The National Museum of the Guild of American Papercutters continues to build a permanent collection of work created by papercut artists of all times and places, donated by our members and well-wishers.
Established in 2009-2010 in cooperation with Laurel Arts, the Museum is located at the Philip Dressler Center for the Arts, in Somerset, Pennsylvania. Housing over 200 carefully chosen and curated paper artworks, it is the first American museum devoted to the art of papercutting. The Core Collection has been amassed over the years from member exhibits at the Museum as well as individual donations; the substantial gift that is the McDaniel Papercut Collection contains 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st century artworks in paper. For almost a decade, Kathy Trexel Reed, the Museum Director, also organized and curated an annual thematic Members Exhibit displayed at the Museum. Some of the works displayed in these exhibits were adopted into the Core Collection. Click on the titles below to see images.
Museum Location and Information
214 S. Harrison Avenue
Somerset, PA 15501
Phone: 814.443.2433
Monday – Thursday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
When the Museum was founded, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette marked the occasion in 2010 with a feature article.
2019: Celebrated “Mouse Wedding” Gift from Chinese Papercutting Association
Mouse Wedding (above on wall behind Kathy and Bob Reed) – Museum Gift from China 2009
2019 was the tenth anniversary of the founding of the national museum! In celebration, a special exhibit of works from the GAP permanent collection was on display in the downstairs galleries at the GAP Museum from mid-May to June 14, 2019. Small devotionals, created in monasteries and convents during the mid-18th century were among the antique and contemporary treasures on view.
Most excitingly, visitors in 2019 had a chance to see the ceremonial 20-foot long red “Mouse Wedding” papercutting, a gift to GAP on its Museum opening, from the Chinese Papercutting Association. The Mouse Wedding was given as an inaugural gift to GAP’s Museum in 2009 by Professor Chun Jeng. While visiting, Professor Chun participated in the GAP Collection at Landis Valley Farm Museum, Lancaster Co., PA.
In China, it was and is a folk custom to usher in the new (lunar) year by creating multiple papercuttings, from lucky, happy red paper, of paired mice, along with often whimsical representations of the “wedding party” and gatherer mice, and using them as house decorations. Additional amusing examples below are from a collection of wedding mice cut in modern times in Shandong Province; description of the custom and of these pieces can be found in Lorna Owen’s lovely book, Mouse Muse: The Mouse in Art (NY: Monacelli Press 2014).