What is WNYBAC?
The Western New York Book Arts Center promotes greater understanding of printing and book-related arts through education, creation, and exhibition for a broad and diverse community. The Western New York Book Arts Center features a letterpress and screenprinting studio, a gallery, a working museum, and a boutique. WNYBAC is a 501(c)3 educational non-profit.
For over 6 years, WNYBAC has been executing its mission in the Great Lakes Region, and with your help, we can continue to teach students (both children and adults) about the value of the analog arts. The Center is committed to continuing the legacy of printing and book arts in the community, and encouraging everyone to participate in a re-engagement with the handmade.
The Staff at the Book Arts Center, along with the help of countless volunteers, interns, and our Board of Directors, strives to create a vibrant and sustainable community that revolves around our studio and our educational programming. We work hard to connect diverse people through one fundamental premise: making art together brings people together, and revitalizes communities.
WNYBAC in Transition
The Book Arts Center is in a time of transition, yet it wants to sustain all of its critical programming and outreach efforts. You can help by sponsoring us, even in a small way. Every dollar donated helps facilitate education, keep our studio functioning, and grow our staff and membership. You can be a part of that by contributing, and in return you'll get to take home a part of the Center in the form of a unique handmade print or book straight from our studio.
At WNYBAC, we produce gig posters, art prints, cards, notebooks, and other one-of-a-kind art objects. Each is made with tender care and an eye for progressive and innovative design.
The idea is simple: send along a little cash, and we will send you amazing prints or books - and there are even some bigger perks available! Have you ever considered having a library or studio named after you? Now's your chance! Have you ever wanted your own custom letterpressed print? Now's your chance as well! Like music? Go in for the gig posters! Like typography? Go in for the hand-letterpressed wood type specimen sheets! Are you a note taker? Get the handmade, pocket-sized make ready notebooks. There are so many great things to choose from - for yourself, or as a gift for others.
WNYBAC Changes Lives
Since its inception in 2009, WNYBAC has been changing lives. It sustains a vital, dynamic, and diverse group of cultural workers and enthusiasts: printmakers, illustrators, small press publishers, poets, authors, bookmakers, and many others. The Center has been the impetus for reinvigorating the careers of established artists as well as a springboard for the growth of younger artists. It also boasts a dedicated team of volunteers who enrich their own lives while contributing in a meaningful way to the lives of others.
Your contribution makes you a part of the real change that the Center is capable of making in people's lives. In the past, contributions like yours have allowed WNYBAC to build a Screenprinting and Papermaking studio, install Heating and Ventilation in our Letterpress Studio, and preserve wood type and equipment for future generations.
Know too, that your support will allow us to continue to make a measurable impact on Downtown Buffalo and the surrounding areas, but we've also grown the institution and the impact it has resounds on a national level, not just a local level. Our collaborations with other artists and other studios around the world call attention to printing and the book arts, and strengthen the cultural foothold and benefits of analog art, ensuring its presence in the lives of people who need it most.
We want to be able to continue teaching after-school programs with at-risk youth, printing diplomas with local Charter schools, running summer camp programs for children and teens, and remain a touchstone for local artists whose work is often marginalized. We know we make a difference, and this is your chance to make a difference too.
Spread the Word!
We know not everyone has the money to contribute, even if the perks are great. Here's what you can do to help:
- Spread the word via social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, any platform you can think of - be creative and get people's attention!
- Spread the word in real life! Do you live in the Western New York region? Tell others that the Book Arts Center is looking for help, and talk up the rewards that are available.
- Share the campaign on listserves, email lists, blogs and websites.
- Volunteer! If you don't have money to donate, but you have time, we welcome you to come to WNYBAC and be a part of what we're building.
- Finally: if you have an idea let us know. If you know someone who might be interested in contributing in some other way, send them along!
We hope you take this opportunity to partner with us, and build a better community here in Western New York and beyond. Your donations are tax deductible to the extent that they exceed the value of any gift that a donor may elect to receive.
