Last Year: 2025 –> 2026

What to expect in 2026

Two years ago, facing cataclysmic funding shortages, Art Papers launched Fire Ecology, an experimental, 3-year project to bring the organization to a gradual and controlled conclusion in 2026. Fire Ecology was always meant as an invitation to rethink and rework established structures so that they might better meet the needs of the communities they are meant to serve. As we begin the final year of the Fire Ecology project, we look back on one of the most ambitious years of programming in Art Papers history. 

IN 2025 WE:

  • Presented the two pillar programs of the Fire Ecology project
    • Atlanta Art Ecosystems. This two-day series of public conversations at Atlanta Contemporary brought together members of the Atlanta Visual Arts community to discuss how they are addressing and adapting to the challenges facing our city’s arts non-profit sector.
    • Art Writing & Publishing Symposium. We invited some of the most innovative and exciting writers and publishers from organizations across the US to discuss the current state of art writing and publishing, as well as to imagine and set a path toward what we’d like it to become.
  • Continued publishing original and insightful art writing, here on ARTPAPERS.org
    • The Fall 2025 issue, Horror After Horror
    • Our special collection of texts exploring the relationship between truth and fiction by Courtney McClellan, Interrogating Truth 
    • An archival spotlight collection, On Criticism, a set of essays originally presented at the 1990 Southeastern Conference on Regional Arts Criticism.
  • Reprised our cultural partner booth at the second Atlanta Art Fair and, as part of the fair’s public talks series, we presented “Critical Abundance,” a discussion that spotlit the abundance of critical art writing platforms based in, and covering, Atlanta.
  • Hosted Reading As Resistance, an afternoon of live readings and letter writing to political prisoners, as part of Fall of Freedom: A National Day of Action 
  • Gathered together for a T-Shirt Party and Auction fundraiser to kick off the summer and celebrate the artist community we love.
  • Secured Art Papers’ legacy by completing our administrative archives, which are held by Emory University and authoring a comprehensive dissolution plan to disburse our assets and sunset the organization in an organized and compliant manner.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2026

The focus of our 50th and final year will be our two final editorial projects: the final issue of ART PAPERS magazine and our retrospective book. The magazine’s final issue will encapsulate the Fire Ecology project, serving to disseminate knowledge gained and propositions made throughout the project’s duration. Our retrospective book, 50 YEARS of ART PAPERS, will trace the history of the publication through some of our most timely, and timeless, texts. Book launch events will be held in NYC and ATL, so be sure to keep an eye on our newsletter and follow us on instagram to make sure you don’t miss the announcements.

We’ll host an Everything-Must-Go Office Sale in March. And we’ll throw one last farewell party in the summer, before moving out of the office that Art Papers has occupied since the mid-1990s. In the fall, we’re making preparations for an exhibition of archival ephemera, original artist projects, and memorabilia from Art Papers illustrious history—to begin in New York and then, hopefully, travel to our hometown of Atlanta.

We’ve been struck by the irony of how, in adopting the Fire Ecology project, we entered an especially energetic moment in the organization’s recent history—even as we prepare to conclude operation at the end of this year. We’ve been blown away by our community’s support for this plan. The process has been—and continues to be—difficult, but it has also been deeply impactful to witness the many connections, relationships, and alliances that have emerged from the project’s elements—tender saplings for the future.  We are incredibly grateful that so many have recognized Fire Ecology as a worthwhile undertaking—to thoughtfully put to rest an institution that has impacted so many artists, writers, and readers. We would be nowhere without your continued support. 

But we’re not gone yet! These last few months are some of the most important of the process, so be sure to stay tuned in. Here’s to our final year, and to seeing things through to the end.