Common Press has been undergoing exciting growth this past year. The studio recently moved from the Morgan Fine Arts Building to a newly renovated space in Fisher Fine Arts Library, where we've been able to expand our type cases and press offerings. Also, Common Press recently hired Mary Tasillo as Common Press Studio Manager.
Mary’s extensive background in book arts, studio management, and letterpress began when she apprenticed with Quercus Press in Waltham, Massachusetts. In 2006, Mary earned an MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking from the University of the Arts. Since then, Mary has been active in the letterpress, printmaking, and book arts communities as an educator and practitioner, having taught classes and workshops for the Naropa Institute (Boulder, CO), PennDesign, Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the University of the Arts, among others. Mary is also the cofounder of The Soapbox: Community Print Shop & Zine Library, an independent publishing center in West Philadelphia, where she has taught classes and organized community events. Mary brings to the Common Press additional experience with screenprinting, relief printmaking, papermaking, and book making and has taken part in exhibitions nationally and internationally, most recently with the Center for Book Arts in New York and Salina Art Center in Salina, Kansas.
Mary will direct programming and strategic initiatives for the Common Press, in partnership with Penn Libraries, PennDesign, and Kelly Writers House. However, she will also take the Common Press in new directions, forging new partnerships and collaborations on campus, in Philadelphia, and throughout the international communities of book artists and the letterpress. Look for a series of letterpress and bookmaking workshops for the Penn community this fall, along with a schedule of Open Studio Hours, and stay tuned for more special projects and events.
Image credit: Deborah Boardman
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