2017 International Folk Culture and Tourism Products Expo

Julia R. Gomez, right, and Annette Gutierrez Turk, left, are members of Sandia Mountains Chapter – EGA. As fiber artists, they were pleased to accept an invitation to represent the United States in a cultural exchange at the 2017 Cultural Expo in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China on November 10–12, 2017. This fair invited 287 enterprises to represent their products for exhibit, competition and sale. The festival attracted delegations from 39 countries such as America, Australia, India, Egypt, Pakistan, Singapore and the Netherlands.

Julia and Annette were pleased to share their Spanish colonial colcha embroidery, weaving, spinning and natural dye techniques with the thousands of visitors to the Expo. They were fascinated by the history involving these arts. The Chinese people were very receptive to this art and the only regret that Julia and Annette had was that they could not spend more time sharing. A master artist workshop program is planned for next year in Beijing, and they look forward to hearing more about that!