Why do We Do What We Do?

September 1, 2020

Here at the KBAC we do what we do because of a passion for creating things with our hands. We love the satisfaction of cranking the handle on the Vandercook and having something beautiful result. We love the feel of the pulp in the cool water on a hot summer day and pulling the perfect sheet of paper. We love the weight of a finished stitched book in our hands and the precision it takes to create the right balance. And, when paper and prints and words come together to make a book that has life beyond our walls, it’s even better!

The KBAC was founded 15 years ago to celebrate all the arts used in traditional bookmaking including papermaking, surface design, printmaking, letterpress, bookbinding, and creative writing. Since 2005 when we began sharing our expertise and passion with the Kalamazoo community we’ve been well supported by our arts-friendly city through funding, school and library programming, and collaborative efforts with Western Michigan University and many non-profits. Our internships for high school and college students have provided hands-on learning experiences seldom found elsewhere. We’re so fortunate to be able to enrich people’s lives in unexpected ways.

Times have certainly changed since our early days when our reach was smaller, and the Kalamazoo Gazette was still the main way we got our story out and let people know they could learn how to make a book here. Through social media and emails our profile has ventured beyond the immediate area. We now have an ever-expanding list of internationally known guest artists that have exhibited here as well as amazing poets from all over the country that read at our Poets in Print events. Annual trips to Europe on book arts study abroad trips have allowed us to make wonderful friends and connections in multiple countries. Now, as a result of lock down and the pandemic, we have art lovers attending online workshops, virtual exhibitions and international Zoom calls. There are no such thing as geographic limits anymore!

Because we’ve had so much interest from our supporters, near and far, we thought you might like to learn a bit more about what we’re doing than you get from our daily social media posts. With that in mind, this is the first blog post of many that will be coming to you monthly to celebrate Why We Do What We Do. Thanks for joining us!

Jeff, Katie, and Lorrie