The 2008 Silk Painters International Festival is coming into focus. It looks like the Festival will be an event not to be missed. Along with the chance to take workshops from incredible teachers, there will be opportunities to hear wonderful speakers on art, history of silk, fashion, silk and dye chemistry, framing, lighting, preserving, and selling fine silk art. We will have talks from gallery owners, from museum textile curators, from successful artists, from suppliers and from teachers of silk painting. In addition, there will be the Members’ Art Exhibit, the Members’ Fashion Show, and a banquet, all against a backdrop of the beautiful high altitude New Mexican desert.
Planning for this event continues even as you read this article. Here are a few highlights. Sunday, August 3 through Wednesday August 6 will be workshop days. We will be holding several concurrent sessions on each of those days. Most of the workshops will be one or two days long, which will allow the participants to sample techniques from several teachers. Check out the workshops.
Thursday, August 7 though Sunday August 10 will be the Conference part of the Festival. Each day of the conference will have its own theme. Thursday’s theme will be “Silk Art”. Talks and panels will focus on what elevates silk painting to the level of fine art. The day concludes with a reception for the Members’ Art Exhibition. Friday’s (8-8-8) theme is “The Silk Medium”. This will address issues like lighting, framing, protecting, and selling silk art. Saturday’s theme will be “Silk in Motion”. This day will concentrate on silk textiles and silk fashion. The evening concludes with the Members’ Fashion Show, and the Festival Banquet at the Scottish Rites Masonic Temple near the plaza in Santa Fe. Sunday morning will be an awards breakfast and a SPIN business meeting.
Some of our speakers will include Judith Content, Rosanna Czarnecki, Tim Harding, Mary Schoeser, Yoshiko Wada, Lenny Yorke, Caroline Young, Deborah Younglao and more. Registration for the Festival, Workshops and Conference, will officially begin January of 2008. Be sure to check the http://www.silkinsantafe.com website for the most up to date information.
There are some special events that surround the 2008 festival. The day before the Festival officially begins SPIN with El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe is sponsoring an open silk painting class aimed at art teachers and students from the local community. El Museo Cultural is a multi-arts organization under a single roof in the rail-yard section of Santa Fe. This class will be coordinated by Jean-Louis Mireault and any SPIN member showing up early for the conference will be scooped up to assist. This is a way for us to touch the community and infect more people with silk painting.