A Message from SFCB About Discontinuing Roadworks in 2024

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support for Roadworks over the years. After much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue the Roadworks event starting in 2024.

By concluding Roadworks, SFCB will refocus our efforts on expanding and enriching our diverse range of programming. From workshops and classes to exhibitions and artist residencies, we remain deeply committed to offering opportunities for hands-on learning, artistic exploration, and community engagement.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023, Roadworks ended on a high note. We hope you'll join us at one of our upcoming events, where we will continue to foster creativity and community. Below, you can read about the history and evolution of the Roadworks event.

---

(above: Roots of Motive Power's 7-ton Buffalo Springfield steamroller)

About the Festival:

The San Francisco Center for the Book's annual Roadworks Steamroller Printing Festival was an all-day public printmaking and book arts block party that highlighted hands-on printmaking and book arts demonstrations, vendors, and SFCB open house.

(above: getting ready to pull the first print of the day)

About Steamroller Printing:

With roots going back hundreds of years, relief printing -- a process where a protruding surface is inked and brought into contact with paper - is one of the oldest methods of printing illustrations in books.

For 20 years, the Roadworks Steamroller Printing Festival celebrated this facet of book arts history in the biggest, most spectacular way we could think of: by printing linocuts using a 7-ton 1924 Buffalo Springfield steamroller  -- provided by our friends Roots of Motive Power -- and the surface of Rhode Island Street as an enormous makeshift printing press! A team of featured artists and printers created large-scale Classic prints and smaller-scale Personal prints during the day-long festival.

Classic Prints and Personal Prints were created in limited quantity during the run of the event. Each purchased print helped to raise funds for SFCB's workshops, exhibitions, and public programming. The event was featured in print and online blogs such as This Is Colossal and Gizmodo.

(above: volunteers on the "clean hands" team show artist Rik Olson's Classic Print to the crowd)

Roadworks Classic Print artists:

Each year 3-5 artists were invited by SFCB’s Imprint Committee to participate as Classic Print artists. Upon acceptance of their proposed design, each artist was provided with a 3' x 3' piece of linoleum and began the process of carving a linocut block which would be printed by steamroller at the Festival.  

 

(above: Personal Prints in the "Fresh Print" gallery; attendees place their order and each order is placed in a queue to be steamroller printed.)

Roadworks Personal Print artists:

This exciting program allowed 40-45 people per year the opportunity to design, carve, and print a smaller, 9 x 12" piece of linoleum via steamroller on the day of the event. Personal Prints were sold alongside the larger Classic Prints during Roadworks, and were a fun and affordable way to take home a piece of art.