Artist and Bookbinder Sylvia Alotta with Jamie Thome

On Thursday, December 17th, 2020, we talked with artist and bookbinder Sylvia Ramos Alotta. 

Sylvia Ramos Alotta began her classical training in drawing and painting at age of eight. Her first teacher was an artist who fled Budapest to come to America during WWII. 

After receiving a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art, she was an Automotive Interior Designer for General Motors in Detroit. In 1995, Sylvia was awarded a U.S. Design Patent for a unique journal system. In developing this system, she began a lifelong interest in hand bookbinding. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts in Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago. Her graduate school sketchbook on various bookbinding structures was published as The Exquisite Notes. 

The book has become her artistic form of expression from concept to production reflecting a diversity of achievements based on her experience in industrial design, graphics, photography, and print. Her work can be found in publications as well as private and public collections. She has served on the Executive Board for the Guild of Book Workers and exhibited internationally. She has taught at Columbia College Chicago, Morgan Conservatory, Center for the Book, Paper Book Intensive, and Southwest School of Arts and Crafts. Sylvia is a Spertus fellow of the Midwest Jewish Artist Lab. 

In 2017 she was awarded The Jewish Book Arts Award by the Isaac Anolic Foundation. Her work can be found on her website at studioalotta.com

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Thanks for watching! 

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