Flora Shum’s infatuation with papermaking began while she was a student at OCAD. On a whim, she took a papermaking class, intrigued by its history as one of the oldest crafts around. “I fell in love with it,” Flora says. Her professor, Emily Cook, was one of the reasons she got hooked. After graduating, Emily and Flora kept in touch and tossed around the idea of opening a professional papermaking facility. They realized there was nothing available for the public, so when the callout for Artscape Youngplace – a creative community space – came about, Emily jumped at the opportunity.
The Artscape Youngplace building is home to a hotbed of creativity, exploring different artistic outlets. The Paperhouse Studio space is relatively expansive, with room for up to 12 students to traipse about from station to station with ease. “I don’t think we’d ever imagined we’d have a space this nice,” notes Flora – their previous location lacked a washroom, resulting in great familiarity with neighbouring fast-food joints. The students tend to be local; school groups pop by for paper-related classes, outreach programs see the involvement of marginalized youth, and artist projects all happen under the same roof.
