The Creative Work Fund has awarded a grant of $30,000 to construct a new fence around the Lake Merritt Japanese Garden. These awards are made to Bay Area artists and nonprofit organization for collaborations. In this case the collaboration is between artist Jay van Arsdale who teaches joinery at Laney College and Friends of the Japanese Garden which is primarily a Merritt College Pruning Club group. Awards are made for finished works in film, theater environments, Web sites, and traditional arts. This grant was made under the traditional arts category.

The Creative Work Fund is a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund that is supported by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation. A total of 17 grants were made for the 2008 – 09 grant cycle.

Here is the information about this grant from The Creative Work Fund’s press release:

Jay van Arsdale (Oakland) collaborating with Friends of the Japanese Garden and fiscal sponsor Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation

Jay van Arsdale, a master of traditional Japanese woodworking, and Friends of the Japanese Garden will design, build, and install 250 lineal feet of fencing, executed in the traditional Japanese method and style, to enclose and announce the presence of Oakland’s Japanese Garden near Lake Merritt. The Japanese Garden was designed and built more than 50 years ago primarily by members of the Japanese-American community of the East Bay. It fell into disrepair and, in the 1980’s, the Merritt College Pruning Club commenced a project to restore and maintain it. A dedicated group of volunteers has continued this work. Artist Jay van Arsdale will collaborate with them to enclose the garden with authentically detailed and styled Japanese gates and fencing. Also assisting will be Laney College Joinery class students and other volunteers. The son of a blacksmith and a fifth generation craftsman, Jay van Arsdale was introduced to his vocation 30 years ago at a demonstration given by a Japanese tea house carpenter. He followed the daiku (teacher) for a number of years, learning through observation and practice, and continuing later with other daiku when his original teacher returned to Japan. A long-time leader of workshops in Japanese joinery, in 1999 he began teaching the only college level courses in Traditional Japanese Hand Tools and Joinery outside of Japan at Oakland’s Laney College. Friends of the Japanese Garden is a volunteer group operating under fiscal sponsor Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation.