Join This Year’s Winter Gift Exchange!

We would like to invite you this year early to your yearly GAP members gift exchange. This year’s theme: SNOWFLAKES. Anyone who would like to participate will be matched randomly with one other guild member who is participating in the exchange. Participants will create a small paper cutting that illustrates their interpretation of the theme. The art style is open; these should be artworks that are relatively small scale, simple, and able to be mailed in an envelope. You and your gift exchange partner will send your artwork directly to each other. We will feature the “Snowflakes” artwork online on our GAP Website, and on our Instagram and Facebook pages as a holiday celebration and to help us get to know one another a bit better! If you would like to participate, please email Lucrezia at bieler@mac.com!

GAP in the Mountains!

GAP is going to the Adirondacks! Members will have the opportunity to exhibit their talents from June 1 to July 21, 2024 in an exhibition at View Arts Center in Old Forge, NY. There will be an artists’ reception on Friday, June 7.

The theme for this exhibition will be “Paper Trails”, so begin to think about your submissions. What might you see on an Adirondack trail? Flowers, birds, trees, deer and bears, lakes and streams, canoes and kayaks, Adirondack lodges, and the ubiquitous Adirondack chair are among possible subjects.

View Arts Center is a special place, built with its environmental impact in mind and a recipient of Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification in 2011. You can take a tour of View by clicking here.

In the coming months, watch this space for more information about how to submit your works for this GAP exhibition. If you’ve never been to the Adirondacks, this is a good reason to go!

Upcoming Workshop Sun, Jan 21

Jewish Papercutting with Iso Setel

This creative workshop will delve into the Jewish folk art tradition of papercutting. With artist and researcher Iso E. Setel, participants will learn about the significance of this delicate art form, from its religious uses in homes and synagogues, to its contemporary revival and practice. This workshop will discuss how papercutting has been used as an artform that links Jewish spiritual practice and ritual with domestic spaces and daily life throughout the diaspora.

Non-Members: $35 / Members: $30
Members: use GAP15 code when checking out
Sun, Jan 21, 2024 – 2pm EST (11am PST, 12 noon Mountain Time, 1pm CST; 7pm BT; 8pm Europe)

Upcoming Workshop Sun, Feb 25

Lightbox Dream Boxes with Deborah Kane

Watch this space for more soon!

Aaron Silver - Black Lives Matter - on Tallit

Happy Year of the Rabbit 2023

Middle Mississippi by Ellen Sandbach

Robin on bough with berries by Amanda Humpage

Goldfish by Cynthia Stinson-Chennell

Aaron Silver – Black Lives Matter (on tallit – Jewish prayer shawl)

Utrecht – Centraal – by Maja Houtman

Volha

Crane Reflecting

Woven Hearts by Laurel Moorhead

Looking back at our Shadow Puppet Making Workshop with Rahul and Rajeev

We had fun learning about Kerala puppets and puppetry from Rahul and Rajeev, and making our own baby-level crow puppets! Tholpava Koothu, the unique shadow puppet theatre form of Kerala, South India, is preserved as a family tradition by the family of the Pulavars. Not only the brothers but also their father, Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, is an innovator in the artform: he has created many new contemporary shadow puppet stories, e.g. Mahathma Gandhikoothu, Jesuskoothu, and shadow puppet shows around Election Awareness, Social Awareness stories, Anti-Ragging campaigns, Food Safety Awareness and the social consequences of Deforestation, as well as promoted COVID awareness with a series of Lockdown Stories.

Rajeev Pulavar & Rahul Koonathara: Rajeev is a full time puppeteer who performs traditional and contemporary performances in India. Rahul is a first generation Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies graduate student at University of Connecticut. Read about one of Rahul’s recent projects here.

2022 Winter Wings Artwork by Members

This year’s theme for our annual small art exchange, organized by Lucrezia Bieler, was “Winter Wings.” Here are some of the amazing artworks created and sent by members to other members.

Ex Libris: GAP’s Traveling Exhibit of Papercut Bookplates

GAP Artists created these beautiful bookplate designs a few years ago, and they are traveling! If you have a local place you think would be willing to host this miniature exhibit of papercut artwork, please contact GAP President Randall Williams to get onto the touring list!

Last year, Guild members contributed their papercut artwork to an exhibit of bookplates at GAP’s National Museum in Somerset, PA, curated by Rebecca Raupach. And now, all of these beautiful member-created designs have been traveling through the country, hosted by GAP members and their communities. If you think your area could host a showing at a specific place you have in mind, please let us know: Write us at exhibitions@papercutters.org or president@papercutters.org

Online Resource: 2021 Ctrl+V(irtual) GAP Conference

Our virtual conference was a hit! Thanks to everyone who participated, in all ways! You can still access some of the fun at our Conference2021 website. Enjoy!

The Guild of American Papercutters is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The operation of the Guild is accomplished by volunteers and a very part time archivist and administrator at the Laurel Arts Center. For more information, email: gap@papercutters.org

Snowflake Weather on the Way