PULP ART: Paperwork keeps artist Caitlin Perkins busy in her Philagrafika office. : Michael T. Regan

Her contribution to the new Web site Art Jaw explains her bag fetish. "I used all the stuff I have to carry around as a metaphor for all the roles I've taken on," says Perkins, who details her inventory of bags and their contents to hilarious effect. It's a universal feeling, this being loaded down with stuff, no matter what the profession. This sort of barrier-breaking is exactly what Shelley Spector, who's launching www.artjaw.com on May 31, wants people to get out of the site—a collection of first-person stories from people in the visual arts community about their day-to-day experiences both past and present, inspirational and mundane.

"It's derived from my interest in the inner workings of art communities," says Spector. "I'm an artist, gallery owner, curator and teacher. I wear all these different hats and I still don't totally get it."

Dispelling the myth of the beret-wearing, cappuccino-sipping artiste is just one of the aims of Art Jaw—by hearing the stories of the way artists really live and work, everybody learns. "The way I understand things is by talking to people and listening to their stories," says Spector.

"The art world is adept at cultivating ugly personas that lead to generalizations about the whole," says Art Jaw contributor Robert Cozzolino, a curator at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "Most artists that I know are dedicated workers, constantly looking to expand their range and knowledge, and do not waste time with posturing or inventing jargon for what they do. Maybe I only know the freaks."

It's not just artists who will contribute to the site—so will all those behind-the-scenes types whose jobs often fall under the radar.

As a child, Katherine Ware, curator of photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, would play "museum" with her brother in her neighbor's carport, painstakingly arranging and labeling rocks and seashells and pinecones for passersby, with the hope that they could exchange "admission" for candy.

The site will kick off with 11 stories accompanied by images, with a new story posted once a month after that. Other participants include artists Randall Sellers and Zoe Strauss, University of the Arts' Fine Arts department chair Jeanne Jaffe, Artblog and Philadelphia Weekly critic Roberta Fallon and artist Hester Stinnett, who's also a professor at Tyler School of Art. Students, registrars, collectors, teachers—all are slated to tell their tales. It's about how exhibitions come together, how nonprofits acquire funding, how artists get inspired and how paintings get hung.

Bridgette Mayer, who owns a gallery on Washington Square, writes a funny essay on gallery visitors who are incredulous that she's actually Bridgette Mayer; they expect an older, more sour persona. Matt Singer, curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, calls his encounter with the album art for Siouxsie and the Banshees' A Kiss in the Dreamhouse "the cornerstone of his career in the arts." Never mind that M.F.A.—Singer was enthralled by the 1982 Gustav Klimt-inspired gold and jewel-toned design and that was all he needed to start studying art in earnest.

Contributor Lisa Nelson-Haynes, associate director at Painted Bride Art Center, is excited at the prospect of learning about her colleagues. "I think a lot of times we work in a vacuum, and this is one of those opportunities to get other perspectives," says Nelson-Haynes, who will write about her hatred of titles of any sort; she's come up with a few of her own to replace one she finds especially distasteful: arts administrator.

Spector says Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative director Paula Marincola will write about how hard it is to have a job where she has to say "no" to artists. "Everybody wants it. Everybody's fighting for the same money. Everybody's fighting for the same walls. She has to decline things from people she's very good friends with," says Spector.

As a kind of rejoinder, Spector's organizing a show called "Paper Trail" for her gallery that she describes as a "walk-in filing cabinet." Proposals, tax forms, contracts, budgets, acceptance and rejection letters and all manner of correspondence (e-mails and letters, bitchy and otherwise) among all manner of arts professionals (artists, patrons, museum workers) will fill the space.

"This is about everything else we do," says Spector of the mounds of paperwork involved in putting on a show. She says it reflects all the work artists and their champions do to get the work seen: having work photographed, writing artists' statements and press releases, fundraising, acquiring insurance for exhibitions and shipping work back and forth to galleries and museums. "Nobody's just sitting around making stuff."

Anyone can contribute to this two-day show. It's an open invitation—Spector suggests I submit one of the many pieces of pulp that come across an arts editor's desk—and she'll be collecting until June 5. (The only requirement is that the paper be 8 1/2 by 11 inches.)

Together, Art Jaw and "Paper Trail" are meant to throw open, even just a little, the doors to the strange and beautiful—and often mystifying—world of Philadelphia's thriving visual arts community.

"The art world can be very alienating to people not in it," says Spector. "That's very bad. If you want support you have to give people little windows."

Says Cozzolino, "Although I think the misconception persists, this profession is not reserved for Ivy League-trained folks who have come from a wealthy background. Let's kick that notion to the curb. The art world is not monolithic."

Contributor Richard Torchia, artist and director of Arcadia University Art Gallery, says, "From what I understand, Art Jaw is creating a different platform based on jargon-free, personal narratives and a range of individual voices and perspectives within the field. This is good as we are all authorities of one kind or another and everyone can benefit from a truth well told. Anything that makes what we're doing matter more to more people is welcome."

Visit www.artjaw.com beginning Wed., May 31. "Paper Trail" exhibition opening and Art Jaw launch party June 9, 6-9 p.m., with performance by Sweatheart; "Paper Trail" also runs June 10, noon-5 p.m., Spector Gallery and Studio, 510 Bainbridge St., 215-238-0840, www.spectorspector.com. Have something you want to submit to "Paper Trail"? Mail it, e-mail it (PaperTrail@spectorspector.com) or drop it off in the gallery's mail slot.