Current Members of the SAORI Worcester Partnership Site Program

(see documents page for program details)

1. Devereux Massachusetts is a residential learning center for young people with various challenges in Rutland, MA. It is part of a larger network of such centers in the USA. For more info, email Art teacher Shereece Williams.
2. SCARC, Inc. (formerly Sussex County Association for Retarded Citizens) in NJ includes SAORI weaving among its recreation and self-expression offerings at a variety of county locations. For more info, email artist and educator Jeanne Austin
3. The Rugby School at Woodfield, near Wall, NJ, works with special education students, and uses SAORI for therapeutic and artistic development. Contact Nancy Atlas for more info.
4. Walnut Street Center   in Somerville, MA, provides comprehensive support services for adults with developmental disabilities and their families. Email Barbara Provest to learn more about her SAORI explorations with people there.
5. St. Francis House is a homeless shelter off Boston Common that uses SAORI within their expressive therapy program and their women's counseling program. For more info, email art therapist & SAORI coach Linda Dolph
6. Worcester Polytechnic University (WPI)'s Student Development and Counseling Center (SDCC) uses Saori in their relaxroom to help college students cope with stress & discover new aspects of themselves. More info: contact Site Coach Debbie Bordage
7. Grace House, a residential program for adolescent girls in recovery from problems with drug abuse, is part of Community Healthlink, a comprehensive human services agency in Worcester, MA. For more info, email program director Melanie Amir
8. Boys & Girls Club of Worcester has an after-school SAORI program open to all interested youth, supported by volunteer Saori Worcester Studio Member Joan Kariko and students from the College of the Holy Cross. Email Shauree Allotey (Cultural Arts Director) for more info.
9. Lokelani'Ohana is an intentional community on Maui, HI, dedicated to education and community building with children, youth, and adults who have developmental disabilities. It is inspired by the Camphill Community movement guided by the ideas of Rudolf Steiner.  For more info, email Director Christina Chang or Partnership Site Coach Dana Allen.
10. Krempels Brain Injury Foundation SteppingStones Program is a community-based day program for people living with brain injury from trauma, tumor or stroke. The program emphasizes health and wellness and empowering members toward occupation or meaning after injury. Members come to improve skills, build friendships, receive support, link up with valuable community resources and explore life interests. Contact Program Co-ordinators and Saori Coaches Carol Davis and Barb Kresge.
11. Seven Hills Foundation is a pioneering human service organization with programs in locations throughout Central MA. "Seven Hills Foundation works to advance and sponsor rehabilitative, housing, educational, healthcare, social, and related services on behalf of person with physical, developmental, emotional, or other life challenges."  SAORI programs are being integrated into 5 Programs: Therapeutic Work Options, Devens Day Habilitation, Worcester Day Habilitation, Adult Day Health, and People Exploring Possibilities. For more info on these programs, email Assistant V.-P. Maribeth Fisher
12. New Hampshire Art Farms is a  non-profit corporation that "celebrates  and supports the  relationship between art & agriculture, in order to provide art opportunities to under served and often neglected groups to whom art making opportunities offer physical or mental health benefits." It also provides local art teachers with work space. Contact: President Lorna DeVries
13. College of the Holy Cross Chaplains' Office in Worcester, MA uses Saori as a way of helping students calm their minds, open their hearts, and uncover their expressive powers. Holy Cross students also assist at our Partnership Site at the Worcester Boys & Girls Club (see #8 above). For more info, email Site Coach and Holy Cross Chaplain Mary Beth Kearns
14. Dismas Family Farm complements the other Dismas programs serving former prisoners.. Designed to be self-supporting, this working farm produces crops, animals, and finished wood products, as well as jams, granola, and candles produced for winter revenues. Goods are marketed through a variety of venues, with residents assisting in managing production, crafts (including SAORI), and sales. Residents maintain the farmhouse in Dismas tradition, and are additionally trained in crop production, animal husbandry, barn management, woodshop skills, production of finished farm goods, and marketing strategies and approaches. For more info, contact Farm Steward Ward Holloway
15. L'Amitient is a residential therapeutic farm (with an active weaving studio) in Québec, Canada, serving adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Contact: Site Coach Shelley Mathews
16. Alternatives is a Central MA agency that builds "community life for people with disabilities." They have launched a 4-loom Saori studio that offers regular public mini-courses for people with and without disabilities, taught by volunteer Katie Stark. For more info contact Alternatives administrator Hung Pham.
17. Goddard School of Science and Technology is a Worcester public elementary school in the inner-city where most of the children speak a language other than English at home. Art teacher and Saori on-site coach Ellen Salins with the assistance of Principal Marion Guerra and officials of the Worcester Public Schools, is rescuing a variety of looms from storage around the city to create a weaving studio at the school where, over the coming years, weaving can be integrated into the academic curriculum, developing creative and inclusive ways for children to grow not only skillls in, but also love for, reading, writing, math, science, and other disciplines. This effort is also being supported by VSA Arts Massachusetts.

