The Arts Area and The Benton Museum Present the 3rd Annual Print Pomona Art Book Fair

Published 02/21/2024 | 10:10 am PST

Claremont, CA—The Benton Museum at Pomona College and The Arts Area are pleased to present for the 3rd year, Print Pomona Art Book Fair (PPABF) on Saturday, March 2, 11 am to 7 pm and Sunday, March 3, 11 am to 5 pm at Pomona College’s Edmunds Ballroom located in the Smith Campus Center. PPABF will bring more than 70 national and international exhibitors where San Gabriel Valley meets the Inland Empire to provide a forum for independent booksellers, distributors, and publishers to showcase artist’s books, art catalogs, photography monographs, drawings, and other print ephemera.

The two-day fair will also serve as a meeting place for creatives, book lovers and publishers to discuss and exchange ideas about art making, publishing, and other related topics.

Admission to this event and PPABF are free and open to the public.

Print Pomona Art Book Fair (PPABF) is a 501(c)(3) sponsored by The Arts Area and hosted in partnership with the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College. PPABF was founded in 2018 by photographer and co-founder of Mirrored Society Books, Julian Lucas with a goal to promote the recognition, distribution and awareness of artist books and other publications by artists within the region of the Pomona Valley and beyond.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Saturday March 2, 2024
Amalgam #4 Journal contributors
(Mashinka Firunts Hakopian and Alec Mapes-Frances)

Print Pomona Art Book Fair
Saturday, March 2, 11 am–7 pm
Sunday, March 3, 11 am–5 pm
Edmunds Ballroom in the Smith Campus Center, Pomona College
170 E 6th St, Claremont, CA

ADMISSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
The Benton’s main parking structure is located at 295 E. First Street. Additional visitor and handicapped parking is available in the Alexander Hall lot (N. College Avenue and Sixth Street). Limited street parking is situated along College Avenue.

About Print Pomona Art Book Fair
Print Pomona Art Book Fair is a 501(c)(3) sponsored by The Arts Area and hosted in partnership with the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College. PPABF was founded in 2018 by photographer Julian Lucas with a goal to promote the recognition, distribution, and awareness of artist’s books and other publications by artists within the region of the Pomona Valley.

PRINT POMONA ART BOOK FAIR 
www.PPABF.org

About The Arts Area
Working at the intersection of economic development and the arts. The Arts Area, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, provides fiscal sponsorship, professional development, resource support, and civic advocacy to develop and support economic sustainability and equitable access in the creative industries of San Bernardino, Riverside, and East Los Angeles Counties. Learn more about the fiscal sponsorship and professional business services provided by The Arts Area and join the inland region’s largest professional arts network at TheArtsArea.org.

THE ARTS AREA
2910 S Archibald Ave #A145
Ontario, CA 91761
contact@theartsarea.org 
www.theartsarea.org

About the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
Now housed in the new Benton Museum of Art designed by Machado Silvetti and Gensler, Pomona College’s collection of art numbers 17,000 objects, including Italian Renaissance paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; works on paper, including a first edition print series by Francisco Goya given by Norton Simon; and works in various media produced in Southern California in the twentieth century. In keeping with Pomona College’s reputation as a leading center of the visual arts, the collection also includes works by such esteemed alumni as Chris Burden ’69, Marcia Hafif ’51, Helen Pashgian ’56, Peter Shelton ’73, and James Turrell ’65. Recognized globally for its commitment to contemporary art, the museum is the home of The Project Series, which has featured more than 50 contemporary Southern California artists since it began in 1999. Through its collaboration with students and faculty, the museum encourages active learning and creative exploration across all disciplines of study within the liberal arts context.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact
Print Pomona Art Book Fair
Julian Lucas
Julian@ppabf.com

Media Contact
Benton Museum at Pomona College
Caroline Eastburn
(909) 607-2291

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Arts Area
Media Contact 

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Curious Publishing Presents Packing House Zine Fest

The Pomonan
Published 10/20/2023 | 12:00 am PST

Curious Publishing presents Packing House Zine Fest: Printed Ephemera Showcase on Sunday, October 22, 2023 from 12 PM - 6 PM at the Claremont Packing House Atrium located at 532 West First Street, Claremont, CA 91711.

The Packing House Zine Fest features 40 artist exhibitors whose practice emphasizes the art of print in formats such as zines, art books, risograph, screen printing, block printing, and cyanotype. This event is free and open to the public and will include artist talks and workshops throughout the day hosted at The Claremont Forum and Curious Publishing’s Art & Bodega. 

The inaugural Packing House Zine Fest took place this past April and attracted 500 attendees, 35 exhibitors, two performers, and two educators from the Foothill Communities.

Curious Publishing is a Fiscally Sponsored Project of The Arts Area, a Non-Profit 501(c)3 organization, and is 100% artist owned and operated since 2017. We tell the stories of artists of all practices who reside throughout San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and the High Desert Communities through one of a kind, small-run art books designed and printed in Southern California. We aim to celebrate the rich diaspora of the Inland Empire, Womxn, BIPOC and Queer Artists first and foremost. 

Curious Publishing and Cappuccinos & Drip Hosted a Zine Fest with 250 in Attendance

Text and Photography Julian Lucas

It was a weekend of zine collectors, enthusiasts, and collectors of printed matter emerged from transitional quarantine to attend, Zine Fest presented by Curious Publishing and Cappuccinos & Drip coffee shop (Caps & Drip) located inside of O'Donovan's Restaurant & Pub in Pomona this past weekend.  

The fest included around 20 print artists and artisans from the surrounding and local community, featuring notably, Hella Awkward Shop, John Dishwasher Zine, Cops are Robbers, and Cheyne Ellot just to name a few.. Handmade accessories by Orange Grotto, and Mirrored Society Books stepped up to the plate and showcased a small curated collection of imported photo-books from Europe, Mexico City, Japan, and Singapore, including Books by Los Angeles photographers.

It didn’t just stop at zines and printed matter, Christian Cuevas Caro led an exciting hands on workshop on the Cyanotype process. Which is defined as, a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. 

It was definitely a beautiful time meeting and hanging out with fellow artists listening to music by Reneetalks sipping coffee by the homies from Caps & Drip and beautifully crafted cocktails by Pomona’s one and only P.town Social. 

DID YOU KNOW
In various subcultures, zines have been a major media of communication. The oldest zine festival on the west coast dates back 20 years to the Portland Zine Symposium which began in 2001. The Los Angeles Zine Fest was established 11 years later, and was first held at the Last Bookstore in 2012. The Los Angeles Public Library launched a circulating zine collection in partnership with the Los Angeles Zine. LAPL states, “zine content can be personal, political, niche, artistic, visual—there are no rules! We have zines for all ages by local and international zinesters.”

Because zines have cultural and academic value, major libraries and museums such as the British Library and the TATE have also created a zine archive, again without any RULES! - HINT! HINT!

Julian Lucas, is fine art photographer, photojournalist, and creative strategist. Julian also works as a housing specialist which, includes linking homeless veterans to housing. Julian has lived in Chicago, Inglewood, Portland, and the suburbs of Los Angeles County including Pomona.