We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tom Virgin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tom, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?
Prior to becoming the Proprietor of Extra Virgin Press, a small independent letterpress shop, I was a Title I public high school art teacher for twenty five years. I had many jobs before becoming a teacher, but often those jobs did have a component of teaching. I had plenty of practice learning also, in earlier jobs, because prior to teaching I dropped out of college. The second half of my undergraduate credits were earned one or two classes at a time over the course of a decade. I was awarded an MFA in Printmaking after two years, and began teaching soon after.
My own high school experiences in the suburbs of Detroit in the late ‘60s were memorable, but did not prepare me for educating high school kids in Miami in 1995. Those students taught me about immigrants, dictators, migration, languages and culture. I taught them the basic skills of art, communication and application. To be fair, a dozen years I spent as a gardener in South Florida did increase my understanding of other cultures and socio-economic opportunities. In my time, both teaching and nurturing plants, presented an outcome of consistent progress through meeting basic needs sustaining continuous growth.
My students taught me about where they came from prior to Miami. I shared my exotic stories of the Midwest. Early on when I asked a student if he had been to Disney World, this 16 year old boy replied, “Mr., I have never been off of the Beach (Miami Beach Senior High).” I was stunned. I also began learning a few words in other languages. At Beach High we had kids from 70 countries, so this was somewhat challenging. Still, I could draw pictures. At Hialeah High my Spanish improved. The gist of this story is that when I started teaching Art, my Art knowledge was solid, but my understanding of my students needed work. Now, as an artist and a printer, I continue do my best to make work that reflects my neighbors and the neighborhoods that we occupy. It would be fair to say that my six thousand or so students taught me far more in those 25 years than I taught them. I am grateful for that education.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was teaching during the school year and learning how to print with letterpress and making books during the summers in Book Arts communities. Teaching and learning full time. Working in a large public high school brought me to students, faculty, staff and a large range of visitors and outside programs. My goal has always been amplify my students’ voices. My experience as an artist in residence in Wyoming, Tennessee, Michigan, Minnesota or Oregon, also compelled me to bring those places’ unique stories to my prints, my books, and to my students.
Much of my work in collaboration between artists and writers came from relationships made with poets and writers I met in residencies in the U.S.. My students from the Caribbean and South America added their stories. My artists’ books came from gathering stories in one place and telling them to folks in other places. Being taught by everyone around me had the effect of enhancing the story telling and lifting all of us.
Books and prints from Extra Virgin Press are made by hand. The traditional tools of printing and book arts are from the mid 1950’s or earlier. Demonstrations featuring these presses with community organizations, libraries and kids, are put together with the intention of experiencing the act of printing. Young people who “pull a print” on a press have visual and muscle memory of hand made production. Smelling the ink, feeling the rollers of the press bumping over type is an unforgettable experience. I offer the experience and the outcome of printing… A print.
I am honored to be working with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator to provide access to printing and presses at Extra Virgin Press. Rosa Garmendia prints at Extra Virgin Press. We both will be featured with DVCAI’s artists and other Caribbean artists in the Synergetic Proof Online Art Fair. Another Miami organization, Oolite Arts purchased two of my books for their collection, Conversation Too and Signs, both collaborations with poets and artists.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Miami does not have a Book Arts Center. I chose most of the places I have visited in residencies and workshops so that I could learn more book arts. Thirteen years ago, several book artists in Miami proposed just that. At the time I had no presses, and was new to letterpress. Miami Dade Public Library submitted a proposal that was not funded. However, it inspired a small group of artists and writers to create literary broadsheets that became the SWEAT Broadsheet Collaboration. Broadsheets are prints that have text and related images, printed on a single sheet of paper. From 2008 to 2012 this group created over one hundred prints and seventy collaborators. http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/JaffeCenter/collection/sweat_broadsides/index.php
That project was partially from my exposure to the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) programming. Sharing presses often promotes sharing space on the page. At MCBA, I met many book artists and asked many questions. I took classes there during every trip, and was befriended by superb printers and book artists. Those artists introduced me to more printers including those at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. I recently attended their 2023 Wayzgoose, an international convention of printers.
Miami now has two print shops just a few blocks apart, Extra Virgin Press and IS Projects. IS Projects brought the first fine press book fair to Miami in February 2023 with the Knight Foundation. Tropic Bound Book Fair in Miami’s Design District was a chance for me to see many of the book artists that I met in residencies around the US in classes, in Miami. My goal is to have a book arts center in Miami. We have the artists, the writers, the stories and the skills.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Perhaps it may be a bit of a stretch to understand the impulse to make books. Do people still read books? If the turnout at the 40th Miami Book Fair is any indication, it is safe to say yes. I was in huge rooms with hundreds of people who turned out to listen to nationally recognized writers like David Brooks, as well as classrooms full of Miamians who were listening to Miami poets. This year I was delighted to be chosen to work with the Book Fair to create an edition of prints to honor Miami writers and dedicated community leaders.
As an artist who worked with young people for almost three decades, my loyalties are still with them. Poetry, posters, broadsheets, and other printed forms distribute messages that cover a range of topics. I am proud to part of an exhibition that is built around Banned Books at the University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum, curated by Chris Friday. The books in this show are free for the taking. They are books that I grew up with, kept in my classroom, and marked the breadth and depth of our conversations in the classroom.
https://www.lowe.miami.edu/exhibitions/current-upcoming/chris-friday/index.html
As a public school art teacher I often worked with students to present during Black History Month for teacher luncheons, library displays, and other programming that promoted all of the various ethnicities that comprised our school population. We all did research during those events which had the effect of making each student feel represented. Miami Beach High School had kids from seventy countries, creating a job that was ongoing, making all groups visible. The opportunity to continue working for young people, artists, writers, and community voices through print is a mission that I have been trained for.
Image Credits
Photo credits: Signs & Convo2/Tom Virgin Rosa Garmendia & Tom Virgin/Tom Virgin Synergetic Proof/ DVCAI Tom Virgin at Hamilton/Tom Virgin Barb Tettenbaum, Hamilton Workshop attendees/Tom Virgin Book Fair Collage, Two Roads print/Miami Book Fair, Tom Virgin Campbell Mc Grath, Tom Virgin, Michael Hettich/ Elizabeth Lichtenstein Banned…/Tom Virgin Banned…/Chris Friday, Lowe Art Museum Banned, Chris Friday/ Tom Virgin