Building by the Book: Book Artists Respond to Architecture and Design

Deadline: September 25, 2009 (RECEIVE) & (Hand Delivery)

BUILDING BY THE BOOK:
Book Artists Respond to Architecture and Design
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA
March – April 2010

As part of Philagrafika 2010: the Graphic Unconscious, the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Center for the Book, is issuing this call for entries for book artists to respond to selected works from the Athenaeum’s legacy research collection of architecture and design.

Athenaeum curators have chosen ten books from their collections that are available to view both on site and online. Artists residing in the United States are invited to submit proposals for a book that they will create in response to one of the selected books. The proposed books may be editioned or one-of-a-kind, artist books, book objects, altered books or zines. The proposal must be for newly created work, directly responding to a specific book from the Athenaeum collection.

Six of the proposals will be chosen, and these six artists will make their proposed books, which will be exhibited in the Athenaeum gallery in March and April during the Philagrafika 2010 festival. A generous grant from the Beneficia Foundation underwrites this competition and exhibition, and will provide these six artists with a stipend of $500 to help offset the cost of the book production. The artists’ books will be exhibited along with their Athenaeum counterparts.

The Athenaeum books are available to view by appointment during regular Athenaeum hours (call 215-925-2688 for appointments), and online at www.philaathenaeum.org/competition.html.

Athenaeum staff are available in person and at 215-925-2688 to consult with artists about the books to which they are responding.

There is no fee to submit a proposal for this competition.

Proposals must include:

􀂃 Complete contact information for the artist, including email, phone number and mailing address. Website if applicable.
􀂃 Drawings and/or rough dummy of the proposed book, including estimated size and media. These materials must be original artwork, not digitized. Due to case size, final books should not exceed 30 inches in any dimension.
􀂃 Brief artist statement of 200 words or less describing how this book is a response to the particular book from the Athenaeum collection.
􀂃 6-10 digital images that reflect the artist’s prior work
􀂃 Resume focused on book arts experience

Proposals will be judged based on quality of the proposed book, evidence that the proposed bookwork is a response to a specific Athenaeum book, and the quality of the artist’s prior work and experience. Proposals should be mailed or hand delivered to the Athenaeum, and received there by September 25, 2009. On-line entries are not accepted.

Artists will be informed of decisions by October 3.
The final bookwork must be received at the Athenaeum by February 1, 2010.
The books created for the exhibit will be returned to the artists at the conclusion of the exhibit.

Relevant websites to investigate:
http://www.philaathenaeum.org/ (note: double aa)
http://www.philadelphiacenterforthebook.org/
http://www.philagrafika.org/

Mailing address for proposals:
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Attn: Sandra L. Tatman
219 S. 6th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3794

Contacts for questions:
Sandra Tatman at the Athenaeum, sltatman@athenaonline.org or
book@philadelphiacenterforthebook.org