Crowdfunding plea for adding two participants to Legacy of Letters 2023

This will be the last Legacy of Letters tour and workshop for the foreseeable future! I would like to fill the last two available places on the tour with unfunded applicants for the Legacy of Letters 2023 scholarships. There were 18 applicants for the four sponsored scholarships, a dozen of whom had excellent portfolios. Among them were two women, Shaqa Bovand from Iran and Chiara Bergese from Italy, who missed the cut-off in the cumulative judges’ voting but received high marks from one or more individual judges. I am hoping that their participation in Legacy of Letters 2023 can be made possible via crowdfunding.

Here are samples of the work of Shaqa Bovand:

Arabic typeface by Shaqa Bovand.

Arabic typeface by Shaqa Bovand.

Here are samples of the work of Chiara Bergese:

Pages from booklets by Chiara Bergese.

Booklet cover by Chiara Bergese.

Interior pages and back cover from booklet by Chiara Bergese.


Crowdfunding goal
The student rate for Legacy of Letters 2023 is $3500. To fund one of these women requires:
• 7 people to donate $500 each
• 35 people to donate $100 each
• 100 people to donate $35 each
• 500 people to donate $7 each.

This goal needs to be reached by May 10, 2023. As of 2 am EST 27 April 2023 I have received donations or pledges totaling $4261.

Shaqa Bovand has now been fully funded. The goal to get Chiara Bergese fully funded is currently: $2739

If you would like to contribute to this informal crowdfunding effort, you can send money via PayPal or contact me at paulshaw@nyc.rr.com to discuss other payment options.


Legacy of Letters 2023 will take place from June 29 to July 12, 2023. It will include stops in Milano, Torino, Alpignano, Casteggio, Parma, Modena, Venice, and Cornuda. We will visit five libraries/museums, four letterpress shops, one silkscreen shop, and the Tipoteca (where we will have a multi-day letterpress workshop).