Thursday, October 9, 2008

Craftivism: Reclaiming Craft & Creating Community


This show opens today at the Lawton Gallery in Green Bay, WI. I helped set the show up as part of my degree in Gallery/Museum Practices. It is guest curated by Faythe Levine, the owner of Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery in Milwaukee. It just so happens that she know my artist friends Paul and Tashana Kjelland, which was super cool. The Paper Boat Blog is also a great site and I would highly recommend checking out Faythe's projects.

I was, of course, very excited to see this show come to Green Bay, because Craftivism and DIY culture directly influences my artwork and my vision for The Eclipse Gallery. To read more about that, click here to visit my gallery's blog.

It is so exciting to live in the midst of this culture, and to contribute. I know a lot of my readers are not local, but if you are--don't miss the gallery opening tonight at 4:30.

A quote from the show catalog: "I believe this is just the beginning of something much larger. I think that through the emergence of the DIY, art, craft and design community, we will continue to see growth and exciting developments. For me, craftivism is about the desire to produce change through the passion of creating..." --Faythe Levine

A few highlights of the show include Kate Bingaman-Burt's Zines "What Did You Buy Today?"
Mellissa Vogley Woods Sun Bonnet Quilt Squares
Stephanie Syjuco's Counterfeit Crochet Project
Photos of Jennifer Marsh's International Fiber Collective Wrapped Gas Station
Betsy Greer from Craftivism.com
And more...

Make sure to visit the International Fiber Collaborative website. Their new project for the 2009-09 year is constructing a life sized Fiber tree, the theme being "Interdependence". The project is open to Kindergarten--Adult levels, artists and non artists. Jennifer Marsh will be collecting up to 30,000 leaves made from people all over the world. The leaves must be 2 1/2 inches at the widest point, to 4 1/2 inches from end to end. Leaves must be fiber related and are due by March 20th, 2009. For more info visit the website link above.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello young lady ... so happy to have found you recently .. please see my article titled 'invest in creativity' at http://gem13.wordpress.com/ where i have linked your space to.

please let me know if this is not kosha. kind regards >>> Gina

please sir said...

Thanks for the link!

sarahelizabeth said...

Thanks Gina!