Friday Salon: Towards a New Publishing House

A roundtable debate

What is it to be published today? How can we go about setting up a publishing organisation? For what purpose? With what means?

A core group of participants accompanied by a number of specially invited guests, all with a great wealth of experience in art and publishing, are present to argue the case for the creation of a new publishing house. From questions relating to production and distribution through to conception, design, editing and funding structure, most critical aspects of contemporary publishing will be addressed. Considering relevant historical precedents of radical publishing from the last fifty years to the present state of affairs, the open conversation will strategically turn to the current need for a new publishing channel and how it should operate today.

The particular question of the relevance of printed matter in the electronic age, and its processes of distribution and dissemination is examined along with collegial editorial processes and decisions. Who commissions? What is quality in current publishing? How are new radical productions and research best combined?

Please join us for an exciting afternoon of lively conversation and frank exchange.

Speakers

Dr Ruth Blacksell is a designer and a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture at The University of Kingston. She is also Director of the MA Book Design at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at The University of Reading.

El Vonne Brown is an artist, a publisher, and the founder of X Marks the Bökship, a bookshop and project space for independent publishers in London, UK.

Kathy Slade is an artist from Vancouver, the Founding Editor of the Emily Carr University Press and runs READ Books, a bookshop at the Charles H. Scott Gallery. She also runs Publication Studio Vancouver with Kay Higgins.

Dr Andrew Hunt is a curator and writer based in London. He is currently a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture at Kingston University. Between 2008 and 2014 he was Director of Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, and in 2012 a member of the Turner Prize jury. He is founder of the Slimvolume imprint, which to date has published editions and books by over 250 artists.

Dr Arnaud Desjardin is an artist, a bookseller and a publisher. He has been running his own imprint called The Everyday Press since 2008.

With special guests Karen Di Franco and David Osbaldeston. Others to be confirmed.