Indianapolis University’s Department of Art and Design is on a mission to revive art that has been forgotten, according to graduate student Kaila Dailey. The Peat Project, an art project in the making for four years, consisted of Dailey, Hullabaloo Press Art & Design director Katherine Fries and other art students who had expressed interest in the project. This project allowed students to collaborate with Dave Peat, an Indianapolis printmaker and collector, to work with his collection of 19th century hot metal combined type, according to UIndy Events. Peat mentored the students in exchange for their help documenting his collection, according to UIndy Events. Dailey said the Peat project was started by Fries and former University of Miami professor Aaron Beckoff, and they got together with UIndy art students to get involved with Peat.
“He is [Peat] was involved in typography for the last 60 years of his life; he passed away in 2020. But what’s so remarkable is here in Indianapolis, he probably has the largest collection of metal types in the world, because that wasn’t the industry standard anymore,” said Fries. “Many printing houses got rid of their type, it [has] are becoming increasingly rare. He’s collected over 4,000 unique Victorian-like bases right here in Indianapolis. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of printing and engraving. When I got to know him, I started bringing him to speak at our art classes.
Fries said that unfortunately, due to Peat’s age, he had impaired eyesight and was unable to print or catalog his typographic collection as he wished. Either way, Fries said he would go tell stories to UIndy art students and share his knowledge, which eventually led them to visit his shop to see more of his works. Fries said that from 2017 to 2020, she asked printmaking students to join her on the project. Sometimes, Dailey said, students joined for just one semester, and other times, like her, they joined for several years. When the project started, it was just Dailey and graduate student Anna Winters.
“We really focused on bringing in people who were part of the loading, press and engraving courses and who had shown interest in typesetting and those who really showed interest in community itself,” Dailey said. “There were a handful of students we took out of printmaking classes. Some of them were taking courses in typography, some of them were in basic printmaking, but both had shown a cross interest in typography itself. The more the project progressed, the more people were introduced to printing.
Dailey said she went through a long process to start Project Peat. Dailey said she, along with other students on the project, experienced the process of getting together and explaining how they would go about making the project happen. There were different steps that were part of the process, Dailey said, and it all came down to making Peat’s dream come true.
“The project has been going on for a long time, it was really one of Dave’s projects [Peat] dreams he’s wanted for a while. We were able to come together to do at least some of it and that he could see,” Dailey said. “Our most important task was to categorize the type of impression and the second big part was to make it a database where we could refer to where he got the type from. This is to pay tribute to those old books that were so important when Dave [Peat] started, but then adding our own little modern twist to it by making it more of a narrative of the project itself.
Dailey said the Peat Project is a new wave of trying to educate others because it’s a lost art. The Peat Project is a great way to introduce people to the world of typography and all the fun it can have, Dailey said. She also said that the Peat project is combined into a story-based book that is tied to the history of typography. Now, Fries said the time has come for UIndy to see the final draft.
“We are thrilled to finally share the project with our UIndy community. We’ve shared bits and pieces, but we’ve never shared the whole thing before,” Fries said. “This will be the first time we officially share it in its final state with our friends and colleagues at UIndy. The most important thing in all of this was to provide students with the experience and get them to connect with other printers and in particular with Dave [Peat].”