In the 1930’s the mayors of Kobe and Yokohama, Japan presented the Vancouver Park Board with 500 Japanese cherry trees for planting at the Japanese cenotaph in Stanley Park honouring Japanese Canadians who served in WW1.

Twenty-eight years later in 1958 the Japanese consul, Museo Tanabe, gifted an additional 300 cherry trees and it was reported he did this as “An eternal memory of good friendship between our two nations”.

Each year Vancouver honours the approximately 43,000 cherry trees lining the City’s streets, with a Cherry Blossom Festival. In conjunction with that festival, a local gallery, the Silk Purse, hosts an exhibit entitled Cherry Blossoms: A Textile Translation. These trees, with their clouds of Spring blossoms vividly inspire local talent to explore the cherry blossom aesthetic through arts and cultural expression.

Located along the beautiful waterfront in West Vancouver, BC, the Silk Purse looks forward to seeing and displaying the work of local textile and needlework artists inspired by those very trees and blossoms. It is one of the more popular exhibits of the gallery with visitors anxiously awaiting its opening each year.

In order for the exhibit to take place a Call for Submissions is issued. We encourage our members to participate by submitting recent work that fits with the theme of the exhibit. In order to do so, you will need to read the submission rules and complete a submission form, which can be found by clicking here.

Let’s help make this another exciting display of our talents.