Bainbridge Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber is hosting the main folding station at its Winslow Way info center throughout April and May.
Community project
Paper Cranes for Peace
Join the Bainbridge Chamber, the Asian Arts & Heritage Festival, Sonoji Sakai students, and the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial in folding 2,000 cranes for peace across April and May.
The Chamber will host a community folding station in its Winslow Way info center with origami paper, instructions, and an open invitation to fold a crane or ten. The cranes will be displayed during the festival month of May and then featured again in the final 2,000+ crane ceremony at Festival Finale on May 31.
Fold together
A simple island-wide art project meant to promote peace, beauty, and community.
May 31
The full 2,000+ crane display will culminate at the Waterfront Festival FINALE.
How it works
A public peace project with multiple places to join in.
The project is intentionally simple. The Chamber provides paper and instructions. Sakai students contribute cranes. The memorial offers another folding site. The festival gives the work a public home in May and a larger closing ceremony at Festival Finale.
Sonoji Sakai Intermediate School
Fifth and sixth grade students will contribute several hundred cranes to the project.
Japanese American Exclusion Memorial
Additional folding tables will be available to visitors at the memorial, and the cranes will be donated there after this summer’s renovation and expansion.
Asian Arts & Heritage Festival
The project becomes part of the island-wide festival in May, with the full 2,000+ crane display featured at Festival Finale on May 31.
Timeline
From folding tables to the finale ceremony.
The project unfolds in stages so people can join over time, not just on one day.
April
The community folding project opens at the Chamber info center on Winslow Way with paper, instructions, and an open invitation to make cranes for peace.
April + May
Sakai students contribute hundreds of cranes, and additional folding tables welcome visitors at the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.
May festival month
The cranes are displayed at the Chamber as part of the island-wide Asian Arts & Heritage Festival.
May 31 finale
The final 2,000+ crane display appears at the Waterfront Festival FINALE as a public peace ceremony.
After the festival
The crane collection is donated to the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial following this summer’s renovation and expansion.
Why it fits the festival
It is public art, peace-making, and community invitation at the same time.
This is a good example of the kind of work the festival can hold: something beautiful, participatory, intergenerational, and clearly connected to the island’s civic and cultural life.
- People can participate in a low-pressure way by folding a single crane or many.
- The work is visible in public throughout festival month, not hidden behind the scenes.
- The final 2,000+ crane ceremony gives Festival Finale a clear symbolic closing moment.
- The project continues its life afterward through donation to the Exclusion Memorial.