Because two people have asked already....

[unforth]

Here are the potential schools:
University of Texas at Austin - Kilgarin Institute: A two year program which offers a certificate in Conservation. Less focused in book binding. Pretty much the only program of it's kind in the country.
West Dean University in Sussex, England: While it's totally awesome, really interesting and right up my alley, Jonie would have to be quarantined for 6 months, and the program is only a year long, which is distinctly problematic.
North Bennet Street School, Boston: My first choice, they offer a two year bench apprenticeship in bookbinding (40 hours a week of one-on-one training). They only accept 6 students a year, but my understanding is they only get about 35-40 applications, so it's not that bad.
The University of Alabama: They offer a BFA in Book Arts. It's a batchelors, which sort of sucks. It's in Alabama, which sucks more. Still, it's a possibility.
Center for Book Arts, University of Iowa: A nice and interesting program; my internship advisor's girlfriend works there.
The Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland: A three year program that focuses more on art, this one is also fairly high on the list though I don't know that much about it.

Book arts aren't quite the same thing as bookbinding; book arts are for artist books, not conservation. Does that make sense? Anyway, I'm less interested in it; furthermore, usually one needs a background in art (like a BFA....) in order to do this. So basically, there aren't that many actual choices up there. Pretty much only four in my opinion - Austen, Boston, Oregon, and Iowa. England would be awesome but for the pup...

I'm sure I'll be writing more on this in the future, but since I need to start thinking about it anyway, I figured I'd write up this synopsis. I have a few other related links in my delicious farm... ;)

Comments

[kniedzw.livejournal.com]

Didn't know you were on del.icio.us. Added to my network.

The North Bennet Street School is in the North End, which is actually somewhere vaguely cheap enough to live. It's not the best neighborhood in the world, but there are many worse, and it's fairly central to mass transit, which is a good thing.

Austin's a nice place, as well, though I'm not as familiar with the area.

Well, good luck, in any case. I'll chime in if I think of anything vaguely useful to say.

[ultimabaka.livejournal.com]

Lookin at the schools right now - if you're online and chillin, sign on / reply or something and we'll talk :)

[ninja-turbo.livejournal.com]

Completely independant of the school's value, Portland is a cool city with a lot going on. Including amazing tango. :)

[closetgnome.livejournal.com]

It all sounds cool...good luck with whatever you decide in terms of your next school step! (And I congratulate you on your decisiveness! If it were me, I'd need another few weeks just to mull it over and decide 80 times, then convince myself I really wanted to go the other way...lather, rinse, repeat!)

*hugs*

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the decision, and good luck with the school aps!

[mistress-sin.livejournal.com]

just a thought . . .

if you *really* wanted to do the program in england, tom and i could take care of jonie. it would give odie (our lovable if not evil bassat hound) someone to play with. and it would be a year of time away, but you could do the program.

just make sure you come back to the states because england is waaaayyy to expensive to be coming over to visit you.

*huggles*