Hiroko Karuno
Posted: Jan 8th, 2020 | Volunteering

Volunteer 30+ years

Our very own Hiroko Karuno was shortlisted for the Volunteer Award at the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) Awards!

For over 30 years, Hiroko has been a Volunteer at the Textile Museum of Canada, and for the last 19 years she has dedicated a half-day a week to working with the Museum’s collection of over 14,000 textiles. Her passion for traditional textiles and her admiration for the deeply rooted skills employed to create these objects drew her to the Museum. She has been instrumental in advancing our knowledge about areas of the collection not well studied, generously contributing unmatched expertise and dedicated work to the identification and documentation of materials, and structural analysis of hundreds of textiles.

Through the years, Hiroko has brought her curiosity and unique specialized knowledge of natural materials and textile practices to her work with the TMC collection. She contributes information on objects prepared for new acquisitions, exhibitions, and museum catalogues. She has worked with all major areas of the collection, generously sharing her knowledge and deep understanding of global textile cultures.

Hiroko began studying textiles in Japan in the 1980s, and is an expert in the traditional Japanese craft of paper spinning and weaving. She has published books, exhibited her work, and taught workshops on the subject in Japan and Canada. You can see her exquisite work at the TMC until January 21 as a part of Diligence and Elegance: The Nature of Japanese Textiles.

As a long-time volunteer, Hiroko is an important part of our Museum community!

Join The Conversation

1 Comment
  1. Sarah

    I just learned about Hiroko’s work and am dismayed to have missed this! I hope there will be another chance post-covid 🙂

Reply to Sarah Cancel reply