San Francisco Center for the Book Receives
National Endowment for the Arts Grant
for Book-Arts Education in K-5 Classrooms

San Francisco, CA—The San Francisco Center for the Book is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support children's book-arts activities in San Francisco elementary schools in the 2004-2005 school year.

The $10,000 grant will help fund the Center's ABC INITIATIVE—ART OF THE BOOK IN THE CLASSROOM—to encourage children's artistic expression and emerging literacy by teaching students in kindergarten through fifth grade to make books of their own.

This is the first time The San Francisco Center for the Book has received funding from the NEA. The award came under the agency's Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth program and was one of 239 grants, totalling $7,723,000 million, announced today by the federal agency in Washington, D.C.

"We are honored to receive support from the NEA to introduce bookmaking to youngsters in San Francisco public schools," said Kathy Barr, executive director of The San Francisco Center for the Book. "The funding will help us expand our youth outreach with programs that use bookmaking to promote literacy and propel children toward a lifelong love of reading, writing and art.

"Book arts and kids are a magical combination," Barr continued. "Bookmaking engages the whole child-head, heart and hands. When kids make books, they forge a special connection to reading, writing, making art and all the imaginative, thoughtful and physical activities that go into making books by hand. Bookmaking and emerging literacy are perfect partners, and we're grateful to the NEA for recognizing this innovative approach."

The ABC INITIATIVE will bring book-arts activities to students at three diverse San Francisco elementary schools with a total population of some 1,500 youngsters and approximately 100 teachers and administrators. Using the SFCB's visual database of book structures, classroom teachers will select book-arts activities that suit their curriculum plans. SFCB book artists will then tailor those bookmaking projects to support classroom goals and conduct in-class lessons on a regular basis throughout the coming school year.

The San Francisco Center for the Book is a place where people can learn to print and make books the old-fashioned way—mostly by hand—even if they've never made a book before. The Center introduces and fosters the joys of books and bookmaking-their history, artistry, continuing presence in our culture and their enduring importance as a medium of self-expression. Starting in 1996 with 64 students in a dozen classes, the SFCB now enrolls some 1,700 students (mainly adults) over the course of a year in 275 workshops. The Center has mounted more than 40 exhibitions since opening its doors, and nearly 6,500 people a year visit its gallery or attend poetry readings, free lectures, receptions, open houses and public events.

SFCB Youth Programs include field trips during which students print letterpress with proofing presses and incorporate their prints into a handmade book; classroom visits during which students learn to make different kinds of books; free Family Days that present a wide range of bookmaking projects for kids and adults, together; professional development activities for K-12 teachers and parent volunteers; and free participation at such school events as Family Literacy Nights. Details of the Center's Youth Programs can be found by clicking here.

For further information, please contact Executive Director Kathy Barr at (415) 565-0545 or kbarr@sfcb.org.

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