Ramon Townsend
President
Ramon Townsend studied Traditional Bookbinding and Printing under the Master and Journeymen Bookbinders and Printers at Colonial Williamsburg in the 1970s and 1980s. They also taught him Marbling and Papermaking. After leaving Colonial Williamsburg, he started Colonial Bindery where he repairs used and rare books; conducts workshops; and makes journals/blank books.
Amanda D’Amico
Secretary
Amanda D’Amico is a book artist working under the imprint Tiny Revolutionary Press. She is the Master Printer at the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts, and teaches at the University of the Arts and Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Center for the Book and The Soapbox: Community Print Shop and Zine Library, is the Vice Co-Chair of Events for the College Book Art Association, and is an artist member of the Impractical Laborers in Service of the Speculative Arts. Her artist’s books have been collected and exhibited nationally.
Andrea Lemoins
Book Paper Scissors Chair
Andrea Lemoins is a literature librarian with the Free Library of Philadelphia. She enjoys writing poetry, making art books and collecting typewriters. Andrea is looking forward to managing Book Papers Scissors each year.
Mercedes Weathers
Exhibition Co-Chair
Mercedes Weathers is a native to Philadelphia who grew up immersed in the arts from books to weaving. She studied sculpture at Sarah Lawrence College, and Information Science at Drexel University. While interning at the Franklin Furnace in NYC, she was first introduced to and loved artists’ books and the process of curating art exhibits. She loves creating sculpture and ceramics in her studio especially pieces connected to her poetry. In the engineering world, she enjoys the process of collaboration, which she also uses while working on commissioned sculpture to fully understand and mesh her vision with an art commission.
Samm Fricke
Exhibition Co-Chair
Alina Josan
Free Library of Philadelphia Liaison
Alina Josan has called Philadelphia home for over twenty years, finding time to make artwork while working in dozens of local archives, conservation labs and libraries. She studied painting and art history at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and library science at Drexel University. As an Art Department librarian at the Free Library of Philadelphia, she continues the tradition of extensive collaboration with the Philadelphia Center for the Book.
Natasha Smith
Free Library of Philadelphia Liaison
Natasha Smith is an art librarian with the Free Library of Philadelphia. She studied photography at the Tyler School of Art and is currently obsessed with ceramics. She currently oversees the Art Department’s book art workshops at the library.