Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tom Virgin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Tom , thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

For readers who do not know what they want to do when they grow up: I never considered being a teacher.
I was always mad about books.
I loved art, but did not begin to study it until I was in my 20’s.
By twenty I was a college dropout…Who began a ten year sojourn into gardening.
During that decade I finished a BFA in Painting and Printmaking (one class at a time).
That benchmark was followed up by an MFA at the University of Miami in Printmaking.

I was 40 when I started teaching in Title I Public High Schools in Miami, and twenty years out of High School when I walked into Beach High. I continued to study printmaking after school and during summers between school years. I discovered book arts. Each summer in national parks, national forests, book arts communities and artists residencies I printed and made books. Now I am the proprietor of Extra Virgin Press, an independent letterpress print shop in Little Haiti (Miami), Florida.

I have the smallest business possible, just me and two presses. Teaching taught me to collaborate and share. It also taught me that other people’s stories were important. Kids taught me to work with others. Professional development from Creative Capital and Miami Dade County Cultural Affairs Department, as well as grants to study with experts in printing and book art also brought me to a larger community.

Tom , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have worked with the Miami Dade Public Library, Miami Book Fair, Books & Books, Islandia Journal, O, Miami Poetry Festival, artists, writers, and young people. What I do the most is print for people the old fashioned way, one sheet of paper and one color at a time, on the letterpress. Prints, books, posters, and broadsheets give me many opportunities to continue working with others after teaching. I especially love working for kids. Two summers in a row, former students worked with me as interns in the shop. The first was funded by the Business program at University of Chicago. The following summer another student was funded by MDCPS Summer Vocational Employment Program. They helped me sort, consolidate, and archive a body of work that accumulated over thirty years, along with what came from the press.

A favorite client is O, Miami Poetry Festival who I have worked with a few times. One year I brought poets to school to teach short forms of poetry, primarily Haiku. A year later, I brought poets to six schools in the district, high schools and their feeder middle schools. Each school got class sets of postcards and posters with Artist/Poet collaborations (broadsheets, text and image) and biographies of each participant on the other side of the postcard.

Most recently I printed images with wood type (letters made from wood for printing “old school”) from one word prompts that came from elementary school students’ poetry. I received a dozen words to work with, to make these images for postcards. O, Miami selected: Giraffe, rain and cupcake. The postcards were sent to every home in the zip code that the students lived in. All the neighbors found out what I know. Those kids are geniuses.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I retired from teaching when public schools in Miami went virtual in Fall 2020. I was a year past my retirement age. I had just completed a large project that ended up postponed for two years. No one came to my door at Extra Virgin Press during that time. Fortunately my ongoing conversations with the community of teachers, artists and writers kept me engaged. I did virtual studio talks with local partners: Perez Art Museum Miami, Fountainhead Residency, and FIU Frost Museum’s Education Program. I also mailed prints to exhibitions in Colorado, Texas, California, and Minnesota. I sent videos of Miami poets reading their broadsheets we make together to the Miami Book Fair, who put them on the virtual Book Fair site. I zoomed every Friday with printers around the world at Hamilton Hangs. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-hTBsYtF0SSN6X65she0DWthSefabNwd My network grew.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When I began teaching again. It was with small groups in various organizations that loved books, kids, printing and learning. The community support from artists, grants, organizations, and institutions continues to make it possible for me to keep making books.

The most recent class that I taught was with Perez Art Museum Miami. They offered a book art class called Creative Aging, in a grant funded enrichment series that brings in people 60 years old and older (nice kids just like me) to employ their experiences with educational content to make artists books. We met twice a week for five weeks and made five different book structures, that were exhibited at PAMM for an evening. A short piano recital was provided by our senior student who is 92.

I am also working again to provide teaching materials for elementary school projects for O, Miami. My love of books, reading, and printing has brought me to many of the premier institutions in this city. Teaching seems to be hard wired into my practice, Words on the page are an inspiration to me, and printing makes it possible for me to share those words, in books and on prints to others… From little kids to nice kids my age.

Creative Vizcaya, Tom Virgin teaching artist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiX5NPvLprw

Contact Info:

• Website: www.extravirginpress.com
• Instagram: @extravirginpress
• Other: www.tomvirgin.com/wp

Image Credits
portrait: World Red Eye, Oolite Arts, postcards: O, Miami Poetry Festival, Creative Aging at PAMM: my students