Confluence Gallery show features art of Southeast Asia

Confluence Gallery & Art Center presents a Trunk Show & Sale of Southeast Asian Art on Friday and Saturday, July 16 and 17. Confluence will be open from 10 am to 5 pm on Friday and Saturday for this popular event.

The trunk show will exhibit and offer for sale silk textiles, art and cultural objects from Southeast Asia. Funds raised during the event will help support many talented artists in that region, as well as programs of Confluence Gallery.

The fabric and artwork are brought to Confluence Gallery by Winthrop residents Lee and Theresa Miller. For the past 12 years the Millers have left the Methow Valley to spend several months each year working on humanitarian projects in Southeast Asia. They helped to establish a silk weaving community in northern Cambodia, a project that initially began as a hospice assisting terminally ill and homeless people. The historic art of silk weaving was reintroduced to break the cycle of poverty and improve living standards.

In 2006 the project received the UNESCO award of excellence in silk weaving. Now in its ninth year, the community boasts an elementary school, two buildings that house the silk looms and a color dying shed. In addition, a small gallery on-site allows visitors to view the beauty of the finished textiles produced by 100 weavers who work at the center.