February 6, 2006

Teaching an Old Way for New Books: UA Book Arts MFA Program Receives $1 Million Endowment

people gathered around a table with books

Participating in the Book Arts effort are (L-R) Amy Pirkle, Steve Miller, Sära Owen and Anna Embry.

By Deidre Stalnaker

What has a head, spine, tail and is sometimes considered man’s best friend? Students in The University of Alabama book arts graduate program wouldn’t say a dog, but they would say a book.

These students build books the traditional way creating one-of-a-kind pieces of art, hence the name of the program. One foundation interested in the teaching of craft and art in America recently recognized the program by awarding it a $1 million endowment. The endowment, given by a foundation that wishes to remain anonymous, creates annually three $15,000 fellowships and a $5,000 supply and equipment fund.

The program has a book bindery, type shop, hand papermaking mill and a papermaking plant fiber research garden on campus where students and faculty can grow their own materials. These resources help students develop truly unique books.

“People associate our program with old books,” said Steve Miller, associate professor and coordinator of the book arts graduate program, “but our students are artists who work with text, shape and texture. They don’t reproduce older works; they create original limited edition books with strong attention to detail in production.”

He displays some of the students’ work in a gallery on the fifth floor of Gorgas Library, where the program’s studios and classrooms are located. While a typical college classroom has computers or a digital lecture screen with highspeed Internet hookups, these classrooms have letterpress printing presses and historic tools used for binding books, as well as Macintosh computers to aid in book design.

“We mix it up,” Miller said, “by combining what’s going on now with what’s happened in the past. This understanding through the ages improves design work.”

UA’s book arts graduate program, the oldest and one of only three in the United States, is housed in the School of Library Information Studies in the College of Communication & Information Sciences. Only eight students can be admitted to the program each year, making admittance very competitive.

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