Milwaukee Zine Fest is an annual festival featuring DIY artists, small publishers and local creators, held at the Central Library.
The Bindery partners with the Milwaukee Public Library to spotlight zine culture through a special one-day event hosting vendors, panels, workshops and displays.
This celebration, which has been happening for 16 years, attracts attendees and traveling artists from all over the Midwest.
Zine-making has grown significantly in popularity as a radical medium for self-publishers to create unique booklets or fan magazines for small-circulation publications.
The topics that a zine covers will vary between artists and can follow an array of styles, as well as appear in physical form or online.
Milwaukee Zine Fest
Find out more about the festival straight from the source in this short documentary featuring library staff, vendors and volunteers.
UWM Students Get Involved
UWM students participated in the Milwaukee Zine Fest as volunteers, vendors and zine-makers.
The Print Club at UWM facilitated a screen printing workshop where attendees could try their hands at crafting special designs and take home their projects.
Walk-Up Typewriting Activity
Lisa Floading is an avid collector and admirer of typewriters, who brought a few machines from her collection to Milwaukee Zine Fest for festival-goers to try out and mess around with.
Floading was there representing Qwertyfest, which is an annual festival for writers, artists and typewriter enthusiasts.
Archive Collection on Display
The festival featured pieces of local Milwaukee art history and aimed to educate anyone interested in learning more about zine culture.
Milwaukee Public Library’s Rare Book Librarian Tim Rush watched over the collection of rare zines and shared his extensive knowledge with attendees.
Local Panel of Artists
A group of Milwaukee artists who represent a local collective spoke on a panel covering how to build community through shared space.