As you may know, I love making handmade paper and I use it in my artwork. Recently, a second champagne salon hosted by the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University Libraries recently raised $1,500 to open a hand papermaking studio at FAU. The champagne salon, hosted with a Mexican holiday theme, attracted 25 guests, including new FAU President Dr. Mary J. Saunders.

Among other guests were book artist and Jaffe center donor Marianne Haycook; Jane Brownley; Carol Walker; Alyx Kellington, director of arts & cultural education, Palm Beach County Cultural Council; Larry Dieterich; Arthur Jaffe, founder and curator of  the Jaffe center;  Rita Pellen, assistant dean of FAU Libraries, and husband Alain Pellen; Arthur Williams, art collector and Jaffe center donor; Edward Moquin; Maggie Von Grote; Santo Tarantino; Maggie Delp, a member of the FAU University Club; John Valentine, Ph.D., FAU faculty; Megan Boehm, student and volunteer;  Bill Landis; Kristin McGlothlin, FAU graduate student and volunteer; Douglas McGlothlin; John and Millie Cutrone; Marietta Gabrielsen; and myself.

The Jaffe center, located on the third floor of the Wimberly Library, houses one of the nation’s most prominent collections of books handmade by artists. The studio is proposed to open in 2011 in FAU’s T-6 building, a World War II barracks. It will be open to the public, similar to the book making classes, concerts, films and exhibitions offered by the center. Renovation of the space will cost about $30,000. A previous champagne salon, a special inaugural fundraiser in July, raised $1,400, and the center has raised some money through workshops. “The champagne salons have been one means of reaching our goal,” said John Cutrone, a book artist and the center’s programs director. “We hope to announce news in a couple of weeks about additional funding that will make our goal a reality.”

For more information on the Jaffe Center for Book Arts visit http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/JaffeCenter/index.php

Photo 1: John Cutrone, programs director for the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts, shows guests one of the center’s books; that’s me in the back, left.