Nexus+Press+article

Copyright 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The Atlanta Journal-Constitution June 26, 2005 Sunday Home Edition SECTION: Arts & Books; Pg. 3L;

LENGTH: 241 words

HEADLINE: NEXUS PRESS TO BE REBORN?

BYLINE: CATHERINE FOX

BODY: If all goes well with discussions now under way, Nexus Press, the Contemporary's nationally known division devoted to publishing artists' books, will find a new home at the University of Georgia.

Many in the community were up in arms when the board closed the press in 2003. One of the few of its kind in the country, it was among the best-known and most highly regarded art institutions in Atlanta. Whether or not the management handled the decision well, the bottom line was that the press was bleeding money at a time when the Contemporary had none to spare.

"It was not a profit center, and we couldn't raise the money we needed to keep it going," Contemporary executive director Rob Smulian says. "After that outpouring of grief, there was no commensurate outpouring of money. Of the 50 complaints we received, only seven of the senders had bought a book in the previous two years."

Smulian, who has been searching for a new home for Nexus Press ever since, turned to UGA after the Atlanta College of Art bowed out of the running. Carmon Colangelo, director of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, thinks it would be a good fit.

"We would integrate the press into our book-making program," he says. "We are talking to [the UGA library] to take over the Press' archives."

The former press room beside the Contemporary's galleries would likely become a screening room/meeting space with rental office space to generate income.

LOAD-DATE: June 26, 2005