Frederick Book Arts Center, Inc.

The Mission of the Frederick Book Arts Center is to teach the craft and techniques associated with the Art of the Book. Letterpress printing, printmaking, book binding, photography, and language arts will be taught through a combination of workshops, field trips, school visits, and classes. All members of the community will have the opportunity to learn, intern, and display work at the Center.

The Frederick Book Arts Center will provide members with the space and equipment necessary to create artwork in the book arts and printing traditions. Artists can utilize letterpress and digital production capability, a complete book bindery, printmaking studio, and screen printing and photographic darkroom. In addition to traditional book arts techniques, artists can explore experimental printmaking and alternative photography processes and experimental (such as zines and sculptural books) and new book forms. Workshops led by staff, volunteers, and visiting specialists will take place throughout the year, providing opportunities to students of all ages to learn by utilizing the equipment and expertise of the Center.

Bookmaking has always been a collaborative process and the FBAC will be a resource to foster ventures between established and emerging artists from all parts of our community. The gallery will provide a means to display the work of members and workshop pieces as well as select featured artists, with the goal of furthering public exposure to the Art of the Book.

FBAC has a commitment to the Greater Frederick Community in providing programming for all ages, public art workspace, and engagement in community activities. Our engagement in the community extends the reach of customers towards accessing the whole community through an active outreach program.

FBAC is involved in many projects in the community such as:

• Private programming for groups from schools and organizations
The Frederick Book Arts Center invites all school levels to come and tour our facilities. We first provide a tour and historical description of all of our equipment and educate people on what types of art can be made at our Center. Depending on the schools interest and available time, students can also create a small keepsake, such as a letterpress print, bound book, or print that helps them better understand the mission of the FBAC.

• Providing a public space for people to create
The Frederick Book Arts Center offers a public space for artists to come and create works of art in Printmaking, Bookbinding, Letterpress, and Darkroom Photography. All equipment and non-consumable items in our space can be rented and used by the community. Consumable items like paper, thread, and book cloth can be purchased here or can be brought from home.

• Community Events, such as Alive@Five
The Frederick Book Arts Center actively engages in many community events each year. Many of the community events we participate in occur yearly and draw thousands of attendants and are always widely anticipated in the community. We often bring one of our smaller platen presses and let people print their own keepsake from the event, allowing us to share our art with the Greater Frederick community. We also try to have more direct engagement with the community through smaller events like Indie Bookstore Day and our December Wrapping Paper events. Smaller events such as this allows us to create partnerships with local businesses and create more direct relationships with local artists.


Community Events
• Local Library classes all year
• Artists Talks throughout year
• Book Club with Curious Iguana (local Indie bookstore) throughout the year
• Business Openings
• Card Making Event (Feb)
• Alive@Five Poster printing (April)
• Indie Bookstore Day (April)
• Print Day in May (May)
• Festival of the Arts (June)
• Frederick Pride Festival (June)
• In The Streets (Sept)
• Lancaster Printers Fair (Sept)
• 72 Hour Film Festival (Oct)
• Holiday Card and Wrapping Paper Event (Dec)

FBAC has been heavily involved in the Greater Frederick Community since 2017. A communal space for providing these programs was established in Dec 2018 at 217 West Patrick St, Frederick MD.
FBAC has an expert staff trained from institutions around the country to teach and coordinate programming and outreach. Programs include low-cost classes aimed at reaching lower income individuals and families.
Our fiscal year is January to December, so we are still in the 2019 fiscal year. Hence, we have provided figures reflecting 2018, despite operational opening in 2019. As for planning for 2020, we rely on an organic fluidity to our programming, preferring to use the services of local art teachers, and as a young organization are open to a more robust and flexible programming. We aim to take advantage of specialist artists who may be traveling during the year, and to remain flexible in adding new local talent to our teaching. 2020 will be an equally exciting year. Management is continuing to expand policy. FBAC will host more kids’ weeks (we hosted two over the 2019 Summer) and expand our popular Summer program which offers the community the chance to sample our classes in some instances, to enrolling in week-long sessions of intensive learning experiences. 2020 will mark the opening of our newly built darkroom, which will be a key learning space for historical and modern film photographers. We will also expand our digital learning classes for bookmaking, digital photography, and digital letterpress production. We have just had the arrival of three computer workstations to FBAC in September 2019, which have been set up and equipped with Adobe and other programs. New additional equipment, a new learning space, and new employees bring exciting prospects to our Center. We are also looking at adding more Associate Artists. As of November 2019, we have six associate artists who work closely with our staff to develop interesting and diverse programming. New staff and more diverse funding sources (from grants and fundraising) offers us the chance to broaden lower cost programs to enrich and reach out into the community- to schools, to youth programs, to lower income families and minorities (including the deaf community) - as classes, field trips, and learning experiences. Secondary to our general classes and outreach program, is the expansion of multi-level learning in arts and crafts that seek to be preserved. In this computer and distraction-driven age, the need to engage people with the tactile and visual is ever-growing. FBAC is not just preserving arts that are making a comeback in the community, but encouraging the awareness of the importance of these arts as hobbies and possible alternative mediums for artists to explore in their work. From shows to artists talks, we will add educational opportunities for the community. Interns from nearby schools and colleges engage us in feedback of youth in the area.

2019 was a huge year for FBAC. We have run (as of November), over 75 classes since starting in-house classes on March 20th, many of which have been multi-session.
FBAC has formed a core of central members, of over 100 people, in the book arts and Greater Frederick Community.
We have taken part in a wide variety of community activities such as new openings of businesses and Festival of the Arts, on average of once a month, with involvement from printing posters (Alive@Five and Frederick Pride) to hosting the book club for our local independent bookstore, Curious Iguana.
We have close to 2500 people following us on Facebook and an active following on Twitter and Instagram, where we communicate frequently with customers.
FBAC has established a location at 217 W Patrick St, Frederick. FBAC hopes to bridge the space in artists’ programs in the area, for not just our class offerings, but as a safe and non-discriminatory space for artists and hobbyists alike to rent equipment to use for their projects, or to explore the art of the book medium.