• Unless otherwise specified, single occupancy accommodation is provided in rooms with a view of the Tiber Valley that includes sink and vanity. Rooms are with shared bath on each level (3 rooms per bath) in our 14th century convent building, The Asilo. Apartments, rooms with private bath and AC, double rooms, group or villa accommodations are available for couples, business associates/ friends, or groups for an additional fee
• Linens and towels provided
• Weekly housekeeping service with change of towels and linens
• Free washing machine access
• Good Wi-Fi connection and access to our library and film collection

• 3 chef-catered, gourmet meals per day (buffet breakfast, 3-course lunch, 4-course dinner) — with wine at lunch and dinner (table wine provided at lunch and dinner. An excellent wine list is offered at additional cost), while in Monte Castello
• Group dining service is as follows, with breakfast and lunch served in our dining room, etc, with dinner (weather permitting) served on our private terrace overlooking the Tiber Valley
• Lunch and dinner are plated as follows: pasta course, main course, vegetable, fruit/salad, dessert
• When requested at registration, vegetarian, vegan, and special dietary options are provided
• After dinner drinks on our terrace overlooking the Tiber valley
• Dining service is as follows: Breakfast: 8:00 AM; Lunch: 1:00PM; Dinner: 8:00 PM. No meals are served on Fridays (excursion day) unless otherwise specified
• On Saturday and Sunday, a full buffet brunch with fresh pastry and Prosecco is served at 11:00 AM
• On Saturday, homemade, wood-fired pizza is served at 7:00 PM (except on departure days, when a special farewell dinner is served)
• Sunday dinner with antipasti is served at 7:00 PM
• Farewell dinner on the evening prior to departure

• 24/7 access to our primary building and library is provided, including access to workspaces, studios, and ceramics facility
• Special access to certain cultural and art collections is available upon request
• FOR VISUAL ARTISTS: private, or semi-private secure and monitored studio space is provided (24/7 access)
• FOR WRITERS: private workspace is provided (24/7 access)
• FOR GROUPS: Group workspace is provided (24/7 access)
• FOR CERAMIC ARTISTS: 24/7 access to our ceramics facility
• Free access to lectures and events at the Teatro Concordia
• An end of the session exhibition with reception that includes hors d'oeuvres and Prosecco in our gallery. Posters are prepared to promote the event with copies provided to all participants

Designing Pop-Ups

Discover the creative magic of constructing your own pop-ups in this exciting workshop on “paper engineering.”  We will begin with basic cut-and-fold pop-up structures that can be used to enhance graphics for greeting cards, invitations, gallery announcements, children’s picture books, and much more. From there we will explore a range of more complex glued structures which form the basis of entire scenes in contemporary pop-up books: props, floating platforms, spirals, straddles, and V-folds. You will be encouraged to invent and explore these structures to create your own artistic paper environments.

Paper Vessels 

Create a variety of collapsible vessels, book forms and inflatable structures as you explore the properties of handmade and commercial papers through cutting, folding, embedding, stitching, weaving and manipulating wet and dry sheets. We will join paper panels with a variety of attachments and connections that work well with paper, such as glue, tape, eyelets, and stitching. We will also explore illuminating some of our paper vessels.

Your Paper, Your Art

Amanda Degener will introduce image-making with and on handmade paper and guide participants towards projects of their own design. Being playful and experimental is encouraged, then make your masterpieces when you return home. As a group we will cook, process and sheetform translucent Asian paper and use natural dyes on pre-made strong Western Belgium Flax. Some of our colors will include: Indigo, Persimmon, Red Walnut, and Ochre. These have often been compared to the palette of Italy: Siena, Naples Yellow, Venetian Red. You will learn gelatin-resist crackling, indigo layering, and combining natural dyes resulting in dark and durable papers. To see some of the natural dying we will be doing, check out the Cave Paper website. Your papers can be artworks in themselves and/or you can customize paper for your personal projects. There will be plenty of demos and handouts, and the group will make a sample book including descriptions so everyone has a record of the recipes.

Sewn Book Bindings

A bookbinding has two main functions. It protects its text block against wear and tear, and, by its structure, it makes a book out of a heap of otherwise separate leaves or quires. — Karen Limper-Herz

A functioning book begins with a solid sewing. This class will cover variations on sewing methods that are meant to be constructed at the bench and that can be made in a sparsely equipped home studio. Basic hand tools-of-the-trade will be introduced, and we’ll consider how the materials and composition of a binding affects the book’s structure and action. You will learn about materials, tools, and terminology as I guide you through different methods for folding, marking up, and punching signatures; sewing on and off a sewing frame; and gluing up and lining a spine.

Structures to be covered in the workshop include: tacketed pamphlet bindings, double-raised cords covered in chamois, sewn board / drum leaf hybrids, and paper case construction.

By the end of the workshop you will have your own stack of completed bindings. A series of handouts outlining the steps to create the models that you make in class will also be provided so you leave the workshop with the technical foundation and structural principles for continued investigation.

Supply List (for Students to Bring)

Pencil
Scissors
Glue Stick
Scotch Tape
X-Acto Knife and #11 Blades
Utility Knife and Blades
Self-Healing Cutting Mat (as large as you can comfortably carry)
Metal Ruler
Right Angle Triangle
Bone Folder bookmaking tool, 6 or 8-inch pointed
Bookbinder’s Bristol glue brush, 1/2”
Collage scraps, photographs, clip art images
Color pencils, rubber stamps, markers, and other art materials of your choice
Plastic container with lid, such as small yogurt containers, for glue (1 per student)
Ribbons (2–3, 1/8” wide)
1 or 2 of your favorite pop-up books to share with the class