{"id":18,"date":"2022-03-31T09:10:20","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T13:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/pomeleo-fowler\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2022-05-02T23:19:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T03:19:01","slug":"paper-city-clothing-company","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/pomeleo-fowler\/paper-city-clothing-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper City Clothing Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paper City Clothing Company is a Holyoke-based organization founded by artist Carlos Pe\u00f1a. In their mission statement they describe themselves as a \u201csmall but mighty social enterprise\u201d that creates opportunities for youth to gain skills in the arts. Pe\u00f1a, a designer and printmaker, has a line of screen-printed clothing, a practice he has extended into his work with emerging teen artists in Holyoke. Through their project ArteSana Youth Studio, Pe\u00f1a and his business partner Katy Moonan host screen-printing workshops and youth development programs around the Pioneer Valley.<\/span><\/p>\n

ArteSana Youth Studio began as ArteSana, a local nonprofit founded by Moonan. The organization began in 2013 while Moonan was teaching ESL classes in Holyoke, where she met several women who were interested in weaving and textile arts. Moonan and her collaborators began collecting used clothing and processing it into smaller fibers, which they brought to\u00a0 meetings to weave together. Soon the project became a community initiative, providing space and materials for local Latinx artists to make and sell their work. ArteSana ended its time as an independent nonprofit at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, but merged with Paper City Clothing Company the same year. While the pandemic led many small organizations like ArteSana to close their doors for good, Moonan was able to adapt through collaboration.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Moonan quickly organizes the shelves for a photo on a Friday afternoon. Image: Sandra Pomeleo-Fowler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In its current state, ArteSana Youth Studio continues to provide professional development for artists, primarily teenagers in the Holyoke area. Pe\u00f1a has several clothing lines by teen artists for sale in his storefront alongside his own. In fact, the entire storefront was designed and built by artists in Paper City’s<\/span> youth program<\/span><\/a>. “When we first came in here, they took a look around and said ‘this is not a store,'” Pe\u00f1a told me one afternoon. They were referring to the future home of Paper City, which at the time was a cavernous brick building with uneven wooden floors, and most importantly, nowhere to display clothes. So Pe\u00f1a provided his collaborators with a budget, and they purchased the materials and pursued their vision under his guidance. They refurbished old wood into sleek black shelves and clothing racks with matching wall paneling, bringing new life to the space. The result is fresh and inviting. All of the money spent refurbishing was earned back through a sneaker mixer<\/a>, an event planned and hosted by the youth collaborators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The sneaker mixer in July 2021. Image: Daily Hampshire Gazette<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe give them a new direction to go into,\u201d said Pe\u00f1a, as we chatted about what it\u2019s like to be a young artist deciding whether or not to pursue art as a career. Such a career often seems intimidating, difficult to imagine, and for working class artists in particular, financially risky. Pe\u00f1a hopes to provide concrete guidance as to what a career as an artist might look like, how it is possible to be successful, and most importantly, that success comes in many forms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The success of Paper City’s model, according to Moonan, is the fact that it is both a non-profit space and a storefront. Pe\u00f1a, Moonan, and their colleagues learned how to build a more substantial website with an online store for Paper City, a feature they had not needed before the pandemic. Like many cultural arts organizations, the revenue they earned came from face-to-face activities\u2013in their case it was clothing merchandise for local events and even hosting parties and gatherings in their own space. In March of 2020 these events were all canceled at once. Within the month Pe\u00f1a and Moonan converted their space into a full-time screen printing production and packaging facility, and added all their merchandise into their online store, including that of other local designers. This sudden change in selling strategy was ultimately positive, allowing more customers who lived far away from the brick-and-mortar store to purchase new designs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Designs by youth-founded Holyoke design company Imperial Cloth, @imperial.cloth<\/a> on Instagram. Image: Sandra Pomeleo-Fowler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently Paper City began hosting in-person events again, which now have better funding thanks to the success of their online store. Pe\u00f1a has also created a gallery with rotating exhibitions by local artists. This spring they participated in the tri-site exhibition<\/span> Abstract Black<\/span><\/a>, alongside The Ethnic Study in Springfield and 50 Arrow Gallery in Easthampton. An upcoming exhibition of artwork by local youth artists will be on display beginning in May of 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n