Some people make statements with the pen or by taking action, but three women are taking a different approach and enlisting the power of the sewing needle. Yes, the sewing needle.
They’re pioneers in the newest form of social activism — dubbed craftivism — where messages of protest and awareness are knitted or crocheted in an effort to inspire change.
Meet Betsy Greer, the woman who brought craftivism into our vocabulary. For Greer, it all began after she watched a political puppet show in the New York City Village Halloween Parade. The simplicity of the show caught Greer’s attention, and she realized that subtlety can inspire just as much change as loud voices.
That’s when she started crafitivism, or “a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper, and your quest for justice more infinite,” according to Yes! Magazine.
Her equipment — knitting, cross-stitching and embroidery — have been used to create anti-war graffiti, as well as a new project, which focuses on PTSD. The work depicts the experiences that soldiers have during an episode in order to raise awareness about the disorder.
Then there’s Sarah Corbett who has taken craftivism to a new level. Not one for marches and demonstrations, Corbett began her craftivist by blogging as “A Lonely Craftivist.”
However, she realized that there is strength in numbers. So in 2009, the Craftivist Collective was born. The focus of the group is on positivity, peacefulness and meditation rather than preaching. Being part of the group does not take away one’s individuality, but rather gives individuals a chance to work at their own pace, contemplating the issue and the piece. Group “stitch-ins” are a chance for all to come and discuss their work and issue at the hand.
Cat Mazza came into craftivism from a slightly different world. Originally, Mazza was on the Carbon Defense League where she saw how the group used “tactical media” to spread their message. The tactic was inspirational and Mazza left to form MicroRevolt, a feminist group dedicated to the anti-sweatshop cause. In addition to crafting, MicroRevolt has a few extra tools in its belt — including performances, workshops and web-based projects.
From 2003-2009, the group launched an anti-sweatshop project with a particular focus on Nike. To protest the sporting goods company, they created a 15-foot-wide red quilt containing the Nike swoosh, and a knitted or crocheted square from 40 countries and every U.S. state. Their current project is logoknit, where the logos of sweatshop offenders (Gap, Disney and Apple) are knitted onto articles of clothing. Anyone can join and design a logoknit with the free web application knitPro.
So what’s stopping you from grabbing your needles?
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Tag: the arts
A Well-Rounded Education: This City is Spending $23 Million to Revive the Arts
In recent years, a lot of attention and funding has been given to educating our nation’s youngsters in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (aka STEM). Arguably, this focus is for good reason since careers in these subjects are high paying and competitive.
But what about the arts? Not every student wants to be an engineer, doctor or scientist. And even if a student wanted one of those STEM careers, what’s wrong with teaching him or her how to wield a paintbrush as well as a stethoscope?
With the priority on STEM and other core subjects, an education in the arts has often been treated as a luxury, especially when schools have limited budgets. The New York Times reported in April that a number of low-income public schools in South Bronx and central Brooklyn put arts educations on the chopping block due to spending cuts.
But now, in an announcement from mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City will be spending a whopping $23 million to boost arts instruction especially in undeserved middle and high schools in next year’s fiscal budget. According to Metro, the spending plan also allocates $5 million for the hiring of 120 certified teachers, $2 million to launch a support team in each borough to guide hiring and curriculum, as well as $7.5 million to spruce up facilities (some of which are dilapidated) at schools.
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“For too long, we had underinvested in arts education and cultural education in our schools,” de Blasio said. “And it was time to right that wrong and do something aggressive about it.”
A well-rounded education is essential. Research shows that the arts encourage students to stay and succeed in school (as we’ve seen at the fictional William McKinley High on Glee). The arts also improves academic performance — including higher grades and scores on standardized tests — regardless of socioeconomic status.
“For people who think that the arts is another way to waste time or to build in something else, that’s not what it is,” schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña told Metro. “The arts, in many, many ways — particularly in middle school — make kids come to school.”
Maybe one day, our nation’s attention on STEM will be redirected towards STEAM instead.
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Why Does This School Let Its Students Record Hip-Hop Tracks?
While some high school principals try to attract the best and the brightest to their schools, that’s not the case with Monica Haslip, founder of Chicago’s Little Black Pearl Academy, a public school focused on engagement in arts.
Instead, she asks the school district to find students who are headed down the wrong path and send them to her.
Little Black Pearl (LBP) grew out of an after-school arts program that Haslip expanded into a full-time school when she saw the need to reach out to students in Chicago’s poorest and most violence-prone neighborhoods in order to keep them enrolled.
“A lot of young people who dropped out of school, they’re still engaged in hip-hop and rap and drawing and tagging all the things that we see in our communities that are tied to the arts,” she told Hari Sreenivasan of PBS NewsHour.
