Membership in CBBAG is encouraged, however attendance and participation at meetings is still open to all who wish to attend and learn, regardless of membership. A small donation at meetings is encouraged to defray costs if you are not a CBBAG member.
MEETINGS 2020
First and second quarters:
We reviewed and discussed our annual reporting online in January and began planning for our first group meeting in March. Unfortunately, Sars-Cov-2 ended our in-person meetings indefinitely. We shelved upcoming projects and now plan to resume via electronic meeting over the winter, as soon as we’ve tested apps that can be used by all of our members.
The “Blue Book” challenge deadline of March 2020 was extended to autumn or early winter, to be determined at a later date.
Third quarter:
Seven of our members participated in a lino graphics group test project to print cards on a Vandercook SP20 letterpress at the new SNAP printshop in Edmonton. The printing went well and we have decided to do a third book project.
Fourth quarter:
Lino tile kits were made up the first week of December. Participants will have 10 to 12 weeks to carve two 4.5 graphics for a Concertina project on the theme “Opposites”. Printing will take place toward the end of February or early March depending upon printshop availability. Our annual challenge exchange, this year on the theme “Blue” will be postponed until we can meet in person.
PAST MEETINGS 2019
Our final formal meeting was last fall in the boardroom at St. Timothy’s Anglican Church. We discussed upcoming project possibilities and voted to reduce our meetings to bimonthly until spring as it was difficult for out-of town members to make the evening drives into Edmonton during inclement weather. Several of our most active members continued with monthly informal lunch meetings until the end of the year.
In other meetings, Jan Peters demonstrated a procedure for precise cutting of paper and card-stock, and Dawn Woolsey did a refresher on making a hinged-lidded box.
In lieu of our usual January meeting, we attended the Opening Reception of the CBBAG Art of the Book 2018 in the FAB Gallery at the University of Alberta. The Alcuin Awards for Book Design in Canada will exhibited at the Gallery at the same time and ran until early February.
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PAST MEETINGS 2018
Tuesday, December 18
Book exchange luncheon
A new book structure with content, optional container
Monday November 26
7-9 pm at the Mayfield Common Party room
Annual dinner and book exchange
Postponed to December
Monday October 29
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church
Box making demo and other containers for books
Monday, September 24
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church
“Bound Together” blocks and text distribution
Monday April 30
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church
Letterpress and books from the Mosaic exhibit box.
Monday March 26
7 – 9 pm at the Paintspot, 10032 – 81 Avenue
East Old Strathcona, Edmonton AB
Paper tour and product demo
Monday February 26
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church
Show and share meeting, please submit suggestions for upcoming workshops.
Monday January 29
7-9 pm at the Paintspot in Old Strathcona.
Cancelled due to inclement weather.
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PAST MEETINGS 2017:
Monday November 27
6-9 pm in the private room at Boston Pizza, Mayfield Common.
Dinner was followed by a brief meeting and the handmade book exchange.
The 2017 theme (of course) was Canada 150, and participants were required to build a book with content; text and/or graphics.
Monday October 30
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church.
The group project’s working title “Favourites” was finalised as “Bound Together.”
Monday June 12
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church
June 21 was set as the deadline for submission of text for the group project.
Monday March 20, “Favourites” book project, Lino block proofing and print details
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church
Monday February 13
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church
Monday January 23
7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church
This meeting was changed to February 13.
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PAST MEETINGS 2016:
Monday November 28, 6-9 pm in the private room at Boston Pizza, Mayfield Common. Dinner was followed by a brief meeting and the handmade book exchange. The voluntary exchange, in which participant bring one handmade book and go home with another, randomly selected book, had the theme of “Dimensional Covers” this year.
Monday October 3, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Edmonton. Books from the St. Albert Public Library display will be returned. Show and share.
Monday June 6, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Social evening and return of books from library exhibition. This meeting was cancelled. We will post the date of the next meeting later in the summer.
Monday April 4, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. A review of new structures and some models of more traditional structures. Please bring your exchange book from the November handmade book exchange and other books you are submitting for inclusion in the CBBAG exhibit in the Gallery at Milner in May.
Monday January 25, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Please bring your exchange book from the November handmade book exchange for a discussion on new structures, and any items for show and share (new work, books, tools etc.)
