PHILADELPHIA, PA (December 14, 2018) -- The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) has received a $200,000 gift from the Richard C. von Hess Foundation to help build a new papermaking studio in the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building.

The Brodsky Center, a collaborative paper and printmaking center and artists-in-residence program, moved to PAFA from Rutgers University in July. The Center will manage the papermaking studio to create new artworks with invited artists and enable PAFA students to learn about and work with hand papermaking methods.

Since its founding in 1986 by Judith K. Brodsky, the Center has completed over 300 editions with a diverse range of emerging and established artists, including Joan Snyder and Lynda Benglis, whose handmade paper paintings and sculptures have been widely exhibited.

"One of our most distinctive features has been to encompass both printmaking and papermaking, and we couldn't be more grateful to the von Hess Foundation for making this possible at PAFA," said Paola Morsiani, the Center's director. "At the Brodsky Center, papermaking is an intensely experimental practice that artists and master papermakers explore expressively and conceptually."

The Brodsky Center is now part of the School of Fine Arts at PAFA and provides internship and professional opportunities for students to learn about publishing editions, caring for and curating works of art in/on paper, and marketing them.

The new papermaking studio will be located on the sixth floor of PAFA's Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, adjacent to the existing Julie Jensen Bryan and Robert Bryan Printmaking Studio. Together, the Studios will foster knowledge, collaboration, and investigation, both in paper media and interdisciplinary approaches.

The new Studio will be properly equipped to teach hand papermaking.

"There is great interest in papermaking among PAFA students," said Clint Jukkala, Dean of the School of Fine Arts. "The new Studio will not only support the innovative work of artists in residence at the Brodsky Center, but it will also provide a space for students to work and explore the many possibilities of papermaking through courses and workshops."

PAFA began construction in November, which should be completed by December 31, so that the Brodsky Center can begin using the Studio in January 2019.

The Richard C. von Hess Foundation has generously supported many PAFA projects, including exhibitions. Other projects supported by the Foundation include construction of the Richard C. von Hess Works on Paper Conservation Studio; the Richard C. von Hess Works on Paper Gallery in the Historic Landmark Building; PAFA's Cast Hall restoration project and the annual Richard C. von Hess Memorial Scholarship and Travel Award.