Many have a nagging sense of doubt about the whole concept of the artist-in-residence. Some trace this to the large audiences that many residencies involve. They see self-expression as mismatched with mass programming. Others worry about the "payback" of what seem to be expensive and vague programs. And still others simply do not see art as a discipline. Wherever you fit into this spectrum, The River was a residency that showed that art can be taught; preserved self-expression in cooperative effort; and, at least from the children's point of view, paid back at some very respectable odds. Artist Tom Grade originated this project. In the Fox Valley he is the handmade paper artist par excellence. His work has also generated considerable recognition at the national level and over the years he has participated in various competitive and invitational exhibits. He has also been involved in a variety of residencies, through which he came to realize that a new approach was needed. He envisioned a more meaningful kind of residency, in which the children of his native Fox Valley would create a monumental book. They would find their history and tell their stories, with the Fox River as the unifying element and handmade paper as the material. Five different communities along the Fox River, which flows from Lake Winnebago to Green Bay, were selected to participate. Participants in each of the five schools would produce two panels, three feet in width by six feet in height. These ten panels, when joined accordion-style, would produce an aerial view of the Fox River and the participating communities. Grade chose handmade paper as the essential medium of the project. While for some residencies it does not matter what medium the artist selects, in this case the selection of the material was hard-wired into the very nature of the project and its educational and artistic goals. Handmade paper allows not just the assembly of materials but also the creation of materials. By creating the "stuff" that would be used to form their images, the children learned a respect for materials that is woefully absent from other forms of art instruction. Because they could produce their materials right in their schools, they had a theoretically limitless program. Handmade paper also provided the flexibility necessary to incorporate the constant stream of images generated by so many children. One of the participating artists, Gisela Moyer, offered another reason why handmade paper was an appropriate medium: Papermaking opens the door to children's creativity. They think about the world in the abstract and then express it in reality. And no one makes mistakes in papermaking -- every piece of handmade paper is original and creative. Finally, paper was especially suited for this project because the Fox Valley has long been known as a center of paper manufacturing. In fact, it carries the industrial cognomen of "Paper Valley". Paper forms the historical fabric of the Fox Valley and the basis of its material wealth. Grade saw the use of handmade paper as a choice that would operate at many levels. Naturally, the success of an extensive residency program demands considerable operational know-how. Grade's experience with previous residencies gave him the knowledge necessary to involve many students from separate schools in a unified effort with a limited time frame. He worked with the various school administrations, parent-teacher associations, and school instructional staff to ensure the success of the project. He was also responsible for selecting the artists to implement the program. Five artists visited each school for a period of two weeks and in each of the elementary schools all six grades were involved. The schools were selected as far as was possible by their proximity to the Fox River. The participating schools were very cooperative and viewed this project as a very successful example of curriculum enhancement. Ellen Kort is an author and storyteller. She worked with the children first and helped them tell their own stories in their own words. As the children learned how to organize their experiences into stories, Caren Heft, a bookmaker, taught them to put their stories into material form, using written words and images. Each student made a small accordion-style book, a kind of personal miniature of the final product of the program. The next step for each group of students was to funnel all of the stories and books into the production of a master design which the students would use to create the school's two panels. All through this project, the artists stressed ownership--this would be the children's stories, their handmade paper, their final master design, and their panel. After the students completed the outlines of the master design, a team of handmade paper artists--Grade, Moyer, and Kirsten McClintock Christianson--worked with the children. First, the students created production materials and then fashioned those materials into the narrative and descriptive elements of the panels. Throughout this process each child produced her or his own small book and own handmade paper. This collaborative project involved each child in some way. By working together, the children solved design problems, learned the elements of narrative, exercised critical thinking, and took pride in the finished product. At the end of the project, with the assembly of all of the panels, the full effect of The River: A Voyage Through Our Communities was finally realized. The artists who worked on this project found that it took on a life of its own; this is precisely the kind of vitality that all art hopes to achieve. The assembled panels were first displayed at Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, in Neenah, Wisconsin, on December 10, 1995, as part of the museum's Christmas Open House. During this month the museum reached its highest recorded attendance. After traveling to various sites, The River will be permanently installed in the Avenue Mall in downtown Appleton.   Bergstrom-Mahler Museum sponsored this program. Two organizations provided primary funding: the Community Foundation of the Fox Valley Region and the Fox Valley Arts Alliance through the Arts in Our Daily Lives Program of the Wisconsin Arts Board. In addition, the following organizations and corporations gave their support: Akrosil, F&M Bancorporation, Fox River Paper, Gilbert Paper, Great Northern Corporation, Hayes Manufacturing, Kimberly-Clark Foundation, LaSalle Clinic, Menasha Corporation Foundation, Mills Fleet Farm, Riverside Paper Foundation, Uni-Source Paper, and the Parent-Teacher Associations of Westwood School in De Pere, Wrightstown School and Jefferson School in Appleton.