2015 Annual Report

2015 was a year of great growth for us.

Our screen print shop was fully launched and greatly enlivened by Kyla Rafert, who stepped in to take over studio operations in October 2014. Her designs and keen ability to create lovable baby onesies expanded our sales. We had booths Paw Paw Festival and the Nelsonville Music Fest with a live print event, and were invited to the Com Fest in Columbus, where, in spite of the rain, we were well received.  We added designs by Skip French to our line, and made a series of posters featuring Kyla’s no-fi design for Stuarts Opera House.

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In our gallery in January we welcomed the incredible print work of Carrie Lingscheit. Her intaglios were mind-bendingly gorgeous.  Then in March we featured the work of our old friend, Simona Auchizi. In April we were thrilled to host an exhibition of prints form Bobby Rosentocks’s, Just A Jar collection. Wood cuts, distinct designs, we loved his work. Then in June Pam Callahan hung her fabulous watercolors to bring our walls to life. Our most interactive show this year was with Barbara McPheron. Her gorgeous books and objects of art brought visitors form all over the region to enjoy her whimsy and great talent. In October through Dec, An Abundance of Paper, a collection of fabulous folded works curated by Monica Salisbury filled the gallery with color and interest and wonder.

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We had a record-breaking year with Circle. Attendance was higher, more jobs were created, and more trips were taken than ever before. …and we had a huge influx of 5th graders, especially boys, who will return next year and help break the “sports- only” stigma in the school! 65 students attended over 60 hours of visual and performing arts classes, 40 of which were measured to state standards. Trips were taken to see a live theater show, to the National Forest, into the woods with a Shawnee storyteller, to Ohio University for a balloon workshop, to Movies Ten. Over 2500 meals were served in our USDA reimbursable kitchens. Twelve interns returned as young leaders and or to work in the program for a salary. A theater performance was held June 24 and an art exhibit June 30 at Stuarts Opera House. We applied for and have begun to seed the future with an after school program.

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In fall we brought two new artists on board when Kyla announced she was leaving to have a baby. Margaret Gingerich comes to us from a diverse background of experience (ceramics, homesteading, landscaping, marketing) and has taken our paper operation by storm. Angela Sprunger, an MFA printmaking student, came on with experience in admin organization and has worked to organize and digitize all our files, including creating and O-Gami paper definitive guide, recipe book, papermaking logs, etc. Ashly Woodrum a Circle intern, was Barb's Assistant to the Director this Summer, and so impressed her, she was brought on as Paper Circle’s admin and studio assistant.

We had a new logo designed by the wonderful Misty Trout-Bookman, in exchange for our letterpress, that unfortunately we could not afford to keep up, or move. Hopefully she will stay around after she gets her MFA, and work with us to create letterpress paper.

Lastly, we had a new website designed with a scheduled launch in early December.

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