Project Photo Album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/northernspark/albums/72177720299993085
Community Cloth is an interactive artwork that asks participants to share stories about cloth while helping to create a woven tapestry. Over the course of the festival, visitors will have the chance to explore an array of materials and contribute to a growing piece of fabric, finding connection in the process. Just as weaving transforms many threads into cloth, conversation and sharing interlaces individuals into a community. Community Cloth is a space for empathy, where strangers can connect over ribbons from last year’s gifts, hems of cropped tee shirts, scraps of precious silks, mismatched shoelaces, long-forgotten stashes of yarn, and so much more. After exploring the menagerie of materials, take a spot in front of a loom and weave a section of cloth, sharing a memory made physical. Come weave with us, and find connection to cloth and community in the process.
#communitycloth
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Artist Bios:
Nonbinary artist Riley Kleve’s work in textiles explores how past techniques still resonate today. Embracing imperfect translation between hand, machine, and archive, they work towards a queerer future for textiles. Riley has a BA in Curatorial Practice from Hampshire College, and teaches hand embroidery and yarn spinning classes locally. Check out more of Riley’s work via their website: Rileykleve.com and follow them on their instagram @lezphair.
Ever Woodward is a textile artist, weaver and baker currently living in Minneapolis. They enjoy working with color and texture while considering the meaning of traditional crafts today. They love dancing and beautiful snacks.
Contributing Artist:
Rowan Hellwich studied history and weaving at Earlham College and spent 4 months studying weaving and entrepreneurship at Penland School of Craft in 2019. Rowan focused her history degree on collective memory as explored through textiles and craft. Her weaving relies on bright colors to hold on to childlike wonder while transitioning through adulthood.