Janie Ekberg has always been passionate about making things—in particular, creating designs with fabric. Through that passion Janie found another love: the Camp Siberia Project, a cultural experience for Bainbridge youth. It is for her work in both fields that Janie received the award of Island Treasure.
Upon moving to Bainbridge with her family in 1977, Janie joined a quilting group and became fascinated with a type of patchwork that led to her signature work of wearable art and the formation of Calliope, a fiber arts business. She also began designing costumes for Bainbridge Performing Arts. While working with BPA, she met the director of the Globe Theatre in Novosibirsk, Russia, who asked her to design costumes for his next production, Firebird. Janie traveled to Russia and spent three months creating 180 costumes for the Globe Theatre.
During her time in Russia, Janie learned about the plight of Russian orphans and began the work that would lead to the creation of Camp Siberia (now Camp Siberia-Kitezh), a full-immersion multi-cultural program in which a group of Bainbridge students worked as youth counselors in a summer camp for orphans in Russia.
The gifts that Janie Ekberg has brought to our community are two-fold. As a fiber artist, she unites diverse elements and colors in unique patterns. Within the framework of Camp Siberia-Kitezh, she united diverse populations — Americans and Russians, students and teachers, children and young adults — a new combination each year, brought together in a single exuberant work.