How can current and graduating students be assisted in making their work public and transitioning into a professional realm of Book Arts? Specifically, those students who are unable to take the financial risks associated with selling work publicly
or as a title:-
“Supporting Students’ Transition into the Professional Book Arts Sphere: Strategies for Facilitating Public Presentation of Work and Overcoming Financial Barriers at Book Fairs”.
Having spoken to staff and Pg Peers about my two ideas, i decided on the second idea. To create a public facing event for students to sell their work and meet professionals in the industry as equals.
The aim of this enquiry is to generate new knowledge that will allow us to support and advise students with the aspiration to sell their work publicly, as well as inform recommendations to senior management towards maximising engagement with the professional scene outside of UAL and to provide information on an event or action we can take to provide a platform for students to share their work with the professional community.
During conversation with John and the rest of my tutorial group i explained exactly what a Book Fair is, and the hierarchical nature of them. I explained the barriers for students, or recent graduates to selling their work at book fairs, or feeling ‘part of the scene’ are largely financial, repetitional and age-related. The feeling is that you want to sell your work to the public, and be respected by peers in the industry. You cannot feel part of it until you have sold work, but you cannot sell work until you have been allowed in. This is a problem.
Even if you pass this barrier, having a good portfolio of work that the curators like, you need to pay the table fee. These fees start at 150 and can get up to 600 for a table space. This is a bigger problem
After explaining these barriers, John pointed out it is also a social justice issue. and my tutorial team all agreed this was something that LCC could easily provide, and something I was clearly passionate about, and keen to install.
I also spoke with colleagues from LCC who ‘do’ the book fair circuit, and all agreed that it was something that students, staff and alumni would greatly benefit from,