The Milwaukee Makerspace is about to get an exciting new neighbor! Ashley Town, a former professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) has recently purchased the > 100 year old Bay View Printing Company @ 2702 S. Howell Ave, less than a half-mile from our space!
Ashley is taking over a print shop with a rich heritage as well as several beautiful presses, a Linotype machine and dozens of wood and metal typefaces. She plans on doing custom work as well as running classes and building up a community around the lovely art of printmaking.
Bay View Printing Company is in the final days of its fundraising drive on IndieGogo to raise money to pay for some renovations to the space to make it more amenable to Ashely’s goal of making this a community-driven space. The IndieGogo campaign has some great rewards like private lessons on the Vandercook press. I’m so thrilled this is coming to Bay View that I have challenged Makerspace members to donate and will match up to $500 in donations!
Bay View is extremely lucky to have a new creative space! If you want to support them, hurry up, though! The IndieGogo campaign ends at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, 2014. As of this writing, they have raised $7,635 out of the desired $11,000. Let’s help them out and welcome our exciting new neighbor!
Read a bit more about the space at these local outlets:
- Journal Sentinel: New owner keeps ‘letterpress’ alive at century-old Wisconsin print shop
- Bay View Compass: Artist acquires vintage print shop