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PAST MEETINGS 2015:
Monday November 30, 6-9pm at the Faculty Club. Buffet dinner followed by the annual meeting and handmade book exchange. The 2015 challenge was to do a structure the artist hadn’t done before; a well-developed, finished piece with original content.
Monday September 28, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Informal meeting, please bring show and share (new work, books, tools etc) Books from the exhibition in St. Albert Public Library in August/September will be returned.
Monday June 15, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Informal meeting, please bring show and share. Exchange miniature books plus others for the exhibition in St. Albert Public Library in August will be collected.
Wednesday May 27, 6:30-9 pm at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, 8555 Roper Road
Edmonton. Introduction to Coptic binding workshop sponsored by PAA, registration required through PAA.
Monday April 27, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. A special evening for CBBAG members with Kevin Zak, on the topic of paper engineering and pop-up books.
Tuesday January 27, 2015. 7-9 pm at Bruce Peel Special Collections, U of Alberta. Presentation by Jeff Papineau on miniature books held in the collection at the library.
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PAST MEETINGS 2014:
Monday November 24, at the Faculty Club. Buffet dinner followed by the annual meeting and handmade miniature book exchange.
Monday September 29, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Informal meeting, please bring show and share. Books from the exhibition in St. Albert Public Library will be returned.
Monday June 16, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Informal open studio meeting and social. Wrap-up of the year and resolution of future plans.
Monday April 28, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Informal open studio meeting – the letterpress book binding challenge continues! Please bring show and share, letterpress or otherwise.
Last chance to drop off books for the Milner exhibition (only books for which you have already submitted the form as the labels will be finished). Copyright release sheets will be available at the meeting if you need one. Exhibition installation is May 1st.
Monday March 31, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. This will be another open studio informal meeting – and another opportunity to discuss the letterpress book binding options after last month’s musings. If you have started (or even finished!), please bring along your work-in-progress so we can pool our experiences. Anything else for show and share is also welcome.
We will start collecting books for the Milner exhibition in May at this meeting, please bring the 2013 exchange book (no-paper book) and any others you would like to exhibit. The information and copyright release sheets will be at the meeting.
After our first discussion back in the fall about how our chapter might evolve, it’s also time to revisit this topic. Please think about why you are a CBBAG member and what you get out of it. What are the alternatives? Your input is needed to guide our future direction.
Monday February 24, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. This will be an open studio meeting – please bring your current project, or anything you would like feedback/advice/ideas on. This will be a good opportunity to discuss the letterpress book binding options.
Monday January 27, 2014. 7-9 pm hosted by Sara Norquay on the theme of Korean paper and fiber arts.
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PAST MEETINGS 2013:
Monday November 26, 5:30-9 pm at the Faculty Club, University of Alberta. Buffet dinner followed by annual meeting and the handmade book exchange (books with no paper or paper products).
Monday October 28, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Meeting to discuss organizational changes and future plans for the Alberta North chapter.
Monday September 23, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St. Rena Whistance-Smith reports on the Art of the Book 2013 conference, photos from the exhibitions and general show and share.
Sunday June 23: Letterpress book workshop printing date at SNAP
Monday June 10, 7-9 pm in the boardroom at St Timothy’s Anglican Church, 8420 145 St.
Monday March 11 Assistance for the letterpress workshop participants who are new to carving lino. All blocks MUST be ready to print on the day of the workshop.
Monday February 4, 7-9 pm. The first meeting of 2013 was held at the SNAP printshop, 12056 Jasper Avenue. We covered preparations for the letterpress book project and decided theme, layout and size based on the initial work by Dawn Woolsey. Dawn demonstrated safe cutting techniques for the lino blocks and introduced the letterpress and the set-up we will be using on it.
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Past meetings, 2012:
The final meeting of the year was Monday 26 November at the Faculty Club. Dinner was followed by a short meeting and the unveiling of the handmade books in the book exchange. This year’s theme was one-sheet books and as usual participants rose to the challenge and produced a wide variety of creative solutions.
The fourth meeting was Monday 22 October, 7-9 pm. Following an update after the summer, future programs and projects were discussed. Sara Norquay demonstrated several one sheet book structures in preparation for the book exchange in November.The traveling library book box was discussed and some donations collected. Members brought some books to share from summer workshops.
Two informal gatherings were held in the summer at the invitation of Susan Kristofferson. They provided an opportunity to learn about some of the planning being undertaken by CBBAG Calgary for Art of the Book 2013.
