Students, faculty, and community members are invited to help fold an 8-ft. origami paper peace crane at 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4, in the newly renovated Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery at the Rockefeller Arts Center on the SUNY Fredonia campus. The art event, hosted by Fredonia Students for Peace, is free and open to the public.
The event is the first in a series of large origami 'participatory art' pieces planned by Fredonia resident and SUNY Fredonia campus webmaster, Jonathan Woolson. According to Woolson, the Friday event is the inaugural project of the World Peace Crane initiative, recently launched in October 2011. "I hope that this public art project may engage and inspire others to make their own, very big art statements for peace, everywhere," said Woolson, "and, although some people may see a paper crane as only a symbol, I feel that it is in sharing our meaningful, non-verbal communication -- like creating a painting or piece of music, or, folding a paper crane -- that we can have a powerful way to speak our truth, loud and clear, without words."
In late March 2011, following the devastating 9.0 earthquake and tsunami near Tohoku, Japan, SUNY Fredonia students, staff, and faculty worked together to fold 3,000 paper cranes which were sent to SUNY Fredonia's three partner universities in Japan.
The 8-ft. origami artwork, to be created by the gallery audience on Friday, will be sent to the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima, Japan. According to the Hiroshima Peace Park’s administration, the Children’s Peace Monument receives about 10 million folded paper peace cranes each year, made by children and adults from across Japan and around the world. Following WWII, the traditional origami paper crane came to be viewed in Japanese culture as a symbol for peace.
Woolson explained that additional World Peace Crane public events are also being planned to fold more 8-ft paper cranes, with additional cranes to be installed in Daniel A. Reed Library at SUNY Fredonia, and in other local venues. Woolson said that the World Peace Crane project is seeking more locations in Canada, other U.S. cities, and countries around the world in which to host the 8-ft. origami artwork.
The World Peace Crane project is a special event during the current gallery exhibit, "Then and Again," which features the work of campus faculty as well as that of their former students. The gallery exhibit runs through Nov. 13, and is free and open to the public and gallery hours are 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 2 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
The Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery opened on October 22, 2011, and was named in honor of Cathy (Calannio) Marion, a Jamestown native and a member of the class of 1979, and her husband, Jesse, who are both avid supporters of the arts around the world.
