Minnesota Center For Book Arts

I am honestly horrified that it took me until 2024 to find this place (it was an accident- I was walking to an event at Day Block Brewing and was caught by the window displays). Once I got home, I Googled my walking route to find out what this magical place was, and lo! There is a cafe inside, there is a gift shop, a book shop, AND they offer classes. I signed up for an adult community education class to learn more about bookbinding, and had a blast. I learned many fun technical terms (read: throw up. Yes, really). Pictures of my first amateur creation included. I highly recommend the classes, as they stive to make everyone of all ages and abilities feel welcome.I got there a full 30 minutes early one night just to be able to browse the giftshop, which contains not only a plethora of bookbinding materials and supplies (which are pretty niche) but creations by local artists and just cool book-themes things in general. I will definitely shop there for gifts for my other book-obsessed friends. Bring a buddy and go check it out, or bring a book and just go chill in the cafe on a day when you don't feel like interacting with humanity.

Truthfully, I visited because I heard about the gift shop from social media and was blown away. The shop features a ton of local artists, and artists from marginalized communities. They have a huge selection of zines, prints, and greeting cards. I ended up getting four greeting cards and two stickers, but I would've absolutely gone home with more if my bank account allowed for it.

Love this little three story center for book arts. A nice quiet space to slowly take in the aesthetics of books, weaving and work on paper.

Always enjoy a trip to MN Center form book arts. It's an interesting place to visit. They have great classes and beautiful space. This building is cool with weavers guild upstairs and bookstore on ground floor. It's just a nice place to come spend some time.

The Minnesota Center for Books Arts has been a wonderful resource for our family throughout the 15+ years I've homeschooled my daughters. I have been able to take courses to learn skills that I could pass along to them; and we have take intergenerational classes together so we could share the art-making process together.Recently, my youngest daughter and I went to the MCBA since we were running early for our next appointment. We found a convenient place to park on the street right in front of the building since all the spots in the parking lot were full. We enjoyed going through the exhibit on marbling; and saw some innovative ways to use marbled paper in murals, photos, and other creative work. The gift shop is always so much fun to go through and look at. I wish we had an unlimited budget because I know we would purchase A LOT more books, journals, art supplies, and craft kits than we are able to do now. There is a place in the building for getting a light bite to eat or something to drink. We've never done this before...perhaps the next time we visit we will.

An amazing place to visit! I've been to their many amazing free exhibitions on paper, manuscripts and books... they are mind blowing and amazing! Recently I attended the Origami Paper Cranes exhibition which featured thousands of peace paper doves designed and folded by people from all walks of life. What an amazing and wonderful place...there's also a really nice and cozy coffee shop inside too to relax and enjoy before and after your visit!

This place is incredible. I stumbled in here by accident one day. I'm not from Minneapolis, but I'm around occasionally. I had actually considered moving there and even attending this center. I didn't know that much about the center though and the actual physical location of the place did not exist in my mind.So, one day I came in early on a megabus, not realizing I was just a block from one of the most incredible discoveries I would ever experience. I began to explore, thinking I'd find a coffee shop to sit in while I waited for my ride. I entered the coffee gallery and ordered a chai tea latte. Then I realized it was connected to what looked like a sort of craft-book gift shop. Now, I LOVE bookmaking, so I was drawn to this place with the same strength that draws an insect to an enticing bug-zapper.Once in the shop, I loved life entirely. I thought nothing could be more wonderful than a place like this - a beautiful coffee shop connected to a sweet, very carefully planned and well stocked book arts store. I was wrong. The one thing that could be more wonderful than this was all of the above connected to two stories of book-making studios and two more stories of book-making class-rooms.Heaven.Will I be having breakfast at Tiffany's? no. Breakfast at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. Every. Day.

4/5 check it out!so i had to ask someone exactly what this place was, and i'm not confident that i'd be able to recount it here. but my understanding is that it's basically a center that celebrates writing and book-making in particular, and that it's the largest of it's kind of space in the country. cool. so much paper and thoughts and art and print on paper, if you're into that kinda thing and have a bit of time to downtown i think you'd really like wandering in. i personally spent a while rifling through their screen prints in one area, and then a bit of time in one of the book areas. i wish i took a picture, but there was this cool nook with all kinds of letter press things in all kinds of shapes, fonts, and sizes - lovely! i was there on a weekend so i didn't get to see as much of the writing center parts in action, but i think that may be open to you at other times.anyways, if you like books, the art of book-making, and look up bookstores via yelp, i think you'd fancy this place.

I've never taken a class here, but have about 5 in mind for after I graduate. They have classes on screenprinting, letterpress, bookbinding, papermaking and more. Classes range upwards of $100 and open studios are about $30. I love the shop at MCBA. They have the typical, kitschy gifts, but they also have supplies. I love waxed thread for jewelry making and a yard is only $.25! WAY cheaper than I've found on the Internet. They have carving tools, needles, paper, and much more. This place helps me get my craft on.

Wandered in here killing time before a Guthrie performance - we had a good time looking at the letterpress on display and wandering through the gift shop. The classes sound great here - love that the MCBA & the Loft offer classes in the same building so you can really learn how to make a book soup to nuts from writing to physical book!Have to confess that we mostly spent our time here sitting at the big table in the gallery space going through the North House Folk School offerings in their course catalog....can't wait to register for one of those.