The Paper Academy
The Paper Academy is a meeting place for art as a process, an event and an experience between people.
The Paper Academy focuses on handmade paper as an artistic means of expression. Handmade paper honours the demands made by artists for a material in all practices: painting / graphics / sculpture / photo / installation / music / performance / fashion / furniture / interior / architecture / artists books.
The purpose of the Paper Academy is to fill a void, to facilitate, stimulate and bring new paper dynamics into play, to challenge conventions, to create knowledge, insight and a humanistic bridge in our technological community through courses, symposia, lectures, art events, exhibitions, open house events and art residencies.
Workshops will take place via international, professional artists and professionals in the many aspects of paper, the core of which will be the testing of the inherent properties of plants/ cellulose and its use as material for artistic production. Experimentation, research and alternative approaches that are open and not closed are central.
THE PAPER ACADEMY / CONTENTS
The Paper Academy is Anne Vilsbøll’s studio, where work is done on commissions, special orders and experimentation with new forms of use and expression with bio-based pulp.
The Paper Academy organizes courses and events: please see calendar
Stays for interns are possible
Intern at The Paper Academy from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, – sep. – dec. 2020, Azul Ehrenberg writes about her experience:
“My time with Anne was a meaningful and extremely educational time in which I learned about the many things relating to paper, but to other aspects as well.Anne’s passion for paper is inspiring and admirable. Never have I seen someone so dedicated to her passion. She has the skills and rhythm of a craftsman and the free spirit of an artist. She has the energy of a child and a discipline that’s dazzling. She has high entrepreneurial ability and great comprehension for others and other art. She has opened her studio for me and taught me well into my first step as a potential paper maker. All in all the 4 months spent at The Paper Academy under the guidance and in the company of Anne Vilsboell has been a great learning process for me. I am very thankful for that.” Azul Ehrenberg
Intern from The Design School, Kolding, Denmark, autumn 2021:
“Summer 2021, I took a workshop with Anne, as she wanted to introduce me to the paper before we agreed to start the internship. This was a perfect introduction. We were a team of people who spent two days in her yard making paper in the sun. It was two intense days with a lot of information and with the hands in the material. If I had not been before, I got convinced that this was what I wanted and where I belonged. I subsequently started an internship with Anne on August 23, 2021 and stayed three months. Anne has a completely unique openness and understanding for teaching and passing on information. She is an inexhaustible source of experience on the paper’s history, science, and can only be described as hugely inspiring as well as a role model for hard work and dedication to the unique craft the paper is. Working in the workshop with her every day for three months meant that I created a picture of what I wanted with my future business, plus what it takes to be self-employed. I found myself in paper and with Anne, who took me under her wings and I immediately felt at home and part of the paper family. Her continued curiosity in working with paper is such a motivating basis for one’s own work that the possibilities for unfolding with paper as a medium seem endless. It has been an extremely significant experience for me as a designer and artist, which I can only describe as a milestone in my development and understanding of paper as a craft, its history and poetry. I have learned more from Anne than I have anywhere else.” Natalie Dupont
Paper residency: international artists can apply for residency
Studio consultations: There will be opportunity to book individual consultations and day production in the studio
Studio visits: Interested parties can book group visits.
Paper Academy’s project space: changing installations can be visited after appointment.
Hands-on: The community and others will be invited for hands-on events.
Other events: Events will be held, where all art expressions will function in a symbiosis. Please see the course and event calendar.
Course in India: In October / November there will be an opportunity to participate in workshops at Udaipur Paper Mill, Rajasthan, India and live in Anne Vilsbøll’s art – in – residency, Makanne, please see www.makanne.dk – Max. 8 participants
For inquiries and further information please contact:
www.annevilsboll.com
or
annevilsboll@gmail.com
A former car inspection hall in Gilleleje has been transformed into the Paper Academy building 1, where papermaking and experiments take place.
Building 2 has been constructed in collaboration with the architect Kim Utzon and the construction firm Vesti Olsen and erected next to Building 1 to accommodate additional space options.
Material spaces are located in 6 containers, of which one is a cyanotype workshop, as well as outside space for processing raw material.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The artist and writer Anne Vilsbøll wants to pass on her extensive knowledge of handmade paper as an artistic expression, collected over the past 4 decades. Since 1986, she has been a member of IAPMA, The International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists, which she co-founded in 1986. Served as an editor from 1986 – 92 and as president from 1996 – 2000.
Anne Vilsbøll’s research: handmade paper
- Italy: 1984, 86, 87, 93, 96, 98, 2000, 05, 14, 18
- Spain: 1987, 92, 99, 2003, 18, 22
- France: 1988, 2008-19
- Germany: 1986, 94, 95, 2010
- Belgium and the Netherlands: 1994
- Japan, the Philippines: 1987, 89, 95, 97
- USA: 1982-84, 89, 98, 99, 2010, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22
- China: 1990
- Argentina: 1993
- Canada: 1993
- South Africa, Zimbabwe: 1994, 95
- Burma, Nepal, Thailand: 1995
- Egypt: 1996
- Israel: 1998
- Australia, New Zealand: 1998, 2002
- Scotland: 1908, 2010
- Sri Lanka: 2000 – 05
- Mexico: 2018
- India: 2001 – 24
Publications / Selection:
- Anne Vilsbøll – the language in paper
Edition Heede & Moestrup, 11
– See online version at annevilsboll.com
- Papermaking I – II –III, 85-91-96, Borgen publishing house
- Paper Path – Future Communication / Paper Road-Communication Today, 95-96, sponsored by Post Denmark / Copenhagen / Cultural Capital
- Handmade paper as an artistic means of expression – The Great Danish Encyclopedia , 99
- Catalogs / articles in art magazines
- Weilbach’s Artist Lexicon
- Krak’s Blue Book
Further information, please check: www.annevilsboll.com
In 1987 Anne Vilsbøll founded Strynø Papieratelier; the first place in Denmark, where the focus was on handmade paper as an artistic means of expression. The atelier served as a gathering place for artists from many parts of the world. Courses were held here for eg. World Craft Council, visits by academy and design school students who received guidance, art associations, art clubs, etc. and paper and art were made for various commissions . There were interns and assistants at the workshop and international artists came to conduct courses with Anne Vilsbøll. After 15 years at Strynø in the Southern Funen Archipelago, the studio moved to southern France, and in 2019 back to Denmark as The Paper Academy.
In the US, there are paper workshops at art colleges. This is not the case in DK, despite the fact that paper/cellulose could offer an independent line at the art academies and design schools. In the 21st century art world, material and form categories have become irrelevant, and we place importance on the act of creation, the making. Rather, acting in an act of creation can be seen as a meta-action, as an art in itself, where one makes the invisible visible, physical and tangible. This study of the material is art. It is important to direct the creative energy into the origin of things – now more than ever before, which is the paper academy’s mission.
Extracts – selection from Anne’s SCRAPBOOK
