Show­ing Face

The New Zea­l­and Première of Typeface, by Justine Nagan, in Wel­ling­ton on 10 August.

One for type afi­cionadoes — here's the blurb:

In rural Wis­con­sin, a lone employee waits in a cav­ernous old museum for vis­it­ors to come. A few indi­vidu­als straggle in every few days and then, come Fri­day, the museum fills with life. Machines hum, presses print, artists buzz about. One week­end each month, the quiet of Two Rivers is inter­rup­ted as car­loads of artis­ans drive in from across the Mid­w­est. The place comes alive as print­mak­ing work­shops led by, and filled with, some of the nation's top design tal­ent des­cend on the sleepy enclave.

In a time when people can carry com­puters in their pock­ets and watch TV while walk­ing down the street, Typeface dares to explore the twi­light of an ana­log craft that is freshly inspir­ing artists in a digital age. The Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, WI per­son­i­fies cul­tural pre­ser­va­tion, rural re-birth and the lin­eage of Amer­ican graphic design. At Hamilton, inter­na­tional artis­ans meet retired crafts­men and together nav­ig­ate the con­ver­gence of mod­ern design and tra­di­tional tech­nique. But the Museum's days may be numbered. What is the respons­ib­il­ity of artists and his­tor­i­ans to pre­serve a dying craft? How can rural towns sur­vive in a shift­ing indus­trial mar­ket­place where big-box retail­ers are king?

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