Saturday, January 28, 2017

Creative Cities Network Meeting in Ostersund, Sweden, 2016

While I am working on the computer this morning, I decided that I need to share some of the photos I took when Mary Hammond and I attended the 2016 UNESCO Creative Cities Annual Meeting in Ostersund, Sweden.

In 2013 Paducah, Kentucky was named the 7th Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art. Now there are 20 cities around the world with the Crafts and Folk Art designation. The other U.S. city with that designation is Santa Fe, NM.

The Creative Cities Network is comprised of 116 cities in 54 countries. Ambassadors from more than 100 cities met in Sweden. Ostersund is a Creative City of Gastronomy so they laid out food of all kinds for our meals. We ate reindeer - the Sami people who herd and care for the reindeer in the north part of Sweden have a museum in Ostenburg that we visited.

The speakers discussed:

  • Maximizing urban-rural connections through interventions based on culture and creativity
  • Fostering partnerships and exchanges intended to support the mobility of artists and cultural professionals within the Network
  • Revitalizing cities through culture and creativity
  • Fostering the role of research and locally-generated data to assess and monitor the impact of creativity for sustainable urban development.







We were greeted at the Ostersund Airport by local musicians.









Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth largest lake, Storsjön










A photo of the delegations to the UNESCO Creative Cities meeting in Ostersund, Sweden.










The Mayors of the Creative Cities of Crafts and Folk Arts, taken during our section meeting.

This photo is all of the delegates in the Crafts and Folk Arts section. Cities in this section include:
  • AswanEgypt (2005)
  • IcheonSouth Korea (2010)
  • KanazawaJapan (2009)
  • Santa FeNew Mexico, USA (2005)
  • Fabriano, Italy (2013)
  • PaducahKentuckyUSA (2013)
  • Jacmel  (2014)
  • Jingdezhen, China (2014)
  • Nassau, Bahamas (2014)
  • Pekalongan   (2014)
  • Suzhou, China (2014)
  • Al-Ahsa (Saudi Arabia) (2015)
  • Bamiyan (Afghanistan) (2015)
  • Durán (Ecuador) – Crafts and Folk Art (2015)
  • Isfahan (Iran [Islamic Republic of]) (2015)
  • Jaipur (India) – Crafts and Folk Art (2015)
  • Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (2015)
  • San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico) (2015)
  • Sasayama (Japan) – Crafts and Folk Art (2015)











Many times our food was served on these wooden planks. They could made up ahead and they were east to serve the whole group in a short amount of time.











See how they cut slots in a birch tree to insert the wooden plates. We just walked by and took one.










At their museum, I snapped some photos of textiles.















I was intrigued with this wallhanging made from foiled cloth that was displayed in their museum.













At another event, I was thrilled to meet the young artist who had made that foiled wallhanging. It was fun to learn how she had done the foiling.










Traveling by bus from the refugee camp, we went around some round-a-bouts in the highway. I don't remember ever seeing these in a highway like this before.










We passed by this beautiful old church. Our driver told us they have many weddings in this church. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo -- we were moving pretty fast when we spotted it.










We also had lunch prepared for us at a refugee camp, where more than 300 refugees from various countries wait for papers to stay and work in Sweden. The native dishes they served were mostly rice or beans and they were very tasty. They have a choir at the camp that helps them to learn the Swedish language. We sang with some of the choir in Swedish. It is hard to imagine being driven from your home country for the safety of your family.




One evening we needed transportation to their folk museum. This was my chariot. They had a variety of old classic cars and even some really old buses.




Mary Hammond and I had a very busy six days... and enjoyed every minute of it... once our luggage arrived. This is my first international flight that my luggage did not make it at the same time as I did. It arrived a day late - was sitting in Chicago. Lesson learned: be sure to pack an extra top too.

Paducah will be hosting the first ever UNESCO Creative Cities meeting in the United States for the Creative Cities of Crafts and Folk Art section. It will be held in September 2017. Can't wait to host the many international friends we have made at the Creative Cities Network meetings.

All for now..... Bonnie

I have not posted in a while... it is because I have been really busy...is is chilly here today so I'm staying inside and catching up.

We currently have registration open for all three of our Spring AQS QuiltWeek shows. That is Daytona Beach, FL; Lancaster, PA; and Spring Paducah, KY. The reason it says Spring Paducah is because we are doing a second show in Paducah in the Fall. It will be the Fall Paducah QuiltWeek. That means we have been very busy working on new things for all of these shows. If you want to check them out, go to www.quiltweek.com, and then click on the location.

My new ironing board  arrived this week. This morning I opened it. While I was in South Korea last year I had seen a commercial of this ironing board that had a large table and it could be flipped over cutting the amount of time it takes to iron a shirt. I finally found it in the U.S. through a Kickstarter program. I donated to the Kickstarter and received an ironing board.

Some of the good features of the ironing board:
1. The top is 18.5 inches across so a full fat quarter of fabric will fit perfectly.
2. It has an iron rest.
3. The legs are very sturdy and it can be raised and lowered to a variety of heights.
4. Folds up and stores easily; it has wheels so you don't need to pick it up and carry it.
5. A sleeve board is stored at one end of the ironing board.
6. Almost forgot, it has clips to hold pant legs while you iron.
Now I really do need to get my iron out and try it.

But meantime, here are some photos I took as I opened it.

If you want more info and so see a video of it in operation, here is the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sharkklabs/flippr-the-ironing-board-that-saves-80-of-your-tim?ref=discovery







Until next time... have a great day. Take some time to MAKE something or IRON something!

Bonnie B