What makes this school unique is that it’s infused with activities ranging from glass blowing to poetry to recording music in a studio. Haslip finds that these activities make the kids more than happy to show up for class.
Sreenivasan spoke to Samantha Peterson, a teacher at LBP whose students demonstrated greater academic gains than any other public school students in Chicago. “I dropped out of high school at 15 years old, and I have a GED,” she said. “I grew up on the streets in the South Side of Chicago, in and out of group homes, as a ward of the Illinois court, so I had a lot of problems in my life, and I can personally relate to all — a lot of the experiences that they’re going through.”
The goal of this arts enrichment is to not only help the students graduate and ease some of their trauma over the violence endemic to their neighborhoods through creative expression, but also to show kids that there are career paths open to them in disciplines that they might find more engaging than math.
“Just by providing them with the tools and the equipment and the professional support helps them to see that there is a pathway for a career,” Haslip said.
If You’re Happy And You Know it, You Probably Participate in Arts
Besides reducing or eliminating a commute to work, what increases Americans’ happiness?
While you may not take our word for it, participating in the arts or appreciating them will help make you happy — and these recent studies back up that claim.
Carol Graham and other researchers of the Brookings Institution analyzed two data sets — the National Endowment of the Art’s Survey of Public Participation in the Arts and the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Graham writes, “Our results provide moderate support for well-being being positively supported with arts consumption and production.”
People who consume art in its many forms were more likely to indicate a higher sense of well being, while performers of jazz and classical music and participants in plays were “more likely to be satisfied with their standards of living, even though they were not wealthier.”
Along the same line, Steven Tepper and others at Vanderbilt University examined correlations between well-being and participating in a variety of art forms: fine arts, clothing design, video production, playing or composing music, theater, dance, crafts, gardening, artful cooking, and creative writing in the study, “Artful Living: Examining Relationships between Artistic Practice and Subjective Well-Being across Three National Surveys.”
The researchers concluded that there is “strong support that artistic practice is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, a more positive self-image, less anxiety about change, a more tolerant and open approach to diverse others, and, in some cases, less focus on materialistic values on the acquisition of goods.” Tepper and his colleagues found an even stronger correlation between happiness and artistic participation in women and minorities.
So how much money is the appreciation or production of art worth in terms of happiness? A study out of the United Kingdom entitled “Quantifying and Valuing the Well-Being Impacts of Culture and Sport” asked just that. The findings? The benefits of participating in arts activities was worth about £90 extra per month.
So if you’re feeling glum, it might be time to take up painting, dancing, or guitar playing.
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These Works of Art Were Impossible to Create 20 Years Ago
Imagine a world where science and art merge; where Da Vinci and Einstein work together on the same project.
It may seem strange, but the concept has come to fruition with the emergence of tech-art. Combining artistic creativity and scientific innovation, tech-art has redefined what can be viewed and considered art.
It all began in 2013 when Portrait of America and Rain Room burst into the art and tech worlds. Rain Room was featured in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and allowed visitors to experience a rain shower in the rain forest without ever actually getting wet. The Portrait of America exhibit at the Smithsonian (which was on display this past February), was an American flag covered in pieces of glass that, when viewed through Google Glass, showcased different events in the history of the United States.
Now, in 2014, artists are continuing to innovate and excite. Below are three new exhibits taking the tech-art world by storm.
First up is Jim Campbell’s Rhythms of Perception located in the Museum of Moving Image in Queens, New York. A graduate of MIT with an electrical engineering and math degree, Campbell is not the stereotypical artist. However, he was actually a fine arts major at first, and, after he made the switch, has been able to integrate both areas of interest. His work includes sculptural LED works that are formed from the union of video and light and custom electronics. Currently, over 20 of his works are displayed in the exhibit.
Next is 5000 Moving Parts at the MIT Museum. The Cambridge, Massachusetts exhibit features six “kinetic” artists whose work focuses on the movement of the human body. One example is that of Arthur Ganson and Christina Campanella’s Machine with Breath — a lung that imitates the regular, rhythmic pace of breathing.
Finally, Dr. James Chung has brought sculptor Auguste Rodin into the twenty-first century with the introduction of Inside Rodin’s Hands: Art, Technology, and Surgery at the Cantor Arts Center at California’s Stanford University. Rodin’s famous hands sculpture is now a classroom tool in diagnosing medical conditions. The sculpture has been updated to a three-dimensional level that shows bones, nerves, and muscles — allowing it to be used for simulated surgeries.
