This is our first year running the events much closer to home. All lectures and events took place in the Net Loft. Our exhibitions took place at Maiwa East. For us that meant we could offer a much more intimate experience. The symposium is now very close to both our stores and workshop spaces. We feel the transition has been very successful.

The transition has been so successful, in fact, that we are considering moving to an “every year” schedule for the symposium. This gives us the flexibility to bring in world-class textile artisans to Vancouver for both workshops and lectures.

We are working hard to make Vancouver the textile centre of the world.

A symposium of this scope does not come without a lot of effort from a host of individuals. That means, instructors, volunteers, and staff. Anyone who has been in a the room with us, as we negotiate scheduling knows what a commitment is needed to bring the Symposium to a successful conclusion. We have flights coming into the airport, instructors being delivered to hotels, workshop supplies being sorted into bins and delivered where they are needed on time. We have set-up and tear down for events, we have caterers, wine and food orders arriving and we have the paperwork that goes with this. Permits, schedules, contracts, timelines. We'd like to send a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone involved.

The Wrap Party is our biggest fundraiser for the Maiwa Foundation. If you’ve been part of the Symposium so far you probably have seen some of the work that has come out of the Foundation. In January 2011 we brought natural dye chemist Michel Garcia to Bengal to lead an artisan Masterclass. We have also used the Foundation to resolve the Jawaja Leatherworker’s – who were indentured to a predatory lender, to assist the Ajrah Blockprinters of Ajrakhpur and Damadkha with their water situation and to assist artisans throughout the Kutch Desert in the aftermath of the disasterous 2001 earthquake.