her fold cranes ever since. Her academic degrees include the BA, BFA, MA, and MSW. 5:30–7:00 p.m. (Reception outside the Archives & Special Collections, 5:30–6:00 p.m.) Talk and questions 6:00–7:00 p.m., in the Archives & Special Collections Seminar Room, Collins Library.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
4:30–6:30 p.m.
(Informal Remarks by Mare at 5:30 p.m.)
Collins Library
August 21, 2017 – January 19, 2018.
Mare Made, spans over 4 decades of the work of local artist Mare Blocker. Teacher, mentor, writer, illustrator, printer and book artist, Mare Blocker’s work incorporates wit, humor, personal reflection and commentary about our world using a variety of techniques, formats and materials. In her own words: “In 1979, I made my first trip to the Special Collections Library at the University of Washington, which literally, changed the pathway of my life. I realized that one form, the book, could encompass my interdisciplinary passions. This was my epiphany, and I have been a book artist 
since. I purchased my first printing press, a Vandercook 219 and founded the MKimberly Press in 1984. Teaching affords me the opportunity to print with my students, while teaching them to print. Our exchanges have informed my work, and added another layer to my interdisciplinary practice. I like to think of the lab as a contemporary medieval workshop. When everyone is working, and the presses are running, there is a feeling of community that is magical. Nothing can prepare you for that first proof, that alchemical moment of turning lead into words on a finely printed page. I feel honored to be able to pass this tradition on.”
Collins Library is honored to showcase the career of Mare Blocker in this retrospective exhibition that runs through January showcasing her early work as well as the most recent project My Beloved Community Dictionary Project. For this project Mare invited 200 of her closet friends to contribute a 6 x 8 linoleum block of a single word that will be woven together to form a community quilt of words. According to Mare, “I have always been drawn to illustrated dictionaries. I love their little pictures, charts and lists of cities and places. I’ve been contemplating a dictionary project for years, and now that I have my power press up and running smoothly, it’s time to jump into it.” Mare received her M.F.A., University of Idaho, 2006 and her B.F.A, in Ceramic Sculpture, University of Washington, 1982. She is a member of the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University and serves as an Assistant Professor of Art and Design. She teaches classes in the art of the book and printmaking and was instrumental in established the Thornily Printing Center at PLU last spring. She is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades and you can read more about her work by visiting her blog site.
The Collins Memorial Library search tool Primo is getting an upgrade in early August as part of a collaborative regional effort by the Orbis Cascade Alliance, the Pacific Northwest consortium of academic libraries that also delivers the popular resource sharing program Summit. The library’s Primo search box on the library home page will have a new look based on feedback from focus groups.
Benefits of the new search tool include:
object n. object v. by Diane Jacobs. (http://23sandy.com)
Diane Jacobs has been making artist’s books under her imprint Scantron Press for 20 years. Her work is held in distinguished collections including The Getty Museum, SFMOMA, and the Walker Art Center, among others. She holds an MFA in printmaking from San Francisco State University and has taught book arts and letterpress printing in the Bay Area, at the Oregon College of Art & Craft, and in the Women’s Studio Workshop’s own Summer Art Institute.
Velma Bolyard is a fiber, paper and book artist working with mostly locally gathered materials for textile, paper, and book making. She recently retired from 25 years of teaching special education in alternative public school settings. Her passion is to make art that explores environment and the connection to place, and teach others technique to inspire them to push their own work. Currently she is exploring the properties and personality of flax/linen and milkweed and is working on a larger project, Hortus Siccus about plants and place. She writes a blog, Wake Robin about her work and life. Velma will discuss her work as a papermaker and artist and share examples of her work.
The evening of June 8, 2017 was a fine one at the Collins Library. Artists, friends, librarians, and other interested visitors came for the reception and awards announcements for the 7th annual Puget Sound Book Artists exhibition—Northwest Musings. There was delightful food, gentle harp music and, of course, the 47 beautiful handmade books. Three awards were presented this year: the Curators’ Award, the Collins Memorial Library Award, and the Award of Excellence. All of the jurors who selected the winners mentioned the difficulty of choosing a single work from so many excellent entries. The reasons for each award choice are detailed below. We congratulate the winners and, in fact, all who worked hard to make this exhibit a success.
Patricia Chupa – Thuja Plicata
Curators Award
Patricia Chupa – Thuja Plicata
Structure/Medium/Materials: Mache & painted paper on a cardboard armature; Woven paper; Feathers, beads, twig, lichen, duff, wasp paper, ceramic button; Wood board; Book boxes housing post-bound & leather/paper-bound journals
Created: 2017
The great diversity of materials, techniques and forms used in the works in this show truly impressed our team of curators. The artists thoughtfully explored the stated theme of the exhibit “Northwest Musings”, calling on their individual memories and their knowledge of history and sense of place to give form to their books.
