Frontline Paper, formerly known as Combat Paper NJ, is a program supporting the transformative process of making handmade paper from military uniforms—combat paper. Through public workshops, this handmade paper creates a platform for veterans and non-veterans to come together and share stories, providing a “new language,” and much needed discourse between veterans and society. In casual drop-in sessions, on college campuses, in community centers, at pop-up street corner workshops, and at VA and military hospitals, veteran artists teach the art of papermaking and printmaking to veterans of all service eras.

Workshops, exhibitions, Warrior Writers’ partner programming, and symposia are conducted across the Eastern United States—in NJ, PA, NY, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Maine.

Read more of the story here and check out upcoming Frontline Paper events on our calendar.

Bringing the veteran experience into culture—away from silence. “By Our Own Hand” is an art installation project pairing one artist’s vision with Frontline Paper. Using the combat paper process as a response to the soaring number of suicides among military personnel for the last decade, veterans and non-veterans will come together to make paper and open up a dialogue around veterans and suicide. The installation is visually modeled after the ancient practice of Tibetan prayer flags hung to mark an important and challenging occasion. In this tradition, delineated by individualized handmade “combat paper,” varying in color and texture, the square sheets of paper will be strung to fly from cords like flags—creating a canopy of thousands of sheets of paper to delineate the unknown rising numbers of veteran suicides.

We anticipate launching this project in 2018/2019.

"Migration" is a collaborative project between CantoMundo—a national organization that cultivates a community of Latinx poets through workshops, symposia, and public readings—and Frontline Paper.

The project is an inaugural series of poetry, papermaking, and printmaking workshops for veteran artists and Latinx poets. Migration consists of 5 weekend workshops over the course of several months bringing together two communities to talk and make art about their experiences and commonalities around migration. The project will take place in Branchburg, NJ studios, Columbia University, and across international borders through family/friend participation in countries such as:  Mexico, Syria, parts of Latin America, Iraq, Russia, and Romania. Additional countries may be added depending on the Latinx and veteran artists registered for the workshops.

Registration will be announced shortly. Stay tuned!

Check out more on Cantomundo here.

The PCNJ Project connects printmakers to each other and to new social arts' communities under Frontline Arts. They provide a shared space to find community between printers of all ages, hold regular steering committee meetings open to all, and create and contribute to Frontline Arts' Connective Projects.

For more information on how to connect, contact Manda@frontlinearts.org 

Giving women and young girls a ‘studio of one’s own,’ to change his-tory. This project brings mobile workshops to female communities to create a studio environment utilizing art and writing to empower women to share their stories. The project was piloted in 2016/2017 with an all-female high school class at Lacordaire Academy in Montclair, NJ. Project founder, Saydi Callahan, is in talks to launch a new workshop in 2018.

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Praxis in Color is a blog of writings on art, community, and politics of art, from writers, artists, thinkers, and change-makers.

Founded and edited by Kevin Basl.

Documenting and archiving the culture of working artist families, specifically artist couples and the children involved in an artistic upbringing.

#artandfamily