Support
Why You Should Support CBA?
As a non-profit organization, Center for Book Arts is 100% reliant on charitable donations to continue working to uplift and further the book arts and grow our community. Your donation to CBA directly supports our exhibitions, workshops, events, and opportunities for visual and literary artists. Consider your gift an investment in the next generation of book arts practitioners and a commitment to keep book arts available and affordable!
How to Donate to CBA
Donate by Phone:
Please call 212-481-0295 during our regular business hours (Mon–Thurs, 11am–6pm and Fri & Sat, 11am–5pm) to make a donation over the phone.
Donate by Mail:
To make a donation by mail, please send a check made out to Center for Book Arts to:
Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Fl
New York, NY 10001
Center for Book Arts, Incorporated 1974 is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Please note that this contribution to the Center is for general operations (unless noted otherwise) and is not an annual membership gift.
Center for Book Arts Membership
Since Center for Book Arts was founded in 1974, it has been central to our mission that we be a space where artists, collectors, and the book art community can gather to encounter and explore artistic practices related to the BOOK as ART. This gathering has always been the most important and fulfilling part of our work at Center for Book Arts, and it is through Membership that we can build the gathering. By becoming a member, you become a part of this web of book explorers. You recognize one another by the glint in your eye–a glint that says I am not afraid of my love of texture.
Membership dues—whether $60/year or $1,200—help us keep our studio running, put on programming, and uplift book artists and the book arts all year round.
Joining as a Center for Book Arts Member allows us to keep you in the loop AND invite you to members’ events, provides crucial support to our operations, and most importantly, plugs you into an inspiring, exciting network of artists, collectors, and the book-curious.
For artists, membership offers the additional benefit of connection and network building. Members’ Crit Sessions allow in-person sharing of works in progress, and our Artist Member Registry is an exciting roster of artists working in all disciplines that helps promote resource and skill sharing across CBA’s community and helps connect working bookbinders, teachers, printers, conservators, and more with potential clients. Simply fill out the Artist Contact Information Form when you join or renew!
Membership Benefits
We are delighted to offer reciprocal membership benefits with our friends at Western New York Book Arts Center, Manhattan Graphics Center, Austin Book Arts Center, Bibliographical Society of America, and the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, including discounts on classes, merchandise, and studio time, to expand your book arts and related activities.
Click the levels below to see what other great benefits our members enjoy!
$60/Year
$120/Year
$240/Year
$600/Year
$1,200/Year
Please email membership@centerforbookarts.org for info on student or institutional memberships.
Support Our Instructors
We believe artists deserve appropriate compensation for their time and labor.
Center for Book Arts is committed to fair compensation for the artists who are our instructors, curators, designers, jurists, and others. We tap into this network to keep our programmatic decisions rooted in our communities’ needs and perspectives and to empower —and grow— those in the book arts field. Your gift ensures dedicated funds to pay working artists a living wage.
Support our Collections
CBA’s collections—comprising our historic and contemporary fine arts collection of approximately 3,000+ artists’ books and prints; our reference collection of books, periodicals and exhibition catalogues, and our institutional archive—continues to grow and serve as a resource to the field.
Every gift means we are better able to care for and store, catalog and share, preserve and celebrate these remarkable items. Adopt a book today!
Legacy Giving
Easily establish your book arts legacy by joining The Legacy Circle, Center for Book Arts’ planned giving society.
Legacy gifts strengthen the long-term fiscal security and organizational stability of CBA, allowing us to best serve our growing community.
There are three simple ways you can make a gift for the future of book arts.
Add us as a beneficiary of your retirement assets.
Here’s how to name the Center for Book Arts as a beneficiary:
- Contact the administrator of your retirement plan, insurance policy, bank account, or donor advised fund for a change-of-beneficiary form or simply download a form from your provider’s website.
- Decide what percentage (1 to 100) you would like us to receive and name us, along with the percentage you chose, on the beneficiary form.
- Return the completed form to your plan administrator, insurance company, bank, or financial institution.
