Englewood Depot News, May 20, 2014
It’s been a long winter, uncertain weather, recurring snow, but now it is May and our activities spring to life. Many things to catch up, but first – a letterpress show.
Come see posters by 20 of the world’s best letterpress printers, all designed especially for the Depot. Printers from New Mexico to Australia, from Oregon to Brazil, and of course from Colorado, have created some spectacular examples of what can be done on a letterpress. This Depot Poster show will be held June 6 at the BookBar at 4280 Tennyson. (Depot members/supporters viewing at 5 pm; BookBar is open for First Friday Art at 6 - more details soon.) A limited quantity of the posters will be offered for sale. All donation proceeds, of course, to the Depot. For those of you who already have ordered work from this letterpress portfolio, you can pick them up at the event. Board member Jason Wedekind and Diane Tomasso were masterminds behind this project. Amazing support from the amazing letterpress community!
Posters of this portfolio project are also on exhibit at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, through the annual Wayzgoose of the Amalgamated Printers Association, June 13-17!
Book arts workshops. Thanks to board member Peter Bergman of Metropolitan State University of Denver, we are making plans for a variety of workshops. As construction for the Depot is just beginning, we will offer these events at satellite locations. Bonus: payment for any workshop or class will give you a basic membership; subsequent workshops in the same year are 10% off for all members. I will send out an email once we have dates, but also check out our website www.letterpressdepot.com for news and events, as well as more details on membership.
Our website is up!
www.letterpressdepot.com
Type and equipment donations! The Letterpress Depot has been the recipient of, quite literally, tons of type and presses. This coming weekend we will be moving Glenn Moore’s father’s MECA printshop into a truck storage trailer, until our building is ready. Highlights of this historic collection include a Vandercook SP-15 proof press, a pantograph router-engraver which might be used for making wood type, other equipment for preparation and mounting of printing blocks, and over 20 cabinets of excellent type. If you can help with some heavy lifting (or cheerleading) this weekend or in the future, please let me know. Thanks to Wilson Thomas for helping with logistics of the move. Food and drink for all those who come join us! Call or email me for details.
We also have received generous donations of equipment and type from Dave Clark and Brett Lareau. So when we can get the 4th foundation wall up in the Depot and an access ramp built, we are ready to roll.
Progress for the old depot. Design and construction plans for the lower level foundation wall and access ramp, and everything else needed on the building, are tied to our agreement with the City of Englewood for a preservation easement on the historic building. The Colorado Historical Foundation has accepted our proposal for the easement, with legal negotiations and details to be approved before actual construction can begin. CHF has been very supportive but there have been hurdles – governmental, administrative, legal, financial, and just plain annoying – imagine: paperwork as a printer's way of life!
Roof repairs this week; meetings with our architects, plumbing contractor, a structural engineer, and others with consultation about concrete work, landscaping, modifications for ADA access, preparation for funding possibilities for historic rehabilitation – we expect to be ready once the easement is set. One special find in the course of all the moving paper: we have located the architectural drawings of the foundation, the designs and plans when the building was relocated in 1994! Thanks to City Engineer Dave Henderson and our architect Kathy Lingo – those missing details now inform our design work as well as our history of the Englewood Depot as it is transformed into a living letterpress museum.
Volunteer projects! We need your help:
moving equipment (come get muscles!)
ideas and participation in developing workshops, program ideas, publications (just imagine!)
gardening, weeding, landscaping, grounds-keeping (It's spring, come play in the dirt!)
website, calendar and blog entries (help us post your activities for the depot community!)
inventory, assess, repair donated equipment and type (get ready for our use and our museum!)
make it new, make it your own, let us know how!
Thanks to board member Karen Jones, we now have postcards to publicize the Depot.
Let us know suggestions to help us use the cards, to call attention to our projects.
All in the community! As you can see, our board has been busy - meeting monthly, plotting and planning. Many of our board members and supporters, Karen Jones, myself, Ray Tomasso, David Ashley, have collaborated with other book arts groups in demonstrations, participating in the recent Gathering of the Guilds and with workshops presented by the Book Arts League. We are planning participation (with the Calligraphers Guild, the Guild of Book Workers, and the Book Arts League) at the 30th Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair, Friday and Saturday, August 1-2 at the Denver Merchandise Mart.
We will be in touch. Let us hear from you as well - by email (Englewooddepot@gmail.com), phone (720-480-5358), or regular mail to the Depot, Box 798, Englewood, CO 80151.
Tom Parson
for the Englewood Letterpress Depot