Blogs

“Talkin’ Bout his Generation….” -The Who In the nonprofit world, there are times when we work with the community to bring insight into what we do. Such was the case when I received a call from Nathan Hale sophomore, Lupe Carlos. His assignment at his school was to “shadow” someone who works in a nonprofit. He called me, having met me though his mother, he remembered me as the kite lady.   After his call, I decided it would be fun to have an intern for three days. Lupe showed up at the office to “shadow” me. Delightfully, our small staff at Drachen found it was more like, “keeping up with Lupe.” He was one of the most mature, focused workers that we had ever experienced for his age. He listened, and when confused, asked questions. He took all his tasks seriously and found his way to being the photographer and documentarian of our artifacts as we prepared them to go up online to our website.

Scott Skinner has one of the most unique collections of Japanese prints in the world because of his focus on collecting prints with kite images. This collection, however, does not have a corner on uniqueness, as we know of a Seattle collector of Japanese prints who collects only prints with images of cameras.. The point is, when collecting, one should have a focus, trying not to stray too far from the subject matter, so that you build a strong base for the collection.

From left to right: Sharon Musto, Deb Linzen and JoAnne Weber. The Drachen Foundation recieved this sad news via one of our Board Members, Jose Sainz, yesterday afternoon. Brad Klages, a close frend of JoAnn's, reflects on her contributions to the kite world and the void that her passing leaves in the kiting community: 

Bruce Flora has been in the forefront of kite entertainment for decades. He celebrates his skills and excitement with a wonderful choreography of night flying.

Learn more about our new website and how to make it work for you! We will have a computer to demonstrate and teach you how to upload your own kite items to our website. Bring 5 photos of kites or items related to kites on a media stick or disk, and we'll Post and Share them with the world via our website! Participants will receive a gift from Drachen.

"After 17 years of collecting, studying, documenting, digitizing and finally redesigning a massive website that could not only hold the DF collection, but also the world’s kite collections, I am delighted to share these examples of how the new website is working!" 

  For the 6th KIWA Exhibition held in the Kyoto City Museum in April 2011, we devoted space to woodblock printed kites!  This coveted collection of print kites made their way to the United States and are featured in two locations.