The third meeting was on Monday 4 June, 7-9 pm. A short meeting was followed by a demo on Endpapers showing three styles for bookbinders and book artists, given by Rena Whistance-Smith in her studio. Dessert and social followed the demo as this was the last meeting before summer break.
The second meeting for 2012 was Monday March 5 at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church of the Deaf, 11460 60 Avenue, Edmonton.
We returned the books that were displayed at the Strathcona County Library and had an update on Art of the Book 2013.
The first meeting of 2012 was January 16, at the SNAP Gallery. We finalized the details of our commitments to the Strathcona County Library including collecting the pop-up books and others for the displays at the Library from January 25-February 28. Barb Johnston spoke on “Increasing the prospect of successful submissions to an exhibition Call for Entry”, a timely presentation with the call for entry deadline to Pulp Paper Pages being February 15.
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Past meetings, 2011:
Our fifth meeting and final meeting for 2011 was held on Monday, November 28. We continued our annual tradition, dinner at the Faculty Club followed by the Christmas Book Exchange. The voluntary exchange, in which participants bring one handmade book and go home with another, randomly selected book, had the theme of “pop-ups” this year. We were inspired by the interest shown at first meeting of the year at Bruce Peel Special Collections when we viewed a huge collection of pop-up books.
Our fourth meeting of 2011 was held on September 26 at the Stanley Milner Library in downtown Edmonton. After a quick update on developments over the summer, Barb Johnston presented an informal workshop on basic pop-up structures. We were able to try out different pop-up constructions to get a feel for how they work in practice. The room was full and everyone got lots of exciting ideas for the handmade book exchange this fall.
Our third meeting of 2011 was held on June 8 at the Provincial Archives of Alberta in southeast Edmonton. We first took a tour of the Archives with one of our members, Alison Freake, who works at the PAA. The second part of the evening featured a short meeting, desserts and a chance to socialize before the summer break.
Our second meeting of 2011 was held on April 4, in Room 5 at the Stanley Milner Library, Edmonton. We finalized details of the show at the Gallery at Milner, scheduled to run May 3-31, and the Opening, Sale and Demo to be held on Saturday, May 7. We discussed challenges in binding non-traditional books, using the ‘not square or rectangular’ books from the exchange challenge in November as examples. Members brought their books from the exchange challenge and, as a follow up to our January meeting at Bruce Peel, brought their favourite pop up books to share.
Our first meeting of 2011 was held on January 31 at the Bruce Peel Special Collections (University of Alberta, Rutherford Library). Curator Robert Desmarais presented a selection of some of the truly amazing pop-up books in the collection.
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Past meetings, 2010:
Our final meeting of 2010, our annual Christmas get together, was held on Monday November 29. We met at the Faculty Club at the University of Alberta for a buffet-style supper, followed by our meeting. The agenda included a look at the upcoming year and a discussion of priorities and activities, and ended with the much-anticipated and entirely-optional BOOK EXCHANGE. The theme was ‘ANYTHING BUT SQUARE (OR RECTANGULAR)’, and members were challenged to make a book that wasn’t a standard book form; gift-wrapped handmade books, any size, any subject were exchanged, and the books were displayed after they’d been unwrapped by their new owners.
Our third meeting will was held Monday, June 21, 7-9pm, in Meeting Room 7 at the Stanley Milner Library in downtown Edmonton. We viewed a short video of our exhibition in September 2009 made by Michael May, Librarian at the Rutherford Library, and discussed our upcoming exhibition. Titled “About Books”, the work will be on display from October 4 -31, 2010 at the University of Alberta, Rutherford Library foyer. The opening reception will be October 4.
Our second meeting of the year was held Monday, April 26, 7-9 pm at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, 11460-60th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta. David Turnbull, Public Art Conservator at the Edmonton Arts Council, provided an informative talk on the topic of photographing artwork. Attendees also had an opportunity to photograph their books.
Our first meeting of the year was held on Monday, February 8, 2010. We enjoyed a collection of books assembled by CBBAG called A Book Arts Mosaic. We also showed books from our chapter’s previous two exchanges, the green recycled book exchange from November 2009 and the accordion book exchange from November 2008
The second half of the meeting focused on a fall show, allowing everyone adequate time to plan what items they would like to submit for display. Discussion included timeline, deadlines and budget we should be looking at.