Nearly 30 vendors are packing up their treasures right now and heading to the 2014 Fine Print, Rare Book and Paper Arts Fair at St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. The fair is scheduled May 2 – 4 in the J.C. Penney Building|Conference Center on UMSL’s North Campus.
Julie Dunn-Morton, fine arts curator and Nicholas Fry curator of the John W. Barriger National Railroad Library at the Mercantile talked with Kathy Lawton Brown of Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis (107.3 FM) recently on this annual event.
“Some of our dealers donate their items for Friday’s silent auction and there is usually a mixture of art work and services, an art appraisal or carpet cleaning,” said Dunn-Morton. “People will find historic maps, Civil War postcards, historical photographs, contemporary photographs and prints in a very broad price range from $20 on up.”
Vendors include: M. Lee Stone Fine Prints, a California dealer who specializes in 20th- and 21st-century American art; The Old Print Shop, a N.Y. art gallery specializing in American 18th- and 19th-century prints; and local dealers such as the Kodner Gallery and McCaughen and Burr, the oldest continuously operating art gallery west of the Mississippi River.
A preview party to benefit the Mercantile Library, will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. May 2. A silent auction will include tugboat trips on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, oil and watercolor paintings, fine art prints, vintage records and much more. Tickets are $50 for individuals, two for $90. Mercantile Library members pay $40 for an individual ticket and $70 for two with a membership card. Young collectors 35 and under pay $25.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 3 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 4. Tickets are $7 general admission each day, $5 for Mercantile Library members with a card and $2 for students and UMSL alumni with an ID card.
Advance tickets for the Friday evening benefit are recommended. Call 314-516-6740 or email dunnmortonj@umsl.edu. For more information, visit UMSL’s print fair website.