With technology continuing to advance, it is only natural for it to expand into different arenas — and art is simply the newest area to be enriched by technology. We can’t wait to see what masterpieces will be created by the union of these two seemingly contradictory industries.
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Meet a Veteran That Uses a 19th Century Art Form to Capture Today’s Soldiers
What do you know about tintypes? Chances are, probably not much. After all, it’s a photography technique that was popular during the Civil War, involving reactive chemicals, metal plates, and a large-format camera.
Photographer and former gunner on combat search-and-rescue helicopters Ed Drew took artistic inspiration from this old format, setting up photo sessions with his fellow soldiers, which he’d have to abandon whenever he was called out on a mission. Still, he had time to capture plenty of striking and evocative portraits.
“I like tintypes because it’s not just something simple…you have to set it up and you have to be really physical with it, you can’t just click,” he told Scott Shafer of the PBS NewsHour. “You’re basically making a photo on a piece of metal. You’re exposing it, developing it and fixing it all right then and there.”
When Drew learned that he would be deployed to Afghanistan last year, he packed his camera. According to Shafer, Drew’s tintypes were the first to be created in a combat zone since the Civil War, when families typically would use them to capture a final memory of a loved one before he went off to war.
Once Drew left the military, he struggled to find his purpose, eventually deciding to use his photography to show the beauty of people. Now he attends the San Francisco Art Institute and works with The Garden Project in San Bruno, California, with a program for at-risk youth. The Air Force veteran now makes tintypes of young people learning job skills through organic farming.
“I think the imperfections of tintypes is what I really enjoy,” Drew told Shafer, “and I think it’s a great analogy for life, life is not perfect whether they have a little speck on them or a little streak of silver that just kind of went awry, you accept the image just like you accept the person.”
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Poverty Doesn’t Prevent These Kids From Having Fabulous Feet
While harried middle-class parents might worry about finding the time to chauffeur their kids to all their different after-school activities, low-income families have a different problem: They can’t afford these activities at all.
Dance lover Catherine Oppenheimer didn’t want to let money stand between kids and the chance to dance (which, with costumes, costumes, classes, contest entry fees, and shoes, is one of the most expensive pastimes).
Oppenheimer began her career as a professional dancer with the New York City Ballet. Her mentor there, Jacques d’Amboise, not only led the company in performing, but he also established the National Dance Institute in New York to give inner-city kids a chance to dance. When Oppenheimer retired from performing, d’Ambroise encouraged her to bring such a program to another group of needy kids in New Mexico.
So two decades ago, Oppenheimer went and founded the National Dance Institute of New Mexico (NDI). Last year, the program taught dance to 8,000 kids in 80 public schools in the southwest state, according to the PBS NewsHour. It costs $5 million to run the organization, but fundraising covers the bulk of that so the majority classes are free, including in-school instruction for fourth and fifth graders and after school classes for preschoolers and older dancers.
The program culminates in a big show that gives the kids a chance to shine, such as one that recently featured 500 dancers in the Santa Fe school district, as well as some of their parents and a group of local firefighters.
In a 2013 study that measured the health and well-being of American students, New Mexico ranked last among all states. But an independent study found that kids participating in NDI raised their grades in science and math and improved their physical fitness.
Sixteen-year-old Emery Chacon, who has been dancing with NDI since fourth grade, believes dance has made a difference in his life. “Yes, my grades before, they were moderate, from C’s to — like C’s and D’s, but now, actually, with NDI, it’s actually improved to B’s and A’s in most of my classes,” he told Kathleen McCleery of the PBS NewsHour.
Through the years, NDI New Mexico has produced a few professional dancers. But more importantly, it’s created many more dedicated students who continue to perform the right steps toward a promising future.
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It Wasn’t Easy to Welcome 25,000 Refugees, But Boy, Is This Town Glad It Did
In the 1980’s, 25,000 Cambodian refugees poured into Lowell, Massachusetts, escaping the killing fields of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime, but putting pressure on Lowell’s public schools and social services. Former City Manager James Campbell told the Lowell Sun that accommodating the needs of so many poor and non-English-speaking people was a “logistical nightmare.” But boy is Lowell glad it welcomed them.
The city built more schools and implemented bilingual programs to educate the refugee children. In return, the Cambodians settled down in the community and thrived. Campbell said that today there are 350 Asian-owned businesses in Lowell that provide jobs to people of all ethnicities. The Cambodian community also started the annual Southeast Asian Water Festival, which has become a major event in Lowell, and have shared their culture with the town in countless other ways.
Over the next few months, Lowell is taking a moment to look back on its history with Cambodian immigrants, and reflect on the arrival of more recent immigrants from such places as Iraq and Burma, through a special exhibit, “Lowell: A City of Refugees, a Community of Citizens.”
