publishing and design

	Contemporary Tibetan publications suffer from a number of drawbacks. From a pre-Gutenberg craft of hand-card wood-block printing, Tibetan publishing has had to make a quantum leap to the computerised printing technology of today - within the space of less than a generation. Lacking expertise, adequate printing facilities and native professionals trained in the fields of typography and graphic design, Tibetan publishing has been unable to respond adequately to the tremendous needs of Tibetan society in its struggle to save its language and literature. Hence this programme.
		To collect works and references, traditional and contemporary, relating to Tibetan calligraphy and typography and design. To also build a general reference library of all publication on these subjects.
	To identify all calligraphers, xylographers, typographers, and graphic designers inside and outside Tibet.
		To encourage research projects into calligraphy, typography, graphic design, printing technologies and book presentation.
	To conduct training courses on these subjects. AMI has already successfully completed a one year Vocational Training Programme in Desktop Publishing for four trainees. We are planning a four-year Tibetan Graphic Design & Applied Arts Training Programme for about twenty trainees. We have already received applications from students though AMI has not yet decided when and if to hold the course. A long-term goal is to establish a small National School of Graphic Arts.
		The overall aim of the programme is to create a new and dynamic movement in Tibetan art, design, publication, manufacture and activism (in the revolutionary spirit of the Bauhaus movement of Weimar Germany) for the cultural and political emancipation and progress of the Tibetan people and society.
	(See the graduation ceremony of AMI's first Vocational Training Programme in Desktop Publishing)