As a team we struggled with choosing our single award winner because there was such a richness of presentations. Ultimately we decided on Patricia Chupa’s work “Thuja Plicata”. It is a complex piece that at first glance evokes the very nature of the Pacific Northwest with the two images of a strong tree and a traditional conical woven rain hat. Both of these images allude to protection, shelter, stability, and Pacific Northwest history. A closer look reveals that it is two small books that are “protected” by the tree and hat, and that each book is a journal containing drawings, personal observations and stories. One journal is actually placed within the tree; the other at a short distance from it. Immediately there is an implied dialogue between the two and a sense that the whole work is a tribute to a cherished relationship.
Thus, what is highly personal–the journals– and what is archetypal symbol–Thuja Plicata–merge into one unique book that provides us with a feeling of exploration and discovery.
Curators: Jan Ward, Dorothy McCuistion, Sally Alger, Bonnie Larson
MalPina Chan – 46.79°N 121.74°W: Mapping the Glaciers of Mt. Rainier.
Collins Award
MalPina Chan – 46.79°N 121.74°W: Mapping the Glaciers of Mt. Rainier.
Structure/Medium/Materials: Turkish Map Binding, Arches Text Wove Japanese Kozo-shi, Archival inks
Created: 2017
Our judges had a hard time choosing, because there were so many beautiful works. The PSBA members are amazingly talented. Our final decision came down to which book was most applicable to classes on the University of Puget Sound campus, and we quickly thought of several specific classes that could use MalPina Chan’s 46.79°N 121.74°W: Mapping the Glaciers of Mt. Rainier. Mapping the Glaciers engages the place and space of Mt. Rainier in the Pacific Northwest landscape and imagination. This book entices the viewer with a Turkish Map Fold construction that opens up to reveal a map and handwriting from Abby Williams Hill. The detail of adding maps to the back side of the folds completes the charm. Mapping the Glaciers is an evocative and inventive representation of one of Washington’s iconic natural features, recognizable by its persistently glaciated peak. Using an old map of the mountain’s glaciers, the artist forces us to address the centrality of the mountain. At the same time, the older map raises questions about climate change in the viewer’s mind: where are the glaciers today? The map itself is framed on both sides with excerpts from the diary of Abby Williams Hill, an artist and progressive thinker who herself was deeply engaged with notions of place and the Mountain. The juxtaposition of map and words from the early twentieth century invites us to explore our own relationship to Mt. Rainier. This work situates its viewer in a variety of ways, through its mingling of topography with the personal writings of Abby Williams Hill, and invites questions about how our experiences with the natural world both shape and are shaped by it. We envision Mapping the Glaciers engaging students and researchers working with the Hill Collection, focusing on our local region, and in courses from multiple disciplines.
– Peggy Burge. Coordinator of Teaching, Learning and Digital Humanities
– Katy Curtis, Humanities Librarian
– Hilary Robbeloth, Systems and Discovery Librarian.
Suze Woolf, Pine Beetle Book, Vol III: Bug Ruts
Award of Excellence
Suze Woolf
Pine Beetle Book, Vol III: Bug Ruts
Structure/Medium/Materials: Pine-beetle-bored bark in epoxy resin, laser-cut iron-oxide-dyed felt pages, wire-edge-bound, wooden “worry” beads
Created: 2016
Juror’s Statement:
I have had the wonderful opportunity to view the PSBA juried members’ exhibition over the past seven years and have to say that each year the exhibition has gotten stronger. This year, fine bindings, evocative imagery and sculptural, organic qualities are prevalent in the artist books that are exhibited in the Collins Library. Imagery and meaning is tied in with craft through a variety of scales and diversity of themes related to the Pacific Northwest. Various structures include Turkish map folds, flag accordions, as well as stab–bound, cloth-bound, and piano–hinged books. Imagery is produced through wide means, including photography, stamps, screenprint, digital techniques, and dying.
It was very difficult to choose the award of excellence. However, I found myself continuing to go back to a work where the materials were an integrated whole, where form and meaning were united. Suze Woolf’s Pine Beetle Book, Vol III: Bug Ruts is part of her related series of books that reference bug trails in the woods. This shaped book is welcoming, the materials a combination of warm browns.
The exposed binding consists of brown threads that wrap around metal pins; threads are left to trail off, echoing the linear trails seen on the felt interior pages. Worry beads are attached to the ends of the threads, which add weight and keep the threads separated.
Bug Ruts feels good in the hands. The cover is a piece of organically shaped tree bark that has been bore into by beetles, then covered in clear resin. The uneven resin suggests water or tree sap. On the verso, the rough texture of bark acts as the endsheets, quite visually different than the energetic line veining on the cover. The organic edges of the cover and leafs allow one to wrap their fingers around them, as one might with a worry stone.
