Collaborations in Community
Video presentation is allowed to be used for educational purposes.
Bridget Elmer and Kaitlin Crockett, co-founders of Print St. Pete Community Letterpress, will present about their collaborative efforts to build community around a shared passion for print. Four projects will be introduced and offered as case studies in collaborative community building, including two annual events and two grassroots organizations, all with geneses in the print shop. The projects include: Paper Jam, an alternative book fair at Ringling College of Art and Design with a mission to empower emerging and diverse voices; St. Printersburg, a one-day celebration of print collaboratively organized by two community print shops in the city of St. Petersburg, FL; Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA), a union for reflective creative practice born out of friendship, feminism, and the engagement of obsolete technology; and Hellbox Collective, an underground print club that centers social justice and supports positive change through the power of print.
Bridget Elmer is an artist and educator working at the intersection of book arts, independent publishing, social practice, and public art. Bridget works as Coordinator of the Letterpress and Book Arts Center at Ringling College of Art and Design, where she also teaches. She is the co-founder of Print St. Pete Community Letterpress and Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA), and she currently serves as President of the College Book Art Association (CBAA). She received an MFA in the Book Arts and an MLIS from the University of Alabama and has taught at Penland, Ox-Bow, Florida State University, and Colorado College.
Kaitlin Crockett is a writer, artist and letterpress printer. She is a Librarian at St. Petersburg College, and also teaches continuing studies at the Ringling College Letterpress and Book Arts Center. Kaitlin has studied letterpress and bookbinding at Florida State University, Asheville Bookworks, and Penland School of Crafts. She received her BA in Creative Writing from Florida State University, and a Masters in Library Science from the University of South Florida. She was Studio Assistant in the Letterpress and Book Arts Studio at Penland in the spring of 2013.
