Black Rock Press Fellowship

Learn about the two-year Black Rock Press Fellowship Program.

This two-year fellowship offers an artist in the field of artist books, publication arts and/or printmaking the opportunity to work at Black Rock Press and participate in all aspects of the activities of the press, both its academic curriculum and its publishing and outreach practices. Fellows receive full-time work and the facilities to continue their artistic pursuits while gaining experience in the field of publication and building a community. Culminating the two-year fellowship, the fellow will participate in the Black Rock Press Parley Project.

Book Arts Fellowship

The purpose of this fellowship is to give emerging artists the opportunity to work at Black Rock Press, and gain experience at an established academic book and publication arts program, which conducts a range of activities within the field of artist books, fine press printing, bookmaking, and the publication arts. Fellows will have the chance to participate in all aspects of the activities of the Press and the curricular program. In turn, we will benefit from new ideas and techniques the fellow would bring, along with the work they will contribute.

Deadline for submission has passed.

Contact AB Gorham with questions at agorham@unr.edu

Parley project

The Parley Project is a biennial interdisciplinary book art project that fosters research and conversation across the University of Nevada, Reno campus and involves Black Rock Press students, staff and faculty in its production. Working in collaboration with another person or entity on the campus, the fellow designs a project based on this outreach.

Current fellow

Kelsey Reiman is an artist who works primarily in printmaking and book arts. She is originally from Kearney, Nebraska and earned her B.A. from Wellesley College in 2015 and her MFA from Arizona State University in 2019. She currently resides in Reno, Nevada as the Redfield Fellow at Black Rock Press (2021 - 2022). Kelsey is interested in pattern as it relates to traditional domestic crafts and haptic visuality.

Previous fellows

Kellee Morgado is an interdisciplinary designer and artist. She received her BFA in graphic design at Appalachian State University (2017) and currently resides in Reno, Nevada as the Redfield Fellow at the Black Rock Press (2018-2020). She has a particular attraction to artist books, typography, printed matter and letterpress and enjoys exploring this intersection of books, print and design.

Book art with intricate folds and 3D objects popping out

Lauren Cardenas (2016-2018 Redfield Fellow) is a Texas native and studio artist who focuses on print media. She was the editor and founder of PIECRUST Magazine (2011-2014), which was an art and biannual literary magazine based out of St. Louis. During that period, she published seven small press publications, attempting to explore the structure of a bound publication. Lauren also was a co-founding member and co-director of Museum Blue (2014-2017), an artist-run project space in St. Louis. She has co-curated many exhibitions that make strides to bridge the gap between art and literature. Along with her curatorial and publishing practice, she was a founding member and an active part of the steering committee of the St. Louis Small Press Expo (2014-2016). She was Gallery Committee member for the Holland Project in Reno, NV( 2017-2018), where she assisted in the curation of zine exhibition, Bound.

The Things You Say in the Dark book opened to the centerfold

Cardenas holds a BFA in painting, printmaking and drawing from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. She is a Tamarind Institute Printer Training Program graduate and holds an MFA in Visual Art from Washington University in St. Louis. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Des Lee Gallery, Open House Galleries, Granite City Arts and Design District in St. Louis, Ralph Arnold Gallery in Chicago, IL, The Luminary in St. Louis, MO and IPCNY New Prints Winter 2017. She was awarded the University of Nevada, Reno Black Rock Press Redfield Fellowship (2016-2018) and created a limited edition artist book titled Things You See in the Dark, which is a collaboration with poet Daniel Enrique Perez and St. Louis based DJ David Kirkland. She recently joined the University of Mississippi art faculty as the assistant professor of printmaking.

Jaime Lynn Shafer (2014-2016 Redfield Fellow) is a 2014 Corcoran College of Art + Design M.A. Art & the Book graduate. A native of Pennsylvania, Shafer graduated from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1999 with a BFA in Fine Arts/Ceramics and a certification in art education. She spent 13 years teaching art in the Pennsylvania public school system and traveled internationally with her students, offering them an opportunity to experience the global community.

Shafer’s work has been exhibited in the U.S. and abroad and is a part of the permanent collections of Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The National Museum of Women in the Arts and UCLA Biomedical Library among others. Shafer was the 2014-2016 recipient of the Redfield Black Rock Press Fellowship in Book Arts at the University of Nevada, Reno. She currently resides in Fallon, Nevada, where she teaches high school art and ceramics.