Welcome to the Chicago Calligraphy Collective.
We are an organization of individuals pursuing this beautiful art by study, collaboration and practice, practice, practice! We simply love to letter. Meet us at a workshop or at an exhibit—in class or at a conference. Come to a study group–we’ll be there. We welcome new members and encourage participation at all skill levels. Join us and learn more about this captivating and engaging form of fine art.
Tree Whispers 25th Anniversary Exhibit
Tree Whispers is celebrating 25 years of their growing and ever-changing paper making initiative. The Chicago Calligraphy Collective (CCC) is excited to be part of the anniversary festivities!
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Artists Book House
4207 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago
10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Together with CCC member and Tree Whispers co-founder, Pam Paulsrud, CCC calligraphers will be on hand demonstrating a variety of writing styles and creating weathergrams. Supplies will be provided for visitors to create their own weathergrams to take home, display, or give as gifts.
To quote their developer, the late Lloyd Reynolds, “Raw and incomplete when just written, the weathergram needs the graphic touches of wind, rain, sun and ice…. [to] give it the qualities of a faded leaf… making it a true weathergram, a weather-writing.” Visitors will be greeted by CCC member-made weathergrams blowing in the tree outside of the Artists Book House. Attendees will be invited to take one as a memento of their visit to the Tree Whispers exhibit.
Creating weathergrams has been a calligraphic tradition for over 50 years, and the Chicago Calligraphy Collective is thrilled to share this experience with all who attend.
treewhispers.com
Portland Society for Calligraphers
CCC All Members Show 2025
March 4 - March 30, 2025
See Prospectus for details
Artists’ Reception & All Members Meeting and Elections
Saturday March 8, 2025 from 1-4 PM
Palatine Library
700 N. North Court Palatine, IL 60067
Come join us for our All Members’ Show Artist’s Reception and our Spring Member Meeting. Enjoy the calligraphy exhibit and meet your fellow CCC members! This meeting also includes our annual Board Member and Directors elections. Why not consider being on the Board or a CCC committee?
If interested, contact our Vice President, Vicky Gwiasda.
Raffles and all-around fun will be had! Beverages/refreshments will be provided. Feel free to bring a dish to share. Stay tuned to the CCC website for more details.
We are excited to invite CCC members and non-members alike to our next free community event - CCC Presents! - on Zoom on Wednesday, January 29, 7:00pm CST. Our featured speaker is Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project.
Click Here for the Tim Brookes Zoom lecture
Passcode: 3n1+HWZK
Link expires Sunday, March 30, 2025
The evening’s topic is “What is Writing? A Series of Questions for Calligraphers”. Tim will discuss how the word “calligraphy”, and even the word “writing”, means different things to different people across the world, and our Western definitions - and therefore our understandings - are among the most limited and least interesting. Tim is on a crusade to try to understand all that writing can be, and the only people who are likely to understand are those who write by hand, with care and intention, with skill and with a sense of both tradition and creativity.
Tim was born in England and educated at Oxford. He moved to the United States in 1980. since then he has been a soccer coach, an editor, a guitarist, a travel writer, an NPR commentator, and since 2009, the founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project. he is the author of 20 books and over 1,000 articles, essays, and other odds and ends. He lives on the shore of Lake Champlain.
We’re sure that this will be a fascinating 90 minutes! come join us! All are welcome. Don’t forget to register. Just in case you won’t be able to join us live - the event will be recorded.
Click here to read an excerpt from Tim’s Writing Beyond Writing.
Highlights from the Fall Members’ Meeting
October 16 at 7 PM on Zoom
The meeting began with two videos sharing highlights of the International Calligraphy Conference: Roman Holiday, held in June, which was sponsored by the CCC. The first film focused on the Rosie Kelly exhibit. After watching, Mary Zabrin, one of the curators of this exhibit, provided extra details about the labor of love that putting this together was.
The second video provided highlights of the many students, classes, exhibits, talks….that made Roman Holiday such a special week. If you attended the conference, it was a trip down memory lane. If you didn’t attend, it was the next best thing to being there.
Our featured presentation for the evening was provided by Kristen Hermanny, our Exhibits Director. With her step-by-step guidance we created greeting cards with an interactive element. It was so fun to see all of the varieties produced. Kristen also gave us a glimpse into the world of mail art. Follow her on Instagram — @georgemailsart.
If you were in attendance, you know how fun it was!! If you weren’t able to join us, we hope you enjoy the recording.
Watch the recording here: 📽️Fall Members’ Meeting
Passcode: .DDd^j6h (note the period at the beginning!)
Members Who Teach:
CCC Members who teach calligraphy are invited to submit their contact information and a brief description of services for future inclusion on the website.