USA-Canada SAORI Network

Studios founded by SAORI Leaders' Committee Members

• Peg Kimple of Highland Mills, NY is Executive Director of Arts EmPOWERment Project, Inc. which works with seniors, youths facing challenges, and people with various disabilities. She also offers SAORI classes to the general public.
• The Art League of Alexandria, VA offers Saori courses led by Raquel Rosa. From the League's website: "The Art League, Inc., founded in 1954, is a multifaceted, nonprofit visual arts organization based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. The Art League seeks to stimulate and encourage artists by operating a gallery with many opportunities for members, including monthly juried shows of members work, other chances for exhibition of work and many educational possibilities. The Art League also operates a school with more than 2000 students per term and a supply store for the purchase of art supplies by students and members. The Art League currently has approximately 1000 members."
• Freedom Weavers in Penacook, NH is a SAORI weaving studio that promotes creative expression for children & adults with & without disabilities. Email Bobbie Herron for more information.
• Heart Gallery Studio in Santa Cruz, CA is owned by Jill Nickolene Sanders, who has added SAORI weaving to her range of fiber skills offerings!

WORLD SAORI NETWORKING

• saoriexplorers is a worldwide English-language Yahoo free networking group. It’s independent of any Saori studio or organization. To be accepted as a member, you only have to express some interest in Saori so we know you are not a computer! Join by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saoriexplorers/ The group Files section includes a database that can help you find others interested in Saori near you; there are also many terrific photos!
  You can send and receive messages with your own email program (individual messages, or a daily digest, or just special notices) so you don't need to go online for that.

• SAORI on Facebook: Once you've created your Facebook account, try typing in "Saori" in the search box! You should come across the general interest group Saori Weaving, our business page for Saori Worcester, and the "beliefs and causes" group for Saori Worcester's Saori Bridges of Elm Park project. Please let us know about other Saori Facebook groups you may find!

• saorifilature is a francophone Yahoo email network modeled after saoriexplorers. The brainchild of Louise Prieur of Québec and Souleymane Ndiaye of Sénégal (now living in NYC), the group is being moderated by Sémérit Strachan who lives in Michigan. Email her in French to request an invitation, or see if you can enroll directly from the home page at http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/saorifilature/

• SAORI Japan website's English-language section & more SAORI links, including links to SAORI in Australia, Belgium, Canada. Hong Kong, Phillipines, Mongolia, and Saudi Arabia!

• SAORI NO MORI (SAORI FOREST), where SAORI looms are designed and manufactured, has developed a SAORI weaving workshop space as well. This link is to their English -Language Site, which includes the complete catalogue of looms with photos and product descriptions.

