Date: October 28, 2009 (Wednesday)
Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Fee: SWET members 1,000 yen; non-members 2,000 yen
Reservations required (seating limited, so reserve early!)
or Fax 03-3430-1740.
Place: International House of Japan, Seminar Room 404
5-11-16 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032

Diane Durston lived in Kyoto for 18 years and is best-known internationally as the author of Old Kyoto, a book the New York Times has referred to as “a Japan travel classic.” She is also the author of The Living Traditions of Old Kyoto, and Kyoto: Seven Paths to the Heart of the City, and Wabi Sabi: The Art of Everyday Life. Her essays and articles appear in Japan: The Cycle of Life, in Japan Craft Sourcebook, the Encyclopedia of Japan, and in magazines and newspapers in the US and Japan.

From life in a farmhouse outside of Kyoto, her return to the US in 1996 led her to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and finally to a hillside pavilion in Portland, Oregon, where she interprets Japanese culture to 200,000 visitors per year through her work as Curator of Culture and Art at the Portland Japanese Garden, considered the finest Japanese garden in the world outside Japan. Durston curates four exhibitions of work by Japanese and American artists per year at the Garden and oversees a broad range of lecture series, cultural festivals, and programs, from her office in the Garden Pavilion.

For more information, see her profile at:
[url=http://www.japanesegarden.com/profiles/diane-durston]http://www.japanesegarden.com/profiles/diane-durston[/url]