Primarium: A Case for Cursive [SNEAK PREVIEW]

Presented by ArtCenter's Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT), "Primarium: A Case for Cursive" traces the evolution of cursive writing, showing how different styles have traveled across the globe and adapted to changes in culture, technology and education. This research-based exhibition brings together historical references, contemporary textbooks and typographic works to demonstrate how different cursive styles and traits have emerged and are taught in different parts of the world that use the Latin script. Rather than treating cursive as a relic of the past, the exhibition presents it as a living practice, where digital tools can serve not as threats, but as companions in continuing its cultural, educational, and cognitive significance.

The exhibition is based on the work of renowned type designers Veronika Burian and José Scaglione, co-founders of the independent font foundry TypeTogether. Their groundbreaking, long-term research project Primarium—which inspired the exhibition's name—maps handwriting instruction for Latin-script learners in over 40 countries.