JCBA Home

VISIT THE CENTER

Come to JCBA to experience books like you've never seen before. We welcome community groups, classes from Florida Atlantic and other universities and colleges, groups of friends and family, professional groups, and classes from high schools and middle schools and elementary schools. Schedule an hour with us and we'll open your eyes to a whole new way of thinking, where the ubiquitous becomes astounding. Groups of 8 to 24 are ideal, but we can bend the rules a bit in either direction. Contact us for more details or to schedule.

25 Years/25 Books

(in 75 Minutes or Less)
Stop Watch Gallery Talk

It's a Stopwatch Gallery Talk that'll keep you hopping! And hopefully, you'll see things you've never seen before. View above or on JCBA's Vimeo Channel.

JCBA's Annual Community Day of the Dead Ofrenda

Now through November 11
JCBA Lobby

It's the time of year in many traditions when we most remember our beloved dead, and for the past fifteen years or so, JCBA has been here to help you do so in a celebratory spirit through our annual Community Day of the Dead ofrenda. If you are local and if you want to honor a loved one's memory with us, please feel free to bring something to display on it, in community with the other items on the ofrenda. We'll have pictures of our founders, Arthur and Mata Jaffe, and paper marigolds and traditional artenanías mexicanas... you bring the rest. But please no food, no plants.

Our ofrenda is in the lobby of the Jaffe Center for Book Arts; you may come visit it even if you're not adding something to it. Our ofrenda is illuminated and visible even when the center is closed, and you are welcome to come look at it through our lobby doors even during the late-night hours when the Wimberly Library is open. We’ll keep the ofrenda on display through St. Martin's Day (November 11), and you’re welcome to come collect the ofrenda items that you've brought after that, should you wish.

In choosing items to bring to our ofrenda, please keep in mind Dia de Los Muertos is not Halloween. Halloween ushers in these annual Days of the Dead, of course, but Dia de Los Muertos is more about love and remembrance… and festivity, for sure! It’s a beautiful tradition from Mexico for keeping the channels open, and that is a wonderful thing.

STOPPING TIME:

A Fairy Tale for the Modern Day
An Online Gallery Talk
with Salzberg Resident
Maria Surducan

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Box Making
Instructor Katie Chung

In-House Workshop at JCBA
Monday, November 10, 2025
1:00 to 4:30 PM
JCBA Book Studio 350C at Florida Atlantic's Wimberly Library
Click for Tuition and Registration Information

Archival boxes are used to hold precious objects such as books, prints, and artifacts. Learn how to build an archival lidded box in this one-day intensive workshop led by JCBA Salzberg Resident artist Katie Chung. Students will leave this workshop with a beautifully crafted box and the fundamentals of constructing a box using traditional book arts techniques. Prior book making experience is strongly encouraged. Materials and supplies will be provided.

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From Blocks to Boxes
Instructor Paula Krieg

Virtual Workshop
Thursday November 13, 2025
6 to 8:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
From wherever you are in the world, via Zoom.
Click for Tuition and Registration Information

Inspired by the shapes of wooden pattern blocks, this workshop scales up and expands these geometric solids to enable you to construct practical and playful items. Our blocks and boxes will be made from cover-weight paper, using hidden magnets to increase impromptu sculptural possibilities. We will explore decorating the surfaces of our blocks, with an emphasis on fractal embellishments, and learn how to modify the provided templates to assemble the blocks into unusual boxes with closures. Your blocks and boxes will be decorative, inviting, and most importantly, whimsical and personal.

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REAL MAIL FRIDAYS

REAL MAIL FRIDAYS PUMPKIN SOCIAL

Friday October 31
2 to 5 PM Eastern
From Wherever You Are, via Zoom

ZOOM LINK & PASSWORD

Here is the link and password for our virtual Real Mail Fridays letter writing socials:
https://fau-edu.zoom.us/j/82597798220?pwd=cmVUbWYyQjJGUVVialJHWjhFdTZVdz09

(And in case you need it, the Meeting ID is 825 9779 8220 and the passcode is Kh51f6.)

Join us to do whatever you need to do this week to prepare for Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos: we'll have good autumnal music for you that taps into the magic and mystery of both celebrations so you can carve jack o' lanterns, make candy apples, paint sugar skull calaveras, create a costume, cast a spell, or build an ofrenda to honor your loved ones and do all these things in the company of friends from around the world. You may also just join in for the good company and good music. Real Mail Fridays: three hours of quiet working time, set to a very Jaffe soundtrack, with a short break every now and then to chat and catch up and maybe even share what you're working on. Supremely heartwarming, no matter the occasion. We welcome you.... Please join us!

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Every now and again, perhaps over coffee in the bindery at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, I’d find myself sitting across from Arthur Jaffe and, in a wistful mood, no doubt, I’d ask him, “Did you ever think, way back when you and Mata gave your book collection to FAU, that it would become what it’s become?”

DIRECTIONS & PARKING

JCBA is located on the third floor east of Florida Atlantic University's Wimberly Library. From I-95 or the Florida Turnpike, exit Glades Road, east. The FAU campus is located just east of I-95. If you enter the campus at FAU's main entrance (the one furthest west on Glades Road... and the first you'll see approaching from I-95), you will enter on West University Drive. Continue straight on West University Drive to the traffic light at Volusia Street. Turn right onto Volusia Street. Parking Garage 1 is on Volusia Street, and the Wimberly Library is the next building east.

The I-95 interchange for Florida Atlantic University (Exit 48A) takes you directly from the interstate to FAU. Once you pass the traffic light at Spanish River Boulevard, you are on the FAU campus on FAU Boulevard. Continue to the traffic signal at the intersection of FAU Boulevard and University Drive (FAU Stadium will be on your right). Turn right onto University Drive. Turn left at the traffic signal at Volusia Street. Parking Garage 1 is on Volusia Street, and the Wimberly Library is the next building east.

Visitors to the FAU campus must pay at the meters or use the ParkMobile app (or visit https://parkmobile.io/) to park on campus. Both are available 24/7. Parking is $2.50 per hour. Vehicles must be parked nose-in.

Visitors using the ParkMobile app or website may park in any yellow or blue lot. Blue spots are designated by normal white lines on the ground. Parking Garage 1, which is the garage adjacent to the Library, is a blue lot. The ParkMobile parking zone for the library's parking lot (Lot 19/20) is Zone 6927. The parking zone for Parking Garage 1, which is the building just west of the library, is Zone 6931.

Vehicles paying by physical meter must park in the yellow metered lot and spaces. These will have yellow lines on the ground as well as “Pay By Plate” signs in front of each. These are found in Lot 19 in front of the Library. Find a campus map here: Maps (fau.edu)
JCBA Vimeo