The shape of the front and back covers differ; in between there is a slow transformation of the shape of the pages, an echo of the exterior. Flexible felt pages are contained within the book. Rust dye is used on the soft pages to mark beetles’ tracks. Gestural in quality, these markings are evidence of the insect’s path. The thick pages add a sense of solidity that combines with the softness of the felt material. The pages turn easily.
Suze Woolf has preserved the beetle’s journey, capturing a part of the larger whole of our ecosystem. Time, nature, and movement are captured in this satisfying artist book.
Juror: Janet Marcavage, Printmaker and Professor at The University of Puget Sound
Katharine Etsell and her father, in front of her award winning work
Collins Library is pleased to bestow the 2017 Senior Art Award to Katharine Etsell for her screen-print series that highlights the Port of Tacoma.
The selection committee offers these remarks associated with her work:
We selected an artist whose work celebrates our local community and brings forth two central concepts: local pride and global connections. Katharine’s work focuses on a cornerstone of Tacoma that may often be overlooked and underappreciated by the modern community surrounding it. The images highlight structures of industry surrounded by an unsurpassed natural beauty. The prints evoke a sense of history and nostalgia reminding the viewer of the unique location and geography of Tacoma and the part it has played and continues to play in the global economy. Katharine’s screen-print series invites us to look anew at this integral part of Tacoma’s history, landscape and present day economy. Her decision to use screen print, a technique that requires careful attention to detail, planning and patience, persuasively reinforces the craft and expertise required to build and maintain an industrial infrastructure.
We are proud to have these prints grace the walls of the Collins Library and share the pride we all have in our local community.
Congratulations Katharine!
Containers II (Screenprint) 2017
Artist Statement:
Katharine Etsell
This screenprint series highlights the Port of Tacoma, an area that represents a significant piece of both a local and global economy. Though vital, it often remains viewed at a distance by community members and passersby alike. The Port is a massive swath of concrete land; by focusing on its infrastructure up close, the series points out the repeated entities that bring life and movement to
a seemingly static area—large ships bearing containers of goods from faraway places, the waters of the Sound that they travel through, and the cranes that lift shipping containers up and onto land, to be distributed by car and rail.
Each color of the print was applied singularly. Layering the image methodically
and slowly embraces a relatively analog process in today’s digital age; my
process parallels the antiquated feelings of a bygone age that one finds at the
Port of Tacoma. The rusting truss bridges and miles of old railroad that intersect
the Port are reminiscent of a forgotten industrial age, and yet they are still part of
a relevant and vital economy. In building each layer, keen attention was given to
the choices of form and color. By working with a limited palette for each
respective image, a distinct mood is created to evoke a unique sense of Tacoma.
Each composition is a window into a small part of the Port, showing up close the
structures and waters normally seen only from far away, and giving a greater
sense of proximity to the global economy.
There is nostalgia in focusing solely on the Port as landmark of Tacoma. It
exudes a sense of place and time, geographically and historically. While today its
dominant neighbor to the north, Seattle, often overshadows Tacoma, originally it
was a true “city of destiny” for railroad activity and shipping, as it was chosen as
the western stopping point for the first Transcontinental Railroad in the 19th
Century. This particular part of Tacoma shapes both its economy and its
landscape, and has roots in both history and the present. By highlighting the
Port, I hope to engender a sense of pride and awe at an institution that will
celebrate its hundredth birthday in 2018, and will undoubtedly continue to play a
considerable role in this area in the future to come.
We are excited to welcome back Adriana Flores as our new Archivist & Special Collections Librarian. Adriana will join us in mid-July as soon as she wraps up her current work at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, where she serves as an Assistant Archivist for Acquisitions. In this role she is responsible for a wide range of services including working with donors, managing collections, assisting researchers and working with faculty to promote the use of primary source materials in their classes. Adriana completed her M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College in 2016 and is a 2013 graduate of Puget Sound. She has her B.A. in English with a Writing, Rhetoric and Culture Concentration. In 2014, Adriana was awarded a Mosaic Fellowship from the Association of Research Libraries and the Society of American Archivists. The Mosaic program promotes much-needed diversification of the archives and special collections professional workforce by providing financial support, practical work experience, mentoring, career placement assistance, and leadership development to emerging professionals from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups. In addition, Adriana has worked on a variety of digital projects as well as developed programs at Boston University. She is very engaged in professional development activities and currently holds a leadership position in the Students and New Archives Professionals Roundtable of the Society of American Archivists. She is a frequent blog contributor and you can read her Year in the Life posts:
Year in the Life Part 1 and Year in the Life Part 2.
She has also contributed to the series Archivists on the Issues with a blog post on mentoring. In addition, Adriana served as a digitization intern at Densho: The Japanese American Legacy project as well as at the Port of Tacoma. Adriana brings a love of Puget Sound, enthusiasm for the Library and a commitment to engagement.
Learn more about Adriana in our interview below.
