Chicago Chapter #27 Country, USA

Ikebana International Annual Exhibition

Chicago Chapter Annual Show – four Ikebana schools in harmony
Chicago Chapter’s annual show this year returned to summer schedule on June 8 and 9 at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Our annual show was held in autumn last year. The chapter has tried to present and showcase the beauty of different seasons for the visitors. The end result was that the visitor number surpassed that of last year and reached the record high 2,427 in a two-day weekend.

There were 50 arrangements on display from four different schools: Ikenobo, Ichiyo, Ohara and Sogetsu. It was so exciting to have five young new members who made their Ikebana debuts at the show this year. In addition, we also had three gentlemen arranging for the show. It showed that Ikebana is truly for everybody.

There were four demonstrations scheduled during the annual show. All these demonstrations were packed with full house visitors watching the live demonstrations and asking questions to learn more about ikebana. Sogetsu School had a strong demonstration team with six demonstrators. The visitors interacted with them greatly to witness how arrangements were created in front of them.

Special mention should be made of the one and only Ichiyo member, Elaine Jo, who is the most influential Ichiyo School Executive Master in the United States today. She moved back from Atlanta to Chicago early this year and joined Chicago Chapter as a regular member. Not only Elaine Jo exhibited at the show, she also demonstrated five different and exquisite Ichyio style arrangements to wow us. We welcome her back. As we add Ichiyo School to our chapter list, we are now proud to have above-mentioned four schools in our chapter, which shows the diversity for a broader audience.