handwritten

A place in space for pen and paper, handwritten publishes things in handwriting as well as things on handwriting. Co-curated with Say Madges in 2015, we built handwritten in part out of annoyance: much of the dialogue about handwriting flattens it into a romantic art form or hyper-fixates on a loss (for example, of teaching cursive in classrooms). We were curious: what would happen if we centered the tool in the environment its allegedly being replaced by? The result: an ever-growing network of ink, collection of shapes, and alphabets, real and imagined. We paused in 2020 to care for our own wells and communities, but are resuming curation in 2027.

After four years of curating, we paused handwritten in 2020, as we are hand-writers at heart and needed to care for our own creative wells and communities. As we’ve been thinking about what the next iteration looks like, we’ve been reflecting on our past partnerships and projects, like with our in-person launch party for The Smithsonian Archives of American Art at The Sketchbook Project, and our Pints & Postages series at rotating breweries. We also hosted letter-writing workshops at The Morgan Library, a handwritten gala we hosted at Pen + Brush Gallery, and even an outdoor performance series, Out Loud, which took place at Flatiron Plaza. Perhaps that’s part of the beauty: who knows where handwriting will take you?

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