Frontline Arts

...is a mobile print & papermaking initiative in which instructors from our mobile programs, Frontline Paper for Veterans, The Scrubs Paper Project, and the Migration Project, teach the art of making handmade paper as a connective practice and storytelling experience to youth communities across New Jersey and the greater region. Through the transformative process of creating handmade paper from water, cloth, fiber, and recycled materials, we work to support connecting communities through pulp & print, process, and presentation. Artists, students, underrepresented communities, and many others can benefit from this user-friendly educational and transformational hands-on experience. Our workshops can be tailored to your community's goals and budget. We can accommodate shorter, half-day workshops without bringing the mobile paper beater or incorporating symbolic fibers or cloth, or we can accommodate full days, repeat visits over several weeks, or a full week-long intensive experience with writing, exhibition, and presentation components. Prices vary depending on your location and specific request. Our workshops teach the history and process of papermaking, the transformative process by which we break down fibers to create a slurry of water and pulp, and the step-by-step process of using the mould and deckle to pull sheets of newly formed paper from the slurry to then couch (pronounced 'cooch') onto the post, or stack of newly formed paper. The stack is then pressed to remove much of the water and dried in a number of different ways, depending on the aesthetics of what you want and the availability of a dry box. We are very adaptable and can make most anything work. A table in the sun can even do the trick!