• Japanese language SAORI site - has some great photos even if you don't read Japanese!
• L'atelier D'artisanat du Centre-Ville in Montreal, Quebec, Canada holds SAORI classes for people with various disabilities.
• The Healing Family Foundation in Thailand uses SAORI to ease the emotional trauma of tsunami victims in affected nations.
• The Maya Gotami Foundation is an occupational therapy center supporting tsunami victims in Southern Thailand.

ARTICLES, REVIEWS, PHOTOS about SAORI Worcester & SAORI in the USA:

Finding self through saori article in the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of Worcester Living magazine!

Boston Globe article about SAORI Studio opening in May 2006 at St.Francis House (see link to St. Francis above)

Worcester Telegram & Gazette article about SAORI Worcester demonstration at May 2006 at VSA Arts of Massachusetts (see link below) Festival at Broad Meadow Brook Audubon Sanctuary in Worcester.

Worcester Magazine Oct. 2005 interview with Mihoko

SAORI Book Review in  Sept.-Oct. 2005 issue of Handwoven Magazine

Ben's Story  - a touching true story with photos from the Fall 2004 Very Special Arts New Hampshire Newsletter by Bobbie Herron

Journey to SAORI Japan by artist Judy Piazza in Michigan (this is a link to her website!)

Review by the late Leon Nigrosh in May 2004 PULSE magazine - with photos!  

Nathaniel Needle's  My Saori Experience: Touching Spirit through the Art of "No Mistakes"

OTHER "Friends of SAORI"

VSA Arts   (formerly Very Special Arts) Organization founded by Jean Kennedy Smith (JFK's sister). Encourages artists with various disabilities. Creates arts opportunities for people with disabilities, especially children. Affiiliates in all 50 states, and 63 affiliates worldwide.

VSA Arts Maine has sent Program Coordinator Rachel Spatz for training at SAORI Worcester. Also, our studio demonstrated SAORI at the 2005 Festival of Cultural Exchange at their invitation.

VSA Massachusetts is our close partner in efforts to bring people with and without disabilities together through the arts.

VSA Japan  Coordinated by SAORI in Osaka.

Bonnie Tarses, a nationally-known fiber artist, has lately been exploring her growing sense of kinship with the SAORI spirit.Woodmont Weavers has a SAORI loom for use by developmentally disabled adults in Arlington, VA

Jane Pasquill is using SAORI looms at her Threads of Time studio and gallery in Cornwall, England

Souleymane Ndiaye is a Senegalese artist and teacher who trained at SAORI Worcester in June 2004 and who now lives in NYC.

Marta Giovannini  has information about SAORI in Italy (English okay)

Monica Gavin weaves SAORI in Hawaii to nurture her unique artistic vision in other media. Visit www.emelgi.com

Sister Organizations Engaged in Weaving & Fiber Arts With or On Behalf of People with Disabilities

that promote our shared values of creativity, community, freedom, and inclusion

Gateway Arts (Massachusetts)

Endless Possibilities (North Carolina)

Flying Shuttles A program of ARC of Blackstone Valley (Rhode Island)

Worcester Area Organizations that Share Saori's Zen Values

Body Therapeutics, a holistic healing center

Worcester Zen Community (an affiliate of Boundless Way Zen)

Zenshinkan Dojo, dedicated to the martial art of Aikido in the context of other Zen meditation and other Zen-based arts.

Worcester Area Organizations that Often Partner with Us to Make Great Community-Building Stuff Happen!

Worcester Art Museum

Raven Freedom School, a program of the Stone Soup Learning Co-operative, which is in turn a member of the...

Stone Soup Worcester Collective

Look for more additions to this list soon, and let us know if you should be on it!

Website CREDITS

Photographs and text for this site are provided and updated by Mihoko Wakabayashi and Nathaniel Needle.

Photos on the "SAORI for Everyone" page courtesy of SAORI Hiroba, Osaka, Japan.

Website design by Joshua Nannen.

Hosting and consulting for this site provided by Sherwood Hosting  Will Sherwood offers personal, creative, affordable, and devoted services that we heartily recommend.