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= Artists Book House = Artists Book House NFP (ABH) is a nonprofit organization, based in Evanston, Illinois, devoted to the literary, book arts (including artist's books) and paper arts. Founded by artist and bestselling author Audrey Niffenegger and a group of artists in 2019, Artists Book House was chosen by the City of Evanston in March of 2021 to restore and renovate the Harley Clarke Mansion into its future educational facility which will include studios for making paper, printing, and bookbinding; classrooms for writing, book design and illustration and related topics; a bookstore, cafe, library, and lecture hall. Artists Book House will offer affordable community classes on a variety of subjects and will encourage an interdisciplinary approach to writing and artmaking. Niffenegger envisions ABH as “...a place where artists, writers, readers, and other thoughtful people gather to learn and create.”

In addition to Audrey Niffenegger, the current board members of Artists Book House include: Hannah Batsel, Ben Blount, Jennifer Friedrich, Kenneth Gerleve, Tom Greensfelder, Regin Igloria, Eileen Madden, Riva Parker, Carol Prieto, Eileen Pollard, and Jamie Thome. Past board members include: Suzanne Cohen Lange, Diane Stilwell-Weinberg.

Mission Statement
The Artists Book House website states their mission thus: "“Through education, exhibitions, publications, and events, Artists Book House expands our community. We promote the literary arts and the crafts of book making. We rejoice in the physical form of the book and embrace interdisciplinary approaches to the book arts. We are committed to conservation, understanding the history and craft of the book, and sharing knowledge. We celebrate diversity and are committed to empowering people to tell their stories, to transform their worlds into books.”"

History
Artists Book House is a successor to the now-closed Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. Audrey Niffenegger was a co-founder of the Center and its MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts program, and worked as both staff and faculty at the Center from 1994 until 2009. Many of the founding board members of Artists Book House were  formerly faculty, staff, or students who had graduated from the MFA program. In 2019, the graduate program was dissolved by Columbia College Chicago due in large part to budget cuts stemming from a continued drop in student enrollment following the recession in 2007. Remaining faculty and most of the equipment and studio space was absorbed into Columbia’s undergraduate Art and Film Departments.

Harley Clarke Mansion
In 2015, the Evanston Art Center, in Evanston, Illinois, ended their 50 year lease with the City for the lakefront Harley Clarke Mansion, and left behind the 22,000 sf building as the city debated what to do with it next. After many years of deferred maintenance and neglect, the building sat vacant for several years while a proposal from Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Pritzker to renovate the house into a boutique hotel was met with resistance from Evanston residents. A second proposal to repurpose the building as a community center progressed only to fail during lease negotiations, and a third proposal to demolish the building and turn it into a patch of grass led to an outcry of support for the “people’s lake house” and a citywide referendum to save it.

Artist Book House and three other organizations (Evanston Community Lakehouse & Gardens, Evanston Conservancy, and ONECommunity Museum) submitted proposals to the City of Evanston’s RFP for Reuse of the Harley Clarke Mansion on February 28th, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in statewide lockdowns.

COVID-19 Pandemic
Because of the pandemic, Artists Book House board members Jamie Thome and Kenneth Gerleve spent the rest of 2020 producing online content including weekly artist talks (Quarantours, Conversations) hosted by Thome, book arts and writing tutorials, collaborative illustrated literary works (Collaborations). An online event, A House, Haunted, included a series of ghost stories curated by Todd Summar (Stories After Dark), an online collaboration with the Ragdale Foundation’s Rags to Witches, and interviews for the month of October on the ABH website and YouTube channel.

On September 21, 2020, ABH and the other organizations presented their proposals to the Evanston City Council and interested citizens via Zoom. It was announced on February 8th, 2021, that the City Council had chosen Artists Book House’s proposal, and would award a 40 year lease to the organization, pending a five year period of fundraising and renovation of the Harley Clarke Mansion.

Present
In May of 2021, Artists Book House was given the keys to the mansion, and with the help of many intrepid volunteers, began the process of cleaning the house and assessing its current condition.

Architect John Eifler (Eifler & Associates), landscape architect Nick Patera (Teska Associates, Inc.), and project managers James Kastenholz and James Johnson (Kastenholz Construction Services) are working with Artists Book House to develop plans to restore and renovate the Harley Clarke Mansion and grounds for its educational programming and public use, including ADA compliant elevators and lifts which the 1927 mansion needs to address its current accessibility issues. The plan will include print, papermaking and book binding studios, conference rooms and classrooms for teaching writing and for hosting book groups, and a papermaker’s garden. A café serving light fare, an art gallery and a bookstore will be open to the public. Additional public programming, such as artist talks, author readings and poetry slams, will be scheduled to coincide with the academic year to avoid conflicts with parking for those visiting the beach.

In October of 2021, ABH hosted its second annual Halloween event entitled A House, Haunted at the Harley Clarke Mansion which consisted of sixteen original, backlit, illustrated panels designed by Hannah Batsel and Kenneth Gerleve adorning the windows of the house’s western facade. Visitors were treated to nightly views of the windows, from dusk to 10pm. Additionally, spooky art installations by Margot McMahon, Erin Cramer, Linda Scholly, and Mary Sweeney (as Horror Floral) could be viewed in the first floor rooms on the eastern and southern sides of the mansion. On select days during the month of October, visitors to the mansion were welcomed in to see the installations and visit the Curious Objects pop-up shop which sold original artworks, t-shirts, posters and books to help raise funds for the renovation.

In late November and December 2021, ABH hosted a winter / holiday themed pop-up shop. During this time, the Harley Clarke’s western windows were decorated with lighted branch trees, hoping to bring cheer to Evanstonians as the covid pandemic extended into its second holiday season.

In 2022, Artists Book House continues its programming and engagement online and within the Evanston community. As covid restrictions have eased or been lifted, efforts at fundraising have redoubled, with plans for ABH’s third A House, Haunted in the works.