France:Textiles as Cultural Expressions - theme of 11th TSA Symposium

Public registration opens April 1, 2008 for the 11th Textile Society of America (TSA) Biennial Symposium set for September 24 through 27, 2008 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.
Textiles as Cultural Expressions is the theme for the major international arts event being coordinated by Tom Klobe, Director Emeritus of the University of Hawaii Art Gallery; and Reiko Brandon, renowned fiber artist and former Curator of Textiles at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
The conference is open to the public with prior registration. You need not be a member of TSA to attend the symposium. Complete program and registration information is currently available online.
Early-bird registration fees through July 1, 2008, range from $295 for students and $385 for TSA members, to $460 for non-members. Extra fees are required for workshops, pre-symposium tours, and the banquet. Special day rates of $150 (no meals included) for on-site registration will be offered, subject to space availability.
Says conference organizer Klobe, who has a reputation for orchestrating successful community-wide arts events such as Crossings ‘97: France/Hawaii and Crossings 2003: Korea/Hawaii, “This symposium will celebrate the Pacific Rim’s strong cultural traditions in the fiber arts and provide venues for our regional fiber artists to display their work for a worldwide audience.”
The international symposium is expected to attract textile collectors, curators, students, educators, scholars and experts from around the world as well as highlight Hawaii’s own esteemed museum and private collections and knowledgeable curators through a city-wide schedule of exhibitions.
In addition to presentations of scholarly papers and panel discussions, which form the foundation of the symposium, there will be an array of textile collection site seminar tours (open only to registered symposium participants); more than a dozen individual exhibitions (open to the public) that will highlight the diversity of this culturally rich Pacific location; and an international textile marketplace (open to the public).

Site seminars will include discussions of plantation era and early 20th century textiles in Hawaii, traditional fibers in Hawaii and the Pacific, Hawaiian quilts, Indonesian textiles, Chinese imperial robes and minority costumes, contemporary textiles in the Pacific region, Japanese textiles and Islamic textiles.
The international symposium will include the Textile Society of America’s Founding Presidents’ Awards banquet to recognize excellence in the field of textile studies and presenters whose proposals are judged to be outstanding.
It will conclude with a Pau Hana/Aloha Presentation on Textiles as Cultural Expressions in Hawaii: The Meaning of Hula by Michael Pili Pang and his hula troupe, Halau Hula Ka Noeau.
“I am most excited about the opportunity to introduce our regional researchers, artists, teachers and experts to the greater international textile community. These individuals will be sharing the abundant textile resources of our Asian and Polynesian textile traditions that are rarely available or known outside of Hawaii,” says Klobe.
The symposium will also feature a two-day International Textile Marketplace and Book Fair at the Sheraton Waikiki with a wide array of specialty textile products including books, textile conservation products, wearable art, and one-of-a-kind textile collectibles.
The International Textile Marketplace will be open to conference attendees and the general public for shopping from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, September 25 and 26, 2008. Dealers, textile artists and regional craft vendors interested in participating in the Marketplace should contact Marketplace Chairperson, Linda-Mei Jaress.
Conference headquarters will be the Sheraton Waikiki, an award-winning meetings and convention property located on Waikiki Beach in the heart of Hawaii’s most famous resort destination. The Sheraton Waikiki is noted for its outstanding conference facilities and will be extending conference rates for pre- and post-conference stays.
In addition to events held at the Sheraton Waikiki, special site tours to museums and private collections will be organized around themes that include art conservation, ethnic textiles, garments in paradise aloha wear, Hawaiian quilts, plantation era textiles, and traditional Hawaiian fiber arts.