Welcome to BOOKARTSLA a  nonprofit organization devoted to bringing the beauty of printing, binding and collecting artists' and other hand made books to the public. All classes are held at our studios 11720 Washington Place, Los Angeles, CA 90066, unless otherwise listed in the description.

BookArtsLA is run by 7 board members who volunteer their time, passion for the arts and know-how to keep the mission alive. 

• Director/President - Marcia Moore (Volunteer)

Both as an artist and educator, Marcia Moore is an active member of the Book Arts community throughout the United States and Europe.  For more than the past decade, Marcia Moore has been the catalyst to bring a variety of notable artists to Los Angeles to exhibit and teach. She coordinated visits and workshops with innovative binders Keith Smith and Scott McCarney, book artists and letterpress printers Esther K. Smith and Dikko Faust of Purgatory Pie Press, binder Karen Hanmer, paper engineer and book artist Carol Barton, Paul Johnson, Benjamin Elbel and other regional and local artists. She also teaches extensively and is an advocate for the arts in education. Recently, her work has been included in exhibitions in California and throughout the United States.  Marcia Moore is a founding member of BookArtsLA

 

• Secretary - Marcia Brown (Volunteer)

MJ Brown holds an MFA degree from Old Dominion University and has taught printmaking and letterpress classes at Maryland Institute College of Art, the Corcoran School of Art and Design, Pyramid Atlantic and workshops throughout the US and in Los Angeles.  Under her imprint, Shopbelle Press (2000 to the present), in Altadena, CA she has collaborated with other Los Angeles artists on printing and binding books, etchings, woodblock prints, and special letterpress projects. She teaches local workshops and school groups in the art of letterpress. Her work has been included in local and national exhibitions and is held in a variety of University and museum collections.  Marcia Brown is a founding member of BookArtsLA.

 

• Treasurer – Danita Rafalovich (Volunteer)

Danita Rafalovich has a B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Botany from California State University Long Beach.  She is an accomplished binder and has taught a wide variety of contemporary and traditional book binding workshops. Danita’s enthusiasm for book arts is demonstrated through her work as a volunteer in outreach programs at locations such as the Venice Library, Antiquarian Book shows and events such as the Printers’ Fair at the International Printing museum. Working with the public, she has completed thousands of books on site. Her work is represented in a variety of publications about Artists’ Books, she has also completed the bindings on Artists’ books collected throughout Los Angeles and in special collection libraries throughout the United States. Danita Rafalovich is a founding member of BookArtsLA.

 

• Board Member at Large – Sue Kaplan (Volunteer)

Sue Kaplan holds an M.L.I.S. from UCLA, specializing in Rare Books.  She is a letterpress printer and established Shulamis Press (1996 to present) in Venice, CA with the goal of producing fine press editions of Jewish literature. In 2002 her enthusiasm for letterpress expanded to an additional enterprise, Garlow Studio, to produce custom work such as invitations, business cards and announcements. She was an editor of the Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection at UCLA (UC Press, 2002), a complete reference of the works printed by 16^th century printer Aldus Manutius. Sue Kaplan is a founding member of BookArtsLA.

 

• Board Member at Large – Stanley Strauss (Volunteer)

Stanley Strauss has a Bachelor and Masters of Arts degrees in English Literature from the University of California, Riverside and a Masters in Librarianship from the University of Washington. In 2007, Stanley retired after working 23 years at the Cerritos Library, Cerritos, California, in a variety of positions, including Head of Children’s Services, Public Services Librarian, and Administrative Services Manager.  From 2008 to 2015, he has been the Webinar Coordinator for Infopeople, the training arm of the California State Library.  In addition to overseeing more than 300 webinars, has taught a four-week online course on Basic Graphic Design for Libraries. 

 

• Board Member at Large – Tania Baban (Volunteer)

Tania Baban is a book artist with a BFA in Communication Design from Otis College of Art & Design in L.A. Her artist’s books are held in private, institutional, and international collections, including Brown University Library, Getty Research Institute, Oberlin College, Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the National Library of Australia. She has worked in the field of graphic design and advertising for more than two decades, including 13 years with the National Football League’s Creative Services Group in Los Angeles. She co-founded indie publisher Conflux Press in 2004. 

 

• Board Member at Large – Anne Covell (Volunteer)

Anne Covell received her MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book where she studied on an Iowa Arts Fellowship. She has taught courses in bookbinding, papermaking, and natural dyeing for the University of Iowa Center for the Book, as well as the University of Georgia study abroad program in Cortona, Italy. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad and can be seen in a growing number of special collections libraries and museums worldwide including the Yale University Arts Library, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the National Library of Chile. She currently resides in San Diego, CA.