One of the featured exhibits at this year’s festival will be the Origamic
Architecture exhibition, which attracted record attendance at the American
Craft museum in New York City earlier this year. Many will recognize this
branch of origami from children’s pop-up books but will be amazed at how
this area of paper design has developed. Takaaki Kihara the creator of many
of the designs will be in Charlotte to demonstrate and discuss his work.
Robert Lang, eminent research scientist and creator of the first
computer programs that can design origami models, will also
be in Charlotte for the 5th Southeast Origami festival. Robert
Lang is also an accomplished designer and author of Origami
books. He will be the guest speaker at a master workshop on
Origami & Mathematics, Thursday September 26 at Spirit Square.
Tomoko Fuse well-known to origami folders around the world will be returning
to the festival to enlighten us with her charm and talents.
Look for the Southeast Origami Festival gallery & supply store alongside the
official Charlotte Shout visitor information center in Founders Hall. Here
you can find select pieces for sale by artists in town for the festival,
papers, books, and gift-cards featuring Origamic Architecture.
Late September the Cultural Education Collaborative, a prominent
arts education organization in Charlotte, will videotape lectures,
demonstrations, and workshop presentations of some of the eminent
teachers here in the city for the Southeast Origami Festival.
This unique project to effectively record techniques, applications
and innovations useful for educators is a first for the festival.
Meet Rohi Shah at the festival who will be traveling all the
way from Kenya to Charlotte for the occasion and will be the
first from his country ever to attend an international origami
event. Rohi is a prolific folder and will be displaying some
of his work at the festival as well as giving a special presentation
at the Afro-American Cultural Center about how he has been able
to share origami in Kenya.
Charlotte Takes the 5th!
The Southeast Origami Festival
will be held in Charlotte, NC from September 24-29.
Local, regional, national and international paperfolders will
convene in the Queen City to participate in this week-long citywide festival.
The festival features many family oriented activities that are free and
open to the public.
This year the festival has been selected as a signature event
in 'Charlotte Shout', a diverse event coordinated by Charlotte
Center City Partners, that is designed to actively promote arts
activities in the city during the month of September.
Throughout the city there will be exhibits at 30 different locations
including the main library and several of its branches. Some
of these will feature large-scale exhibits while others will
display work by artists from around the US and overseas. One
exhibit will feature an elaborate kingdom of miniature origami
fantasy characters designed for an interactive web site known
as Oriland. Because of it's size it will be laid out in Founders
Hall and Gate Way Village where it will be one of the exhibit
stops on a walking tour of the city.
Education is an important component of the festival. Throughout
the week, visiting artists from around the world will present
origami demonstrations and instructions in many local area schools.
At the last festival more than 12,000 school children had the
opportunity to participate in origami activities through this
visiting artist program. CMS art teachers will have an option
for an in-service seminar featuring uses of Origami within the
curriculum. A series of master classes and focus workshops will
also be offered throughout the week. These explore different
applications of origami in several disciplines including: Education,
Mathematics, Entertainment, Fine Arts &Therapy. A fee is charged
for the workshops.
The weekend will feature an interactive outdoor crafts fair
with a paper theme. Many local and visiting origami artists
will guide festivalgoers through "make-it-and-take-it" projects.
Along with folding familiar paper shapes one can expect to discover
paper bead making, kite making, papermaking and many other crafts
with ties to paper. Music, dancers, storytellers and entertainers
with an international flavor will perform throughout the afternoon
activities.
As in previous festivals, a large number of national and international
origami artists will be in attendance with Yuri & Katrin Shumakov
from Russia being among the special guests. Expect to meet 'The
Amazing Jeremy', a California artist who has taken origami performance
art to an entirely new level
