OrigamiUSA (sometimes abbreviated as "OUSA") is the largest origami organization in the United States, with offices located at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It was founded in 1980 by Michael Shall, Alice Gray, Lillian Oppenheimer, Robert E. Neale, and others as the Friends of the Origami Center of America and was renamed OrigamiUSA on July 1, 1994. [1] Since its founding, OrigamiUSA has been fully non-profit and volunteer-based and is a 501(c)(3) corporation. OrigamiUSA organizes the largest origami convention in the world each June in New York City, and in addition publishes a magazine, The Paper, an annual collection of origami diagrams, and a website, and also provides educational materials and supports numerous other activities that spread the art of origami.
The mission statement is the following: "OrigamiUSA's mission is to share the joy and appreciation of paperfolding, preserve its history, nurture its growth, bring people together, and encourage community among paperfolders." [2]
OrigamiUSA provides a variety of services to its members and to the world origami community:
Special Conventions [19]
OrigamiUSA has sponsored several conventions in the past on an irregular basis:
The OrigamiUSA Board of Directors is elected annually, with members serving staggered two-year terms. Elections occur in the weeks leading up to Annual Convention, with results announced during the Annual Meeting, which occurs during Annual Convention.
Current board officers (2016) are:
Current board members (2023) are:
Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use of cuts, glue, or markings on the paper. Origami folders often use the Japanese word kirigami to refer to designs which use cuts.
The discipline of origami or paper folding has received a considerable amount of mathematical study. Fields of interest include a given paper model's flat-foldability, and the use of paper folds to solve up-to cubic mathematical equations.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a 2004 role-playing video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The Thousand-Year Door is the second game in the Paper Mario series following Paper Mario, and is part of the larger Mario franchise. In the game, when Mario and Princess Peach get involved in the search for a mystic treasure that holds great fortune, Peach is kidnapped by an alien group called the X-Nauts; Mario sets out to find the treasure and save the princess.
A paper plane is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. A simple nose-heavy paper plane, thrown like a dart, is also known as a paper dart.
John Montroll is an American origami artist, author, teacher, and mathematician. He has written many books on origami, promoting the single-square, no-cut, no glue approach. Montroll taught mathematics at St. Anselm's Abbey School in Washington, D.C. from 1990 to 2021.
Akira Yoshizawa was a Japanese origamist, considered to be the grandmaster of origami. He is credited with raising origami from a craft to a living art. According to his own estimation made in 1989, he created more than 50,000 models, of which only a few hundred designs were presented as diagrams in his 18 books. Yoshizawa acted as an international cultural ambassador for Japan throughout his career. In 1983, Emperor Hirohito awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun, 5th class, one of the highest honors bestowed in Japan.
Nick Robinson is a British paperfolder. He was awarded the Sydney French Medal in 2004 by the British Origami Society and is an Honorary Member and President of the British Origami Society.
Satoshi Kamiya is a Japanese origami artist. Kamiya began folding at age two. Kamiya began designing origami models in 1995, and has since published hundreds of creations. Kamiya has drawn inspiration for his designs from Manga, nature, and both eastern and western mythologies.
The history of origami followed after the invention of paper and was a result of paper's use in society. In the detailed Japanese classification, origami is divided into stylized ceremonial origami and recreational origami, and only recreational origami is generally recognized as origami. However, this page describes the history of both ceremonial and recreational origami.
The British Origami Society is a registered charity, devoted to the art of origami. The Society has 700 members worldwide and publishes a bi-monthly magazine called "British Origami". They also have a library which is one of the world's largest collections of Origami resources, containing well over 4000 books, and a similar quantity of magazines, journals, convention packs and catalogues. As stated in the constitution of the society, its aims are, "to advance public education in the art of Origami and to promote the study and practice of Origami in education and as a means of therapy for the relief of people who are sick or mentally or physically handicapped". The society was founded at its inaugural meeting held at The Russell Hotel in London 28 October 1967. It was formed from the Origami Portfolio Society which had been founded in 1965. The first president of the new society was Robert Harbin, a noted British magician and author. Later, another notable president was Alfred Bestall, who had been writer and illustrator of Rupert Bear for the London Daily Express, from 1935 to 1965.
The Bug Wars were origami contests among members of the Origami Detectives which started when one member made a bug, a horned beetle with outspread wings, from a single sheet of paper: this design provoked other members to design more complex origami in the shape of bugs, such as wasps and praying mantises.
Thomas C. Hull is an associate professor of mathematics at Western New England University and is known for his expertise in the mathematics of paper folding.
Hotel toilet paper folding is a common practice performed by hotels worldwide as a way of assuring guests that the bathroom has been cleaned.
Michael Shall was a teacher, practitioner, and promoter of origami. He helped launch one of the largest American origami organizations, OrigamiUSA, in 1980.
Sipho Mabona is a Swiss origami master. Mabona was the first-ever foreigner to have his work grace the cover of the official magazine of the Japan Origami Academic Society (JOAS) Convention in 2008. Mabona was commissioned by an advertising agency to create an origami stop-motion video for Japanese sports brand ASICS. The video won a Grand Prize at the Eurobest, gold at the New York festival, gold at the London International Awards, silver at the Clio in Miami and two times bronze at ADC Germany. He has made large origami models on display, for example, a giant origami elephant which he livestreamed. He raised US$25,000 to make it. He has also designed other animals, including a swallow, a rhino, and a crab, all folded from one square sheet of paper. Furthermore, he also designs models folded from money and papers with other dimensions, such as the origami locust, folded from a single dollar.
Ligia Montoya was an Argentinian paper-folding artist, who played an important role in all aspects of the 'golden age' of the international origami movement from the 1950s, from which developed modern artistic origami—that is, innovative paper-folding exploring a variety of different approaches, rather than repeating limited traditional figures.
Samuel L Randlett is an American origami artist who helped develop the modern system for diagramming origami folds. Together with Robert Harbin he developed the notation introduced by Akira Yoshizawa to form what is now called the Yoshizawa-Randlett system. This was first described in Samuel Randlett's Art of Origami in 1961.
Retail's BIG Show, or the NRF Annual Convention & EXPO, is the flagship industry event of the National Retail Federation (NRF).
Ilan Garibi is an Israeli origami artist and designer. He started his way in the world of art and design as a paper origami artist, and today also designs furniture, jewelry and works of art out of a variety of materials, such as metals, wood, and glass. He masters an origami genre called Tessellation. During 2012 he co-established Origamisrael, the Israeli origami artists' organization, and he is its chairman ever since. He is an author of several books in the fields of origami and puzzles. In September 2019, Garibi presented a TEDx talk as part of TEDxPaloAltoSalon.