Help Community Print Recover From Horrific Fire

Community Print was catastrophically damaged in the December 15th fire that destroyed neighboring businesses and damaged most of a city block. Though our walls are still standing, we were drenched by fire hoses for 6+ hours in an effort to keep the fire from spreading. We have not been allowed access to the building due to “eminent danger”, but the best case scenario is still crippling.

It is going to be weeks, if not months, until we can know if anything is salvageable. At this point, just from the sheer amount of water, smoke, and heat that the building was exposed to, we have to assume the worst – that our 5 printing presses, hundreds of fonts of metal type, storied wood type collection, irreplaceable printer’s cuts, and the archive that was created by so many is lost.

Community Print has been teaching classes and printing posters in Olympia for nearly 25 years. In every place has existed, it has served as a vital site of creativity and community building for visual artists, book artists, and many others -- from its happenstance incarnation in the common space of the Knitting Mills, to residential garages, to the back of Dumpster Values, to our current home. A home that now sits soaking wet and shattered, supporting the charred skeleton of our neighboring building.

Rebuilding is not a question of “if” but rather “how”. Our north star is the duty to provide an accessible space for our members to print, and to continue sharing this incredible printing process with our community.

We have many questions (Do we have to move? Do any of our printing presses work? Can anything be salvaged at all?) and no answers, but these funds will ensure that no matter what, we will be able to take the necessary steps to reopen Community Print.

Aerial photos taken by SouthSoundAerials.