“This special event is in keeping with the Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair’s mission to make regional and national rare book fairs accessible and welcoming to communities of color, folks with disabilities, the LGBTQ community, and others who have been excluded by institutional marginalization,” says Jennifer Phillips, the book fair’s Show Manager.
The Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair is a hybrid book fair. It’s in-person iteration will feature exhibitors hailing from the Twin Cities, from greater Minnesota, and from several other locations around the United States. Faces familiar to the Minnesota book community, such as Rob Rulon-Miller, the Bookhouse in Dinkytown, Ken Sanders Rare Books, Midway Rare Books, and others, will be at the University of St. Thomas to meet their customers face-to-face. The fair is excited to welcome booksellers less familiar to the Minnesota community, such as Type Punch Matrix, Uncharted Books, Lorne Bair Rare Books, among others. The book fair’s virtual counterpart will feature booksellers from across the nation, as the virtual format is more accessible for booksellers in far-away locales.
The virtual portion of the fair is being produced on Getman’s Virtual Book Fair Platform, developed at the start of the pandemic when book fairs around the country came to an abrupt halt. Marvin Getman, a veteran book fair producer based in the Northeastern United States, said, “I am so pleased to be working with Jennifer Phillips and CABS-Minnesota and the exciting Diverse Voices Fellowship. I will encourage this year’s Fellows and CABS graduates to exhibit at the virtual fair by offering complimentary space to help them get a feel for the business of selling rare books and ephemera online. I will also give a portion of any profits to CABS-Minnesota scholarships. We need to do whatever we can to bring new voices into the business. I believe that these hybrid fairs will become more the norm as time goes on. Live fairs are very important to bringing dealers together and the virtual fairs work wonderfully at opening the fair to dealers and customers who are unable to attend the live event. The wide reach of the virtual fair’s marketing and email list will help put a spotlight on the live fair”.
The fair invites both experienced and beginning collectors as attendees. “Our fair is a celebration of the rare book community, both locally and nationally,” Phillips says. “We host vendors that have decades of experience in bookselling and offer items of major historical and literary significance. Many of our dealers also pride themselves on offering books and manuscripts connected to underrepresented groups in the historical record.”
CABS-Minnesota’s new Diverse Voices Fellowship is a crucial step in ensuring bibliophiles of all communities see themselves reflected in the rare book trade. For decades, CABS- Minnesota has led the rare book community in recruiting young and fresh perspectives. The fellowship benefits the book trade and the cultural heritage community at large by expanding perspectives and encouraging new collaborations. “We’re very excited to have five fellows who are deeply knowledgeable in their areas of expertise and who are enthusiastic about engaging with the antiquarian book trade,” says Michele Wan, coordinator of the Diverse Voices Fellowship. “We welcome them to the community of antiquarian and rare booksellers and look forward to our continued work together.”
Rob Rulon-Miller, an exhibitor at the book fair and a faculty member of the CABS- Minnesota seminar, says, “We are very excited about this year’s Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair. This will be the first time a Minnesota book fair has backed up to CABS- Minnesota. It is the common goal of the Minnesota Book Fair and CABS–Minnesota to help bring diversity to the book trade. Together, we recognize that many talented professionals in the cultural heritage professions do not see themselves reflected in the trade and have found themselves isolated or distanced by reason of race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, and/or income.”
The Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair will take place 3:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 8 and 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 9. Tickets will be $7.00 for both days or $5.00 for Saturday-only admission. Kids under 12 get in for free and complimentary parking is available for attendees.
The Minnesota Virtual Antiquarian Book Fair will take place on an online platform beginning at 11:00 a.m. central on July 7th, and open continuously until 7:00 p.m. on July 9th.
For more information on tickets and parking, please visit minnesotaantiquarianbookfair.wordpress.com/about/. Tickets can be purchased here: www.eventbrite.com/e/minnesota-antiquarian-book-fair-tickets-231109102547. More information about the Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair and the event celebrating the CABS-Minnesota Seminar can be found here: https://minnesotaantiquarianbookfair.wordpress.com/the-minnesota-book-fair-2022- event-panel-featuring-three-graduates-of-cabs-minnesota/