Highlights of the exhibit include stories kids wrote and pictures they drew shortly after they arrived, about the atrocities they’d faced in Cambodia. One boy wrote about how when he was five, the Khmer Rouge tied up his sister in the woods and left her to die, until one soldier spared her. The exhibit is dedicated to Dorothea Tsapatsaris, a teacher who worked with many refugees in the 80’s and preserved their work, much of which tells the story of their daily lives in Cambodia.
An interactive map tracks the immigrants’ movements from Cambodia to refugee camps to Lowell, and the exhibit tells the story of the city’s history as it welcomed its newcomers. Referring to that massive ’80s influx of refugees, Dorothea’s husband George Tsapatsaris, who was the Superintendent of Schools back then, said, “We slowly began to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and today the Cambodian population is an integral part of our community and our schools.”
Over the last two years, 400 new refugee children have come to Lowell, and because Lowell is learning from its own history of immigration through this exhibit, many see this as a sign that the cycle of American renewal in one city has begun again.
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These Rocking Bands Are Offering Veterans a Dream Job
Who knew that behind the makeup, leather, wigs, and prominently displayed tongues, the members of KISS have a soft spot for America’s veterans?
Last year, KISS invited veterans to apply to become a roadie for their tour with Motley Crüe. Almost 2,000 vets submitted their names, with the lucky winner being Paul Jordan, who served for 27 years in the Army — including three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Possibly putting him ahead of the other applicants? Not only has he been a fan of KISS since he was four years old, but also he sports a tattoo on his chest of Gene Simmons sticking out his seven-inch tongue.
“Since I retired, I’ve had a really hard time trying to find a find a job,” he told the Today Show last year. Now with a year of roadie service under his belt, he said, “I know now that life exists after military service. You just have to find something you’re passionate about and go get it. There is a world of opportunity out there.”
Last year’s program was such a success that KISS is accepting applications for a roadie for this summer’s tour with Def Leppard, as part of an effort to give a couple of veterans the job of a lifetime and raise awareness for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring 500,000 Heroes campaign (a program that works to help military men and women find jobs).
The issue of helping veterans is one that’s close to the heart of Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen. After having his left arm amputated after a 1984 car accident, Allen thought his career was over and he suffered from PTSD, according to BlabberMouth.Net. He learned how to drum again, however, and wanted to reach out to others who’ve undergone amputations. At the USO’s request, he began visiting wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Medical Center and became involved with the Wounded Warrior Project.
“It is our privilege to draw attention to the obligation we all have to the brave men and women who volunteer to risk their own lives to protect the liberties and freedom that we all take for granted,” Paul Stanley of KISS told the Today Show. “We should all jump at any opportunity to provide any assistance needed by our warriors. Heroes deserve jobs!”
KISS and Def Leppard are accepting roadie applications from vets online through May 9. Although only two vets will win a roadie job for this year’s tour, hopefully the example set by these hairspray-loving rockers will inspire others to offer vets a job.
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You’ll Never Believe What This Peace-Promoting Sculpture is Made Of
Does a work of art have the ability to reduce violence in America and inspire others to work for peace? That’s the hope of students at Centaurus High School (CHS) in Lafayette, Colorado, who are collaborating on a new piece of artwork.
The 2012 Sandy Hook shooting motivated CHS students to research gun violence for their political action class. They tracked U.S. deaths due to guns after Sandy Hook to the end of 2013, tallying a total of 12,400 reported gun fatalities. Last May, in the middle of the lesson, a 16-year-old student at Centaurus attempted to detonate a pipe bomb at the school. Thankfully no one was hurt, as a teacher discovered the device and administrators evacuated the building.
The shaken-up students wanted to do something to impress upon others what they’ve learned about violence in America, so they came up with the idea of inviting a local artist to create a sculpture from melted guns. “We figured what better way to bring awareness to the issue than build a memorial for those who died where people walk by it every day and think, ‘What is this about?'” 18-year-old student Kenny Sweetnam told Elizabeth Hernandez of the Boulder Daily Camera.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office donated surrendered guns, teaching the students how to disarm them and supervising the sawing of the guns so they no longer functioned. Sculptor Jessica Adams is guiding the students as they use the melted gun metal to create a sculpture out of 12,400 rods, one for each gun victim in 2013, with longer rods for younger victims, symbolizing the length of the lives they were not able to live.
Sheila Dierks, a priest at the Light of Christ Ecumenical Catholic Church who is volunteering with the project said, “By transforming these guns into art, we’re giving less power to the gun and more to the power of change we hope to see.”
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