Workshop documentation from The People’s Library, Richmond, Virginia

The Center for Book and Paper Arts has just received notice that they have been awarded a prestigious Craft Research Fund Grant awarded by the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design to support a publication in association with the upcoming exhibition Social Paper. The exhibition, which charts the evolution of the art of hand papermaking in relation to discourse around socially engaged art is co-curated by CBPA Acting Assistant Director and Curator of Exhibitions Jessica Cochran and Melissa Potter, Associate Professor in the Interdisciplinary Arts Department. 

In the show, projects oriented around craft, labor, community, and site-specificity will span the fields of paper arts, social and community-based art practice, contemporary craft, and interdisciplinary practices. The publication will document the exhibition in addition to commissioning new essays on the topics of hand papermaking, socially engaged art and contemporary craft. It is scheduled to release in Fall 2014.

 
Still from an animation in progress from the new work “A Homecoming for Julia,” by international paper artist and activist Laura Anderson Barbata.

According to Cochran, “We are so excited to shine a light on the many artists who are using the art of hand papermaking in interdisciplinary ways to engage communities, and generate social awareness on myriad topics. As an artistic practice, hand papermaking is as intensely relevant and interesting in contemporary arts as it’s ever been.”

Learn more about Social Paper here. For information on the new play about Julia Pastrana at the Raven Theater in Chicago, click here.

Front page image: Combat Paper poster, University of Illinois special collections