Conference on washi

World Washi Summit
Toronto and Environs
June 7-15. 2008

The World Washi Summit will be an international gathering to
celebrate the quality craftsmanship and sustainability of washi, the
paper that has been handcrafted by the Japanese for over 1400 years.
Totally dedicated to washi, the Summit will be the first event of
its type ever held and will feature the works of more than 100
international and Canadian artists whose talents bring the paper to
life.

Principal guests of the Summit will be three of Japan's talented
papermakers performing demonstrations on how washi is actually made.
They will meet face-to-face with the Summit artists and see first
hand how washi has found new use in other lands. Other participants
will include the curators who exhibit washi, its distributors, and
the art-buying public eager to learn about it. The majority of
events will be free. Creative works with washi by artists from South
Africa, England, Scotland, Germany, Japan, China, Finland, Iceland,
and Mexico will be exhibited in some 35 galleries and venues in and
around Toronto. The Japan Foundation will host an exhibition Washi
over Time showing traditional uses and the migration of textile
patterns onto paper (chiyogami).

Other events will include workshops by international guests on using
washi, and demonstrations by artists, including stonecut printing by
Inuit printmaker Kavavaow Mannomee; lectures on Life in a
Papermaking Community and on Chiyogami: the UK's New Marbled Paper;
a look at the collection of washi books in the ROM's East Asian
Library; a fashion show and a washi bazaar at the Gladstone Hotel;
and to cap off the week a Grand Review with artists, curators and
papermakers.

The World Washi Summit is the brainchild of Nancy Jacobi, founder of
The Japanese Paper Place. She first introduced washi to Canada in
1982 through her tiny store on Queen Street West. Since that
introduction this renewable resource has become a central medium for
thousands of artists in both Canada and abroad who appreciate its
beauty, versatility and permanence. The JPP houses a vast collection
of Japanese papers and fills daily orders to stores and artistic
communities around the world. For the Summit, The Japanese Paper
Place has partnered with the Japan Foundation towards their common
goals: to educate the art public on the practicality and the
sustainability of Japanese papers, and above all to encourage
Japanese papermakers in preserving an ancient craft that has become
indispensable to discerning artists everywhere.

For current updates and scheduling, see

    <URL:http://www.worldwashisummit.com


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