By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

In her Westbrook studio, Kennebunk artist Kate Cheney Chappell has a number of books on display, but you would not find these books in a store or at a library. Chappell made all of them by hand. 

“I made books as a child,” Chappell said. “My sister and I would make up stories, and then we’d write the stories into books we made.”

Chappell has kept the tradition of making books as a child through her adult life, having taken courses at the University of Southern Maine that focus on the art of book making. As a 1983 alumnus of the University of Southern Maine, Chappell said she wanted to give back to the university and the financial donation she made led to the creation of the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts at Glickman Family Library on the Portland campus. 

The center will open with an inaugural event at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4 with guest speaker Claire Van Vliet, who will speak about making books by hand and her experience founding Janus Press in Vermont. 

Portland artist and University of Southern Maine professor Rebecca Goodale is the program director for the center, and has planned three lectures, two exhibitions and two workshops during the first year the center is open.

“Education in book art is so engaging on several levels,” Goodale said. “It is also a tradition in Maine, with nationally recognized papermakers and printers. We need to support that tradition whether it is as viewers or makers.”

Chappell and Goodale both actively practice the art of book making. Recently, Chappell completed a collaborative book inspired by “The Envelope,” a poem by Maxine Kumin. 

“The poem Maxine Kumin wrote is about her mother, and it prompted me to think about daughters writing about their mothers,” Chappell said. 

The collaborative project was a year-long process during which Chappell contacted 25 local artists asking for their participation.

She sent them an envelope made from lokta paper — a very strong natural material native to Nepal — and Kumin’s poem. Chappell said she did not give the artists much direction other than to create something about their mothers inspired by the poem and it had to fit inside the envelope. 

Chappell compiled 22 returned envelops into two volumes, which she displays stretched out into a circular form.

Fellow Kennebunk artist Anne Gable Allaire participated in the collaborative project.   Allaire said she traditionally works with pastels, and thought “long and hard” about how to use her medium working within Chappell’s guidelines.

“I’ve always been interested in book art, and this project was thought-provoking,” Allaire said. “I learned a lot about the art of book making through the process, and I think the book center is a very exciting addition.”

While the center is just opening, book art has been an offering at the University of Southern Maine for a long time. Chappell said she took a course, “Illuminated Autobiography,” while she was attending the university, which taught her how to write stories in different ways and put the words into a book.

University of Southern Maine also offers a seven-day summer program at the university’s Stone House in Freeport. Chappell said the program offers a series of workshops on printmaking, sequential images, moveable parts for books, inventive structures, bookbinding, box making, and design, taught by nine instructors. A recent exhibit at the Glickman Family Library displayed the books produced during the previous summer session.

Chappell said she hopes booking making program offerings and courses expand with the introduction of the university’s Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts.

The inaugural event for the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts at the Glickman Family Library in Portland is free, but reservations can be made by calling 780-4007.