French explorers put New Orleans where it is because indigenous people showed them a bayou connecting Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River, an intersection of sorts, granting quick access to the Gulf. Three hundred years later, new paths cross on our long-traversed landscape. Arising from the muck of both a distant and all-too-proximal history of social injustice is a community aware of economic, racial, and gender disparities, who celebrates in creative ways, mixes art with social activism, loves beautiful things, and always says hello. What better place to expand the discussion of book arts and foster an inclusive field that embraces a variety of education models, as well as ideas that come from all races, classes, genders, and levels of education? We now invite you to the neutral ground of New Orleans, to our many stately university archives and our ground-up book arts collectives and printshops, to discuss the “Intersections” of present-day book arts: where we’ve been, where we’re going, and whose paths are crossing now.

"Intersections: CBAA 2020" will take place January 2-4, 2020 in New Orleans, LA. To approach the theme of intersections, we invite artists, students and professionals, educators of all kinds, community activists, academics, and organizers to address the ways that book arts has engaged with and can intersect with themes of inclusion, intersectionality, expansion, accessibility, and equity. We are hopeful that this conference will act as a site to bring together communities and generate new conversation about book arts as a field.

Presentations on artist books that address these themes, contextualizations of book arts within these realms, or wide-ranging proposals that address the art of the book—its history, successes and failures, and paths for the future, are encouraged.

In addition to current members, we extend the invitation for paper and panel submissions to people and groups who may not have previously been involved with the College Book Art Association. Centers for art that work within communities, zine artists and printmakers, emerging artists and educators, book arts MFA students and academics, researchers and historians, librarians, bibliophiles, and makers of any stripe with a vested interest in the art of the book, are all welcome to apply. Membership is not a requirement to submit a proposal. If selected, all presenters must be members of CBAA by the date given below for panel confirmations.

In addition to the academic tradition of the CBAA, this year’s conference in New Orleans celebrates the non-traditional, the outsider/outlier, the expression of our culture in our lives and in our artwork. Proposals that address expansive methods of making; the intersections of book arts with other areas of art, communities, or histories; and the methods it uses to engage with its readers/viewers, be that through book structure, exhibition, or teaching, are strongly encouraged. Proposals that take a creative look at the traditional panelist format will also be especially considered.

DEADLINES:
Proposals must be received no later than the deadline listed below. Submissions received after this date will not be considered for acceptance.

June 30, 2019: Deadline for submission of proposals

September 1, 2019: Notification of acceptance or rejection of proposals

September 15, 2019: Deadline for confirmation of participation by presenters

September 15, 2019: Deadline for becoming a current member of CBAA (required of all
presenters)

CONTACT:
For content-related questions about the submission process and proposals, contact:
conference1@collegebookart.org

Please visit the 'External Link' below for more information.