Founded in 1991 with a grant from the City of Oakland's Cultural Arts Division, the Renaissance of Papermaking was created by Bay Area artists Lana Rose and Dan Fontes. As a professional printmaker and paper artist Rose-Motlow discovered that papermaking was becoming a lost art form. At one time there had been hundreds of villages in China and Japan devoted to making paper and passing on the artform from generation to generation. Today, in Japan less than a dozen papermaking communities remain. Simultaneously, here in the U.S. Pacific Rim immigrants often have no idea that papermaking is part of their heritage and cultural contribution to the world. Rose decided to revive this tradition by bringing the art of papermaking to Oakland's public schools. Through this project children are introduced to traditional papermaking methods from China, Japan, Nepal, Korea and the Phillipines. Historical and cultural studies include the development of papermaking from it's roots in China nearly 2000 years ago to the first papermill in the United States. Students first learn about recycling classroom paper thus diverting pape flow from the waste stream. Students taking individual actions using paper waste and leftowver vegetables can make their own handmade papers for unlimited uses from artwork to notebooks form decorative ornaments to functional objects such as paperlates and toilet paper. In 1995, we became our own non-profit organization. Since our inception, the Renaissance of Papermaking has served more than 50,000 Oakland School children from eleven school districts directly through our artist in schools program. Our community outreach program reaches upwards of 100,000 individuals annually. The extensive media coverage we've recieved spreads the message of papermaking as a viable artform, community builder,and youth activity. Over the past eight years, students have traveled on local, statewide and international field trips to bing the message and artform of papermkaing to other communities. While visiting two of Oakland's sister cities Fukuoka, Japan in 1992 and Dalian, China in 1994, we set up ongoing papermaking programs. In 1992, the project was awarded a two year grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Soon thereafter the California Arts Council awarded the project a three year grant. Over the past eight years the project has gained widespread community recognition and letters of support from President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, former Congressman Ron Dellums, State Senator Barbara Boxer and Former Mayor of Oakland Elihu Harris. In addition the organization has recieved letters of support from the Chinese and Japanese Consulates.
