VOLUNTEER WITH CBBAG

Volunteer Recognition

Lifetime Achievement Award

CBBAG is pleased to announce that Nancy Jacobi has been awarded the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award! Nancy was nominated by the CBBAG board of directors in June. This award recognizes outstanding and consistent contributions to CBBAG and the book arts community.

Nancy’s love of washi and her desire to help preserve the age-old craft of fine Japanese papermaking has fueled her decades-long devotion to The Japanese Paper Place which she founded in 1982. Encouraging artists to discover the creative potential of washi, she has travelled the world.

From Toronto to Iqaluit, London, Johannesburg, and Paris, she has built respect for the paper, inspiring  its use by many artists through lectures, exhibitions, and exciting examples from the JPP collection. In 2008 she organized a World Washi Summit, including Japanese papermakers and artists from around the world exhibiting their washi works in 40 venues in and around Toronto, with many workshops and lectures teaching how to use these versatile papers. In 2021 she was awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation from the Japanese Consulate in Toronto for “exceptional and distinguished services in the promotion of Japanese culture in Canada.”

Volunteers are essential to the operation of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild as it is a volunteer-run arts organization.

There are several ways are to volunteer:

- with a local chapter
- as a chapter leader
- on a national committee e.g. education, magazine, social media
- on the board of directors

CBBAG volunteers have discovered many benefits:

- friendships
- supporting a growing community
- shared passion for book arts
- contributing art-adjacent or technical skills
- leadership development