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Cooling off in the heat with folding fans

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Posted at 2:00 PM, May 26, 2024

  • Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures and Education Center
  • Outreach Coordinator Hitome taught Japanese calligraphy on folding fans to class participants
  • Host various cultural art and cooking classes for all ages on many Saturdays

Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures and Education Center hosted a Japanese calligraphy on folding fans class on Sat. May 25. It was a great way for people to beat the heat indoors while making fans that can be used to help cool them off or block the sun.

“So there’s a couple different elements to the history. They’ve been used a couple of different ways throughout time," Richard Hafemeister, Director of Operations of the Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures, said.

"But, how they are traditionally seen now is one as an art piece and a decorative piece to show off your artistic style and your interest. But they’re also still used pragmatically and practically the way they were originally as fans for the heat and as a shade.”

Participants of all ages took part in learning how to paint Japanese calligraphy on folding fans. Hitome, the outreach Coordinator of Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures, displayed a PowerPoint presentation displaying the steps that the artists needed to follow.

"Those stereotypical folding fans you see in all the cartoons, you see in most of East Asia, everybody's getting to make their own with their own calligraphy on them as part of the class today," Hafemeister said.

Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures and Education Center hosts some variation of a class every week. Many of these are calligraphy classes. However, the calligraphy on folding fans class is a new one on their lineup. All classes that they host are open to people of all ages and they last about an hour long.

Texas State Museum of Asian Cultures and Education Center is having a sushi-making class on Sat. June 2, and a fox-making class later in June. More information about how to reserve a spot in the sushi making class and for future events can be found here.

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