Book signing with Douglas Brooks
March 28 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Book Signing with Douglas Brooks | Museum for Art in Wood | Fri. March 28, 2025 | 6:00 pm EST | In-person event
Please join us for an evening with renowned traditional Japanese boatbuilder Douglas Brooks, which will include a book signing and reception. Penn State Abington, the Independence Seaport Museum (ISM), and the Museum for Art in Wood (MAW), the latter two based in Philadelphia, are hosting Douglas Brooks, a respected Japanese wooden boatbuilder, writer, and scholar.
Brooks will discuss his work and demonstrate traditional Japanese boatbuilding techniques from March 28 to March 30, 2025. His visit will begin at Penn State Abington with a lecture and demonstration, followed by a book signing and reception at the Museum for Art in Wood. On the 29th and 30th, Brooks will lead a hands-on Japanese Plane Making Workshop at the Independence Seaport Museum. Please see below for Douglas Brooks’ schedule.
About Douglas Brooks
Douglas Brooks specializes in the construction of traditional wooden boats for museums and private clients. He worked in the Small Boat Shop at the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco and has since built boats at museums in Japan and across the United States. In 2014, he was awarded the American Craft Council’s Rare Craft Fellowship Award.
Brooks has taught workshops at Middlebury and Bates colleges and conducted a workshop at the Apprenticeshop in Rockland, Maine, and the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, Washington.
Brooks’ visit is supported by a Penn State Abington faculty development grant, the Division of Arts and Humanities, and the campus art gallery.
Friday, March 28
12:15-1:15 p.m. lecture at Penn State Abington
1:30-3:00 p.m. Boatbuilding Demonstration at Penn State Abington
6:00-8:00 p.m. Evening reception and book signing at The Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia
Saturday & Sunday, March 29&30
Plane-making workshop at Independence Seaport Museum (9am – 4pm)