Dear art lovers, festival lovers and jewelry lovers--

Decatur's most unusual gift shop and gallery!

427 Church Street
next to Javamonkey
just south of Ponce de Leon
one block off the square

Mingei's current hours:
Mondays - Saturdays
10-am-6pm
Sundays
12-5pm




Dear art lovers, festival lovers and jewelry lovers--
(Does that cover everyone? )
This coming weekend is the Decatur Arts Festival, and we have great things planned for Mingei fans in addition to the usual Festival hoopla and excitement. Make your plans ro spend Memorial Day weekend in Decatur! Keep reading to learn about what we have in store for you!
Art Walk featuring Sally Wylde!
Friday, May 22, 5-10pm
Ever done the Art Walk? It's free and open to the public-- a progressive art opening around Decatur! This year, Mingei will be hosting Sally Wylde,:painter, puppet maker, sculptor and founding director of the Oakhurst Community Garden Project. Come meet Sally, see her wonderful work and share a glass of wine with us!

keeper
Hands-free convenience brought to you by refugee's hands
Sunday, May 24
These cool little eco-friendly pouches, called Keepers, are perfect for carrying ID cards, name tags, lunch money, your ipod. Head out for a coffee, a walk, a trip to the gym with all your essentials in tow! These are made right here in the Atlanta area by ME TOO! brands, who employs Bhutanese refugee artisans participating in Threads of Promise, a career development program of Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services (RRISA). To learn more about RRISA, visit www.rrisa.org.

community
Letters as Art
Saturday, May 23, 12-2 pm
Jamal Ali Mohamed, a recent Iraqi refugee and calligrapher, will be at Mingei on Saturday to demonstrate his craft. He will be happy to write your name in Arabic script for $5! Graduation or wedding gift idea: have him inscribe a journal or a card.
If you are an artist or paper lover and have nice paper or art supplies you'd like to donate to Jamal to help get him started in his new life-- bring them on Saturday-- only until 2:00pm!
By the way, the image above is of the word "community" in Arabic.
Thanks to the International Rescue Committee for introducing us to Jamal. To learn more about their work, please visit theirc.org.


NEXT weekend:
Herndon Heald jewelry trunk show
Saturday, May 30, 12-5pm

Ooooooo---Don't miss this one!

Herndon Heald's gorgeous designs have been featured in Lucky Magazine and the Sundance Catalog.Now is your chance to get the latest looks for less!

Hope to see you in May. We'll be sending out a reminder for the Herndon Heald trunk show!

Thanks for spreading the word!

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Ellen and Ann
Mingei World Arts

What DOES " Mingei" mean?
Mingei is a twentieth century Japanese word, a combination of the roots "min" meaning people and "gei", the same root as in geisha, meaning art. The coiner of the word was philospoher Yanagi Sōetsu, who wrote the book The Unknown Craftsman, He beleived that daily interaction with hand-made, imperfect objects was essentail to the human spirit. A Mingei object is one that is hand-made, functional, affordable, accessible and beautiful in its imperfection.