Next gallery show highlights wood type, printing museum

A case of wood type from the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum.

Workers at Hamilton Wood Type @1880

WINONA, Minn. — From Aug. 14 to Sept. 26, Saint Mary’s University will present an exhibit of 27 prints that were created as part of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum’s 10th anniversary.

The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum of Two Rivers, Wis., is the only museum dedicated to the preservation, study, production and printing of wood type. With 1.5 million pieces of wood type and more than 1,000 styles and sizes of patterns, Hamilton's collection is one of the premier wood type collections in the world. These letters are not behind glass or partitions, but are instead organized and available for the layperson or artist to touch, and if they attend a workshop, use for printing. Prints from the wood type blocks are created during workshops conducted at the museum throughout the year.

The show, free and open to the public, will be on display at the Lillian Davis Hogan Galleries, located in the Toner Student Center. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

A reception for the artist printmakers will be 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, at the Galleries. The film “Typeface” will be shown at 8 p.m.

“Typeface” by Kartemquin Films — a documentary about the Hamilton Museum — details how, one weekend a 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 region’s top creative talent descend on the sleepy enclave. The museum is significant to the town’s history, but more importantly, its existence is critical to the worldwide design community who are passionate about the history of their craft and its function in the contemporary field. They believe the future of their industry may lie in the past.

For more information, call (507) 457-1652.