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Kislak Center Upcoming Events

Lectures, symposia, and exhibitions presented and co-sponsored by the Penn Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Opening Soon

Beautiful Blackbird: The Creative Spirit of Ashley Bryan

Opening April 6, 2023. In 2019 the Ashley Bryan Center donated the archive of the renowned artist, author, and humanitarian Ashley Bryan, who died last year at the age of 98, to the Kislak Center at the Penn Libraries. This exhibition explores his century-long story, the story of one man — seeking his place in a world that did not always welcome him, finding himself through observation and expression, and using his creative gifts to make sense of his life and to help others to do the same.

Ashley Bryan, Village Voices, ca. 1992, painting based on an illustration in Sing to the Sun (1992) (2022 gift of the Ashley Bryan Center)
Jun 07
  • Workshop
Open to Penn Students, Faculty, and Staff

Intro to Letterpress Workshop / Press Training

Learn the fundamentals of setting type and letterpress printing on our Vandercook cylinder presses. We will also discuss alternatives to setting type for printing on the press (photopolymer plates, linoleum, pressure printing). Required as a prerequisite for printing on the Vandercook on independent projects. Registration is required.

  • June 7, 2023
  • 1:00pm - 4:00pm
  • Common Press, Fisher Fine Arts, Lower Level
A box of letterpress stamps.
Jun 29
  • Workshop
Open to Penn Students, Faculty, and Staff

Print Your Own Business or Calling Cards

Print your own contact cards on our tabletop clamshell press! Come prepared with the text you'd like to print - no more than 75 characters.

  • June 29, 2023
  • 1:30pm - 4:30pm
  • Common Press, Fisher Fine Arts, Lower Level
A tabletop letterpress with a "Hello World" stamp on it.
Sep 21
Open to the Public

Dryad for STEM Researchers

This workshop will introduce researchers to Dryad, a generalist data repository for STEM research data. This workshop will go through how to get signed up with Dryad, how to deposit research data, and how can increase your ability to comply with data sharing requirements. While this workshop will be most suitable for STEM researchers and those supporting them, anyone is welcome to join.

  • September 21, 2023
  • 11:00am - 12:00pm
  • Online
Nov 16 - 18
  • Symposium
  • Kislak
Open to the Public

The Image of the Book: Representing the Codex from Antiquity to the Present

This year's symposium examine the means by which the premodern book, and in particular the manuscript, is described across a wide variety of media, from painting and sculpture to digital media and film..

  • November 16-18, 2023
  • Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts and Free Library of Philadelphia
Detail of an opened illuyminated book of hours in a Renaissance painting.