Paper Points North: The 2015 Friends of Dard Hunter Annual Papermaking Conference

On Wednesday, October 21st we took to the road for this year's FODH conference in Banff, Alberta (that's in Canada in case you don't know). We took two days to drive, staying at a pretty sweet AirBnB rental in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho for a night. We arrived at the conference Thurs. evening just after the keynote address concluded (D'OH!). There's only so much planning you can do when travelling within a tight timeframe, and we didn't plan on being stopped by a screw in our tire, construction, and rock blasting (we kid you not!) along the route from Radium Hot Springs, to the Banff Centre. At least we got to see a beautiful sunset and some bighorn sheep along the way. 

After settling into our AirBnB rental at the nearby town of Canmore (Banff doesn't allow AirBnB rentals), we stayed up a little too late Thurs. night putting the finishing touches on the presentation we were set to give at the conference on Friday afternoon. Thankfully local beer and poutine aided our progress.

On Fri. we enjoyed a full day of presentations that were inspiring and informative. Here's an overview of what we heard. (Sadly we missed the first speaker of the day, Virginia Howell from the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking. Sorry Virginia! Like we said, we stayed up too late the night before prepping our talk.)

Okay, back to the talks-

-  Kerri Cushman provided a behind the scenes look at Longwood University's studio in Virginia, and how they are focusing on ways that papermaking can build community.

- Nicole Donnelly and Mary Tasillo discussed the ways papermaking is reaching new audiences in Philadelphia via community engagement and alternative art spaces. 

-  Helen O'Connor gave an overview of her recent residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, in Ireland. She focused on how collaboration between artists working with varied mediums can create something new and unexpected.

- Caitlin Chaisson spoke on the role that drawing and other intentionally slow crafts can play in building societal change.

- Lyndon Barrois gave an overview of his art practice highlighting the role of paper. 

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