Booklyn Artist Alliance

Originally located in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York,[1][2] Booklyn moved to the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York in early 2018.[4][5] This relocation included plans for new education and archives initiatives.[4]

Booklyn initially originated out of several artist run projects: The Artichoke Yink Press run by Christopher Wilde, a Bookmobile artist book distribution system run by Wilde and Shon Schooler, and a Tuesday night artist gathering at 70 Commercial Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.[3] Marshall Weber, an original co-founder of Booklyn, remains involved as Directing Curator.[3]

The work of Booklyn involves a wide range of activities: representing contemporary artists; cultivating a distribution network across international institutions that may acquire work by Booklyn artists for their collections; and curating exhibitions in its own gallery space as well as at other institutions.[6] Education efforts at Booklyn involve lectures and workshops on various aspects of bookmaking, including bookbinding and zine-making.[5][7] Educational materials are also distributed through resources such as the Booklyn Education Manual.[8]

The intention of Booklyn's artist-run distribution system was to interrupt the existing distribution networks dominated by private dealers.[3] Booklyn organizes the Sass & Zines: Celebrating QPOC / WPOC in Print event, and in 2019, Booklyn participated in the New York City Book and Ephemera Fair during New York's Rare Book Week by curating a Brooklyn Artists' Fair of forty artists whose work addresses diverse and contemporary issues.[5]

The artistic works represented by Booklyn include artist books, prints, drawings, publications, and zines, as well as the archives of individual artists. Booklyn also publishes and co-sponsors books.[9] Institutions that have worked with Booklyn to acquire materials for their own collection include University of Puget Sound,[10] Franklin & Marshall College,[8] Bucknell University[11] and Long Island University - Brooklyn.[12]

Booklyn has collaborated with Iraq Veterans Against the War (now About Face[13]), on a series of portfolio projects dating back to the War is Trauma portfolio in 2008; some of these have also involved collaboration with Justseeds Artists' Cooperative and Combat Paper NJ.[14]

Booklyn's organizational archive is housed at Library of Congress.[9]

Exhibitions presented by Booklyn include:

• Straight out of Booklyn (2017), at Bucknell University Special Collections/University Archives.[11]
• 'RISE' (May–June 2015), Kelie Bowman, at Booklyn[15]
• Conflict Unknown, Lale Westvind (November 2014 - January 2015), at Booklyn[16]
• Asshats for Shitheads, Sto Len (September - November 2014), at Booklyn[17][18]
• NO/FUTURE, Mike Taylor (January - March 2014), at Booklyn[19]

• Official website