San Antonio’s first and longest running contemporary art non-profit, Blue Star Contemporary, located in the heart of the Blue Star Arts Complex, is pleased to present the Novel Ideas Art Book Fair which will take place on Friday March 6 from 5p.m. to 9p.m. and Saturday March 7 from 10a.m. to 6p.m. at SAYSi. The first and only art book fair in the region coincides with Blue Star Contemporary’s spring exhibitions featuring the work of Emilia Azcárate, Ann Clarke, Arturo Herrera, Candace Hicks, Rand Renfrow, Benedikt Terwiel, Hye-Ryoung Min and Sarah Welch. Also complementing the fair are Contemporary Art Month San Antonio and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference taking place in San Antonio, March 4 to 7, 2020. (Blue Star Contemporary, 2020)

Novel Ideas Art Book Fair is a two-day art book fair organized by Blue Star Contemporary. It will feature artists’ books, monographs, zines, printed ephemera and more. Conceived as a platform and community-building event for artists and producers operating primarily in the Southwestern US region and Mexico who are dedicated to books as medium and material, the Novel Ideas Art Book Fair includes a range of exhibitors, both publishers and artists. Novel Ideas includes programming such as talks, pop-up workshops, signings, an after party hosted by Paper Tiger and four complementary onsite exhibitions.

The fair presents noted artist and curator Julie Ault as the keynote speaker for the event on Saturday March 7 at 3p.m. Julie Ault is a curator, writer, editor, artist and designer who began her career establishing the temporary exhibition as art form.

Admission
$15 – Friday, March 6, 2020 opening night (CAM supporters receive $5 discount at the door with CAM sticker)
$20 – Saturday, March 7, 2020 all day
Door cover charge – closing concert at Paper Tiger on Saturday, March 7, 2020 7p.m. to 11p.m.
$40 – All access pass to all the above, advance purchase only, limited edition artist print by Rand Renfrow for the first 40 purchasers.
BSC members, TPR members and members of any of our museum month partner organizations receive a $5 discount on the all access pass.

Participating 2020 exhibitors include

• Animal Facts Club (Wimberley)
• Annie May Johnston (Austin)
• Artpace (SA)
• Bill’s Junk (Houston)
• Cattywampus Press (SA)
• Cortney Cassidy (Oakland)
• Coyote Bones Press (San Antonio)
• Feral Editions (SA)
• Flowerpot Books (SA)
• French & Michigan (SA)
• Glasstire (TX)
• Hare and Hound Press (SA)
• Hellen Jo (LA)
• M12 (Colorado)
• Lawrence Markey (San Antonio)
• Lorenzo Gomez (San Antonio)
• Pey-Jing Li Mehrinfar (San Marcos)
• Mixed Media Press (Mexico City)
• Modernizm Zine (Houston)
• MOSAIC Student Artist Program (San Antonio)
• Mystic Multiples (Houston)
• Rand Renfrow (Austin)
• San Anto Zine Fest (SA)
• Southwest School of Art (SA)
• Spend Time Zine Mart (Austin)
• Sybil Press (SA/Baltimore)
• Texas State University Photography Program (San Marcos)
• TPR/David Martin Davies (TX)
• Trilce Ediciones (Mexico City)
• UT Riso Room (Austin)
• Yes, Ma’am Press & Xicana Vegan(SA)

Blue Star Contemporary (BSC) is the first and longest-running nonprofit venue for contemporary art in San Antonio. Its start 32 years ago created a pathway leading to city bond funding that supported the revamp of an old warehouse complex into an artist-centric, mixed-use development, sparking the total revitalization of Southtown as it is today. Their mission to inspire, nurture, innovate and support artists and nurturing the community’s relationships with them are the very fibers of Blue Star Contemporary’s rich cultural tapestry.

SAYSí
1518 S Alamo St.
San Antonio, TX 78204
(210) 212-8666