Use a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA
If you are 70½ years old or older, you can take advantage of a simple way to benefit the Center and receive tax benefits in return. You can give any amount up to $100,000 per year from your IRA directly to a qualified charity such as ours without having to pay income taxes on the money. This popular gift option is commonly called the IRA charitable rollover, but you may also see it referred to as a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD for short.
Why do a QCD?
- Your gift will be put to use today, allowing you to see the difference your donation is making.
- You pay no income taxes on the gift. The transfer generates neither taxable income nor a tax deduction, so you benefit even if you do not itemize your deductions.
- If you reached the age of 70½ on or before Dec. 31, 2019, you can use your gift to satisfy all or part of your required minimum distribution for the year. If you turn 70½ on or after Jan. 1, 2020, you can use your gift to satisfy all or part of your required minimum distribution starting at the age of 72. (Note: The RMD requirement has been waived for 2020, per the CARES Act signed into law on March 27, 2020.)
- Since the gift doesn’t count as income, it can reduce your annual income level. This may help lower your Medicare premiums and decrease the amount of Social Security that is subject to tax.
Ask your IRA administrator about making a direct transfer to the Center or have the administrator send a check from your account to us. (To be tax free, the donation must go directly from your account to the Center without passing through your hands.)
Include the Center in your will or trust.
This may be done with the addition of one sentence
“I give to the Center for Book Arts, Federal Tax ID Number: 13-2842726, a nonprofit corporation currently located at 28 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001, or its successor thereto, __ [written amount or percentage of the estate or description of property] for its unrestricted use and purpose.”
Contact CBA’s Director of Development at elsbeth@centerforbookarts.org with questions about establishing your book arts legacy by designating a gift to Center for Book Arts.
Information contained herein was accurate at the time of posting. The information on this website is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an attorney or tax advisor. Figures cited in any examples are for illustrative purposes only. References to tax rates include federal taxes only and are subject to change. State law may further impact your individual results.
Corporate Membership
Corporate Members play a critical role in supporting the Book Arts, especially during this unprecedented moment. Not only does Corporate Membership offer a wide range of exclusive benefits, but your contribution supports Center for Book Arts’ exhibitions, extraordinary education programs, studio access for artists, and its mission to advance the art of the book.
Consider becoming a Corporate Member to support Center for Book Arts and enjoy exclusive access, employee and client engagement opportunities as well as other great benefits.
| Per Year | What Your Employees Get When You Join |
| $1,500 | • Employees receive 10% off in our Book Shop • Employee access to our VIP exhibition previews • Invitations to exclusive virtual programming |
| $5,000 | • Employees receive 10% off in our Book Shop • Employee access to our VIP exhibition previews • Invitations to exclusive virtual programming • Schedule one free on-site tour for up to 25 guests |
| $10,000 | • Employees receive 10% off in our Book Shop • Employees receive 10% off workshops • Employee access to our VIP exhibition previews • Invitations to exclusive virtual programming • Schedule up to two on-site tours for up to 25 guests each • Schedule one on-site team building workshop for up to 25 guests |
| $20,000 | • Employees receive 10% off in our Book Shop • Employees receive 10% off of tuition for fixed price workshops • Employee access to our VIP exhibition previews • Invitations to exclusive virtual programming • Schedule up to 4 on-site tours for up to 25 guests • Schedule one on-site team building workshop for up to 25 guests • One table for you and up to 5 guests at our annual spring gala |
Corporate Sponsorship
Leverage the power of Center for Book Arts international reach to artists, scholars, collectors, and book lovers in over 75 countries, CBA presents over 50 artist’s talks and 150 courses in the history, theory, and techniques of book art per year.
Center for Book Arts supports artists, curators, art historians, collectors and the public in order to build awareness for the book as an art object. With an international reach to artists, scholars, collectors, and book lovers in over 75 countries, CBA presents over 50 artist’s talks and 150 courses in the history, theory, and techniques of book art per year. Founded in 1974, our studios have provided much needed access to specialized book making equipment and tools through free artist residencies and affordable rentals in Manhattan’s FlatIron District. Currently our galleries hold three exhibitions focussing on graphic design, photography, and the human experience thorough books. And, with over 3000 artist’s books and 6000 reference books about the history of books, artists, scholars, collectors, and book lovers come from all over the world visit CBA to see a diverse range of book art in our collections and galleries. As the most well known nonprofit supporting artists making books, Center for Book Arts is dedicated to fostering a more equitable field for artists to experiment while also building connoisseurship among book collectors.
Sponsor a Class
Each year CBA hosts over 150 courses in the history, theory, and techniques of book art by the best known practitioners in the world. An average class has 25 students and over 300 people view each class listing. By sponsoring a class at CBA you will not only be giving back to the art community, but connecting hundreds of artists with your brand. Sponsors are thanked for their generosity in at least 1 email going out to our list of 12k subscribers, a @mention on instagram or twitter, and permanent acknowledgement of their support on our website. Class sponsorship starts at $300. Email emily@centerforbookarts.org to learn more!
Sponsor a Public Program
CBA hosts over 50 public programs per year with up to 300 attendees, over 500 event page views, and an uncountable number of future online viewers tune in to watch the recordings of these events. Sponsors are thanked for their generosity in at least 1 email going out to our list of 12k subscribers, a @mention on instagram or twitter, permanent acknowledgement of their support on our website, and sponsor acknowledgement at the beginning and end of the program’s youtube video. Public program sponsorship starts at $800. Email emily@centerforbookarts.org to learn more!
Sponsor Book Art Review
The Book Art Review is part of CBA’s plan to make book art criticism more visible and more valuable, and to engage a diverse group of writers and readers. Book art production is more prolific than ever before, yet critical writing about book art and specifically about artist books lags far behind critical writing about other media. Few publications devote space to writing about book arts, and sponsorship helps us sustain a generous print space for the important and growing discourse around the book as an art object. Let’s raise the BAR together, and broaden the field of book art criticism. Consider sponsoring BAR at the following levels:
- Feature Sponsor ($1200): Sponsor a feature length article in BAR, this level of sponsorship enables CBA to provide a fair wage for a writer to and infrastructure needed to support them
- Interview Sponsor ($600): Sponsor an interview in BAR, provides a fair wage for an arts writer to interview an overlooked figure in the book arts
- Review Sponsor ($300): Funds a review writer’s honoraria and to supports the editing, operating, and production costs of the journal
Sponsors receive:
- Acknowledgement and a permanent direct weblink to their site (over 120k visitors annually)
- Acknowledgment in BAR print publication
- •One year subscription to BAR
Make your tax-deductible donation now!
Our Supporters
In addition to the contributions of many generous individuals and members, Center for Book Arts acknowledges support from the following corporations and foundations.
- The Achelis & Bodman Foundations
- The Aileen Getty Foundation
- The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
- Bloomberg Philanthropies
- The Charina Foundation
- The Chervenak-Nunallé Foundation
- The Dedalus Foundation
- The Elbert Lenrow Fund
- The Furthermore Fund
- The Foundation for Contemporary Arts
- The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
- The Hyde & Watson Foundation
- The Institute of Museum and Library Services
- The Joan Mitchell Foundation
- The John W. & Clara C. Higgins Foundation
- The J.M. Kaplan Fund
- The Lily Auchincloss Foundation
- The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation
- The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation
- The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation
- The New York Community Trust
- The New York Council for the Humanities
- The Pine Tree Foundation of New York
- Poets & Writers
- The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation
- The Rockefeller Brothers Fund
- The Schoenheimer Foundation
- The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation
- The Thompson Family Foundation
- The Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Foundation
Center for Book Arts is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional funding for the Center for Book Arts Visual Arts and Literary programs is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts. CBA’s program marketing is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council Initiative.
Center for Book Arts gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of its members and patrons.