Directors Share Passion for Promoting the Art of Papermaking

As Dieu Donné Papermill, in New York, celebrates its 25th anniversary of promoting the art and craft of making paper by hand, it is following a path common to many nonprofit groups. Its founder, Susan Gosin, has stepped aside as president and now serves as co-chair of the board, leaving the organization to develop a new generation of leadership.

The charity, which operates on a $530,000 budget, has decided that the best way for it to fulfill its ambitious plans for growth is to change its management structure. It has split the top leadership into two positions: Mina Takahashi, who has been executive director for the past decade, will become executive director of programs; and Brett Littman, former associate director of UrbanGlass, a nonprofit arts group in Brooklyn, will be joining Ms. Takahashi as executive director of administration.

Dieu Donné began life as a small papermaking and bookmaking workshop. Ms. Gosin started it when she was a student at the University of Wisconsin, naming the fledgling studio after her father, Dieu Donné François Gosin, and moved it to the SoHo district in New York in 1976. She used diaper and undershirt clippings, among other materials, to create pulp, and sculptor friends built a paper press. The studio operated as a struggling for-profit company until 1988, when Ms. Gosin decided to seek charity status.

“We had a choice to become straight-out sheet fabricators or print publishers, and making more stationery-type products, or really following the soul of the organization, which was really to find a way to bring artists in to create this work and push the medium,” Ms. Takahashi says.

The organization serves as a studio for artists who create two- and three-dimensional works from handmade paper. It has collaborated with numerous noted artists, including Barbara Bloom and Chuck Close.

Dieu Donné also makes custom-designed archival paper for museums and libraries, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Library of Congress. And it teaches the art and history of papermaking to schoolchildren, as well as adults.

Ms. Takahashi arrived at the charity’s doorstep in 1989, fresh from a two-year fellowship, during which she studied ancient papermaking techniques in Asia. She started work as an intern on her first visit to Dieu Donné, and in less than two years became the charity’s executive director.

Mr. Littman, meanwhile, cut his teeth in the nonprofit world as a development associate at the Esperanza Center, a charity in San Antonio that promotes the acceptance of women, gay people, and ethnic and racial minorities through cultural and arts programs. His interest in art and design led him to New York, where he worked first at a Brooklyn theater company, then at UrbanGlass, a nonprofit art studio that creates and promotes glass art. Last year, he helped to organize Dieu Donné’s first annual benefit party, which raised $25,000.

In a recent joint interview, Mr. Littman and Ms. Takahashi talked about their new co-director positions and their joint vision for the charity:

Why is it important to promote the art of making paper by hand?

Mr. Littman: It’s a craft medium which had gotten short shrift in terms of the art world. People say paper art is not really an art because it is so commonplace. But right now, contemporary artists are interested in exploring all types of mediums. We would like to break down the barriers. Our goal is to get galleries interested in showing paper art, to get contemporary artists interested in coming to work with us. We want to make sure that art critics understand there’s a lot of work being done, and that the public understands papermaking as art. We don’t want to preach to the converted anymore. We want to preach to the general public.

Ms. Takahashi: It’s such a young medium, there’s so much more we know it has to offer to the artist. We’ve now worked with over 300 to 400 artists in our studio. Every time new artists come in, they bring in their new ideas. All sorts of new techniques are being developed, and we continue to add to that vocabulary.

Why did the organization change its administrative structure?

Ms. Takahashi: This is part of our strategy to move the organization from a founder-centered organization to its next stage of growth. Coupled with the findings of our research with a development consultant, we realized we have an amazing opportunity, both on the program side and also on the fund-raising side, for growth. We needed to focus on infrastructure and planned growth for the organization.

Mr. Littman: Projects are getting more competitive; there’s a lot more money involved. What used to be done with a verbal commitment and a handshake now needs to be vetted by a lawyer. It’s always good to try to have a division of labor, so that if one person leaves, someone actually knows where the files are. One of my goals is to institute a structure that no matter what happens, someone will be able to step in.

What do you hope to accomplish in the next few years?

Ms. Takahashi: We really took a close look at our mission as part of our larger strategic-planning process and decided we want to zero in on core activities, and that is our work with artists in the studio. It’s kind of going back to the original focus of the organization, to push the medium with artists to create work through residencies, exhibitions, and publications. I’ll be working more closely with artists, curators, and galleries to place paper art in museums and leading contemporary art galleries.

Mr. Littman: My hope is to advance the day-to-day operations: starting a 401(k) plan, developing a database that is giving us the right information for marketing and fund raising, making sure we have the right financial program that’s going to be able to track our day-to-day operations and help our auditor and bookkeeper.

I’ll also be focusing on our board, making sure we’re adding new members and growing the board at a rate that is commensurate with the growth of the organization over the next several years.

My approach has always been that you take on as many responsibilities as you can. But I think it is better for an institution to understand that if someone is going to be focusing on fund raising, often that person can’t also focus on the program aspect of the organization.

How did you two know you would work well together?

Ms. Takahashi: The co-directorship mirrors what we do in the studio. Papermaking is a real team endeavor here. It’s possible to do it all by yourself, but it’s really about collaboration here, how we work with the artists, how we work with organizations. So this was a very natural way for us to see how we could expand and better manage the